Looking for the best Marianne Williamson quotes?
Marianne Williamson is an American author, spiritual leader, political candidate and activist. She has written 13 books including four New York Times bestsellers.
Her most popular book, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles (1992) teaches that practicing love every day will bring more peace and fulfillment to one’s life.
Oprah Winfrey said of the book, “I have never been more moved by a book than I am by this one.” Winfrey bought 1,000 copies and encouraged her audience to purchase it, telling them that after reading it, she experienced 157 miracles. Williamson was a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and became known as Oprah’s “spiritual advisor.”
A Return To Love was also the book in which she had written her most famous deepest fear quote which is often misattributed to Nelson Mandela:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” (see the full quote below)
Marianne Williamson’s deepest fear quote is also famously used in the movie Coach Carter.
Below you’ll find the best collection of Marianne Williamson quotes on love, forgiveness and life that will empower you to reach for more.
Marianne Williamson Deepest Fear Quote
1. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson Quotes On Love
2. “Anytime you try to be a loving person, you’re doing your part to save the world.” – Marianne Williamson
3. “Until we have seen someone’s darkness, we don’t really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone’s darkness, we don’t really know what love is.” – Marianne Williamson
4. “Love in your mind produces love in your life. This is the meaning of heaven. Fear in your mind produces fear in your life. This is the meaning of hell.” – Marianne Williamson
5. “We are not held back by the love we didn’t receive in the past, but by the love we’re not extending in the present.” – Marianne Williamson
6. “Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.” – Marianne Williamson
7. “If you give your life as a wholehearted response to love, then love will wholeheartedly respond to you.” – Marianne Williamson
8. “Meaning doesn’t lie in things. Meaning lies in us. When we attach value to things that aren’t love — the money, the car, the house, the prestige — we are loving things that can’t love us back. We are searching for meaning in the meaningless. Money, of itself, means nothing. Material things, of themselves, mean nothing. It’s not that they’re bad. It’s that they’re nothing.” – Marianne Williamson
9. “In the absence of love, we began slowly but surely to fall apart.” – Marianne Williamson
10. “The basic premise of ‘A Course in Miracles’ is that it teaches us to relinquish thoughts based on fear and to accept instead thoughts based on love.” – Marianne Williamson
11. “May we not succumb to thoughts of violence and revenge today, but rather to thoughts of mercy and compassion… We are to love our enemies that they might be returned to their right minds.” – Marianne Williamson
12. “The ego-mind both professes its desire for love and does everything possible to repel it, or if it gets here anyway, to sabotage it. That is why dealing with issues like control, anger, and neediness is the most important work in preparing ourselves for love.” – Marianne Williamson
13. “Love knows how to form itself. God will do his work if we do ours. Our job is to prepare ourselves for love. When we do, love finds us every time.” – Marianne Williamson
14. “We aren’t bodies at all; who we are is the love inside us, and it is that love alone that determines our value. When our minds are filled with light, there is no room for darkness.” – Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson Quotes On Forgiveness
15. “The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive.” – Marianne Williamson
16. “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.” – Marianne Williamson
17. “Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.” – Marianne Williamson
18. “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die.” – Marianne Williamson
Inspirational Marianne Williamson Quotes
19. “Nothing binds you except your thoughts, nothing limits you except your fear, and nothing controls you except your beliefs.” – Marianne Williamson
20. “Think bigger. Forget limits. Embrace the idea of endless possibility… It will change you.” – Marianne Williamson
21. “For every person who might reject you if you live your truth, there are ten others who will embrace you and welcome you home.” – Marianne Williamson
22. “Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.” – Marianne Williamson
23. “Our past is a story existing only in our minds. Look, analyze, understand, and forgive. Then, as quickly as possible, chuck it.” – Marianne Williamson
24. “Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” – Marianne Williamson
25. “Try to see the good in others. When you’re tempted to judge someone, make an effort to see their goodness. Your willingness to look for the best in people will subconsciously bring it forth.” – Marianne Williamson
26. “Only do what you feel called in your heart to do, and then give all of yourself to the task.” – Marianne Williamson
27. “We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what’s wrong in your life, or you can focus on what’s right.” – Marianne Williamson
28. “Fill your mind with the meaningless stimuli of a world preoccupied with meaningless things, and it will not be easy to feel peace in your heart.” – Marianne Williamson
