I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.
Self-worth comes from one thing - thinking that you are worthy.
Don't program yourself to break down as you age with thoughts that decline is inevitable. Time may be passing for our bodies, but because they house our ageless souls, we never need to see ourselves as old and infirm.
Be a force of love as often as you can and turn away negative thoughts whenever you feel them surface.
There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way.
What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.
The last suit that you wear, you don't need any pockets.
The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about.
When you seek the presence of your creative Spirit and are filled with passion about virtually everything you undertake, you'll successfully remove the roadblocks from your life and enjoy the active presence of Spirit.
You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
You are important enough to ask and you are blessed enough to receive back.
Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else. Your completeness must be understood by you and experienced in your thoughts as your own personal reality.
Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.
Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.
Successful people make money. It's not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.
You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, 'I release the need for this in my life'.
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there's only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.
If you have passion, there is no need for excuses because your enthusiasm will trump any negative reasoning you might come up with. Enthusiasm makes excuses a nonissue.
It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.
When I was an orphan, I was the richest kid at the orphanage because everyone else was complaining about not having anything. But when I discovered that you could get two cents for a Coca-Cola bottle, I would follow people around who were drinking it and ask them if they were almost through with it.
There's no substitute for the practice of meditation.
Deficiency motivation doesn't work. It will lead to a life-long pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are.
Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.
By taking responsibility for how you choose to respond to anything or anyone, you're aligning yourself with the beautiful dance of life.
When I was young, my brother David and I were farmed off to foster homes, and I spent time in orphanages. My father abandoned us. Here's the most important person in my life, and I never met him.
When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.
Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.
The fact that you are willing to say, 'I do not understand, and it is fine,' is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.
One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.
Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.
I was inspired to spend an entire year - my 65th year - reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu's messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.
Keep in mind that no matter how perfectly you get your life in order, you will never be rid of all your problems. Problems are a way of life, always have been, always will be. But how you elect to view those problems is all up to you.
Conflict cannot survive without your participation.
Never, and I mean never, allow anyone else's ideas of who you can or can't become sully your dream or pollute your imagination. This is your territory, and a 'Keep Out' sign is a great thing to erect at all entrances to your imagination.
You are doomed to make choices. This is life's greatest paradox.