29. “Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.” – Marianne Williamson
30. “The key to abundance is meeting limited circumstances with unlimited thoughts.” – Marianne Williamson
31. “The present moment, if you think about it, is the only time there is. No matter what time it is, it is always now.” – Marianne Williamson
32. “When you turn your life over to God, you don’t give up the drama; you give up the cheap drama.” – Marianne Williamson
33. “Our key to transforming anything lies in our ability to reframe it.” – Marianne Williamson
34. “When we think we have things already figured out, we’re not teachable. Genuine insight can’t dawn on a mind that’s not open to receive it.” – Marianne Williamson
35. “We experience God to the extent to which we love, forgive, and focus on the good in others and ourselves.” – Marianne Williamson
36. “Maturity includes the recognition that no one is going to see anything in us that we don’t see in ourselves. Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself.” – Marianne Williamson
37. “Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.” – Marianne Williamson
38. “We’re often afraid of looking at our shadow because we want to avoid the shame or embarrassment that comes along with admitting mistakes.” – Marianne Williamson
39. “Just as you wouldn’t leave the house without taking a shower, you shouldn’t start the day without at least 10 minutes of sacred practice: prayer, meditation, inspirational reading.” – Marianne Williamson
40. “Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world.” – Marianne Williamson
41. “The purpose of daily prayer is the cultivation of a sense of the sacred. Sacred energy renews us.” – Marianne Williamson
42. “The spiritual path – is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don’t know it.” – Marianne Williamson
43. “When an idea reaches critical mass there is no stopping the shift its presence will induce.” – Marianne Williamson
44. “In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” – Marianne Williamson
45. “Through prayer we find what we cannot find elsewhere: a peace that is not of this world.” – Marianne Williamson
46. “The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world.” – Marianne Williamson
47. “If I choose to bless another person, I will always end up feeling more blessed.” – Marianne Williamson
48. “Prayer enables us to transform the world, because it transforms us.” – Marianne Williamson
49. “Take stock of your thoughts and behavior. Each night ask yourself, when were you negative when you could have been positive? When did you withhold love when you might have given it? When did you play a neurotic game instead of behaving in a powerful way? Use this process to self-correct.” – Marianne Williamson
50. “The top of one mountain is always the bottom of another.” – Marianne Williamson
51. “Religion is like a map. The route isn’t important. It’s the destination that matters.” – Marianne Williamson
52. “Become more accepting. With every interaction, surrender any tendency to judge another person. Pray for a more accepting heart.” – Marianne Williamson
53. “Empires always have the hubris to think they are indestructible, when in fact they are always unsustainable.” – Marianne Williamson
54. “Many times in life, we say we want change but are then terrified when the opportunity for it arrives.” – Marianne Williamson
55. “We are material beings for but a moment in time, but we are spiritual beings forever.” – Marianne Williamson
56. “Prayer is the medium of miracles; in whatever way works for you, pray right now.” – Marianne Williamson
57. “Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called ‘All the Things That Could Go Wrong’.” – Marianne Williamson
58. “In the East, the guru never calls himself a guru.” – Marianne Williamson
59. “With thoughts of the past and concerns about the future, we rob ourselves of a full experience of the present.” – Marianne Williamson
60. “You’ve committed no sins, just mistakes.” – Marianne Williamson
61. “You can’t ‘work through worry and fear rationally,’ because fear isn’t rational!” – Marianne Williamson
62. “You need not apologize for being brilliant, talented, gorgeous, rich, or smart.” – Marianne Williamson
63. “You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.” – Marianne Williamson
64. “Whatever it is you choose to think, your subconscious mind takes it very seriously and your experience will reflect your thinking.” – Marianne Williamson
65. “It takes courage…to endure the sharp pains of self-discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.” – Marianne Williamson
66. “Every ending is a new beginning. Through the grace of God, we can always start again.” – Marianne Williamson
67. “To be a princess is to play at life. To be a queen is to be a serious player… The purpose of life as a woman is to ascend to the throne and rule with heart.” – Marianne Williamson
68. “There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children.” – Marianne Williamson
69. “The only thing missing in any situation is that in which you are not giving.” – Marianne Williamson
70. “Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.” – Marianne Williamson
71. “If a train doesn’t stop at your station, then it’s not your train.” – Marianne Williamson
72. “Thought is Cause; experience is Effect. If you don’t like the effects in your life, you have to change the nature of your thinking.” – Marianne Williamson
73. “Always be open to new beginnings. To the universe, every moment is the start of the next big thing in your life.” – Marianne Williamson
74. “The only way the past can drag you back is if you choose to bring it with you into the present.” – Marianne Williamson
75. “Imagine the most outrageously positive possibility for your life, claim it, and consider it done.” – Marianne Williamson
76. “I have lived enough to know great things will unfold for me externally only if I allow them to unfold for me internally.” – Marianne Williamson
77. “You get to decide what energy you choose to download in any moment. No one but you gets to decide who you wish to be.” – Marianne Williamson
78. “Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we’re frantic, life will be frantic. If we’re peaceful, life will be peaceful. And so our goal in any situation becomes inner peace.” – Marianne Williamson
79. “There’s a big difference between a gentle man and a weak man. Weak men make us nervous. Gentle men make us calm.” – Marianne Williamson
80. “A tulip doesn’t strive to impress anyone. It doesn’t struggle to be different than a rose. It doesn’t have to. It is different. And there’s room in the garden for every flower.” – Marianne Williamson
81. “We are not here to fix, change or belittle another person. We are here to support, forgive and heal one another.” – Marianne Williamson
82. “Do what you love. Do what makes your heart sing. And NEVER do it for the money. Go to work to spread joy.” – Marianne Williamson
83. “Always seek the less turbulent skies. Hurt. Fly above it. Betrayal. Fly above it. Anger. Fly above it. You are the one who is flying the plane.” – Marianne Williamson
84. “In every moment we make a decision—whether conscious or unconscious. Will I choose to open my heart, send love, withhold judgment and thus free myself from fear? Or will I close my heart, project fear instead of extending love, judge others, and thus bind myself to fear? The choice is mine and mine alone.” – Marianne Williamson
85. “Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor.” – Marianne Williamson
86. “Wherever you’ve been, and whatever you’ve done so far, your entire life was building up to this moment. Now is the time to burst forth into your greatness, a greatness you could never have achieved without going through exactly the things you’ve gone.” – Marianne Williamson
87. “We have great power to affect the attitudes and behavior of the people around us, at work and at home. We have the power to set a tone of honor, to create an energy around ourselves that says, ‘I respect myself. I respect you. Let’s respect each other.'” – Marianne Williamson
88. “Inner peace doesn’t come from getting what we want, but from remembering who we are.” – Marianne Williamson
89. “Happiness is the choice I make today. It does not rest on my circumstances, but on my frame of mind…In cultivating the habits of happiness, I attract the people and situations that match its frequency. I smile more often, give praise more often, give thanks more often, and am glad more often. For such is my choice today.” – Marianne Williamson
90. “We don’t reach the light through endless analysis of the dark. We reach the light by choosing the light.” – Marianne Williamson
91. “No matter what is happening in our lives, we choose how we wish to think about it. And the greatest gift we give ourselves is often our willingness to change our minds. Despite what might seem to be the saddest and most intractable situation, we have the power to believe that something else is possible, that things can change, that a miracle can happen.” – Marianne Williamson
92. “If we never take a risk, we’ll never know the parts of ourselves that would have emerged if we had.” – Marianne Williamson
93. “Until we have met the monsters in ourselves, we keep trying to slay them in the outer world. And we find that we cannot. For all darkness in the world stems from darkness in the heart. And it is there that we must do our work.” – Marianne Williamson
94. “No matter what the problem, a miracle can solve it. Remember to ask for one.” – Marianne Williamson
95. “We cannot give what we do not have: We cannot bring peace to the world if we ourselves are not peaceful. We cannot bring love to the world if we ourselves are not loving. Our true gift to ourselves and others lies not in what we have but in who we are.” – Marianne Williamson
96. “No one is any more or any less important than you are.” – Marianne Williamson
97. “You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.” – Marianne Williamson
98. “Don’t be concerned that things appear to be falling apart: this has to happen in order for something new and wonderful to emerge.” – Marianne Williamson
99. “Take a good look at your life right now. If you don’t like something about it, close your eyes and imagine the life you want. Now allow yourself to focus your inner eye on the person you would be if you were living this preferred life. Notice the differences in how you behave and present yourself; allow yourself to spend several seconds breathing in the new image, expanding your energy into this.” – Marianne Williamson
100. “You don’t want to try to protect yourself from the pain of a crisis. You want to learn everything you can from it.” – Marianne Williamson
101. “Behind every dark cloud there is an every-shining sun. Just wait. In time, the cloud will pass.” – Marianne Williamson
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