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.
Meaning of the quote
The quote means that we often think our problems come from not getting enough love in the past, but the real issue is that we're not showing enough love to others right now. The past can't be changed, but we can choose to be more loving and supportive towards the people in our lives today. It's not about what happened before, it's about what we do moving forward.
About Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson is an American author, speaker, and political activist. She has written several self-help books, including the bestseller ‘A Return to Love.’ Williamson has also been involved in charity work, founding organizations like Center for Living and Project Angel Food. She has run for political office multiple times, including for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations.
More quotes from Marianne Williamson
In our natural state, we are glorious beings. In the world of illusion, we are lost and imprisoned, slaves to our appetites and our will to false power.
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Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
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Our past is a story existing only in our minds. Look, analyze, understand, and forgive. Then, as quickly as possible, chuck it.
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We may have bad weather in Ireland, but the sun shines in the hearts of the people and that keeps us all warm.
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Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.
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The goal of spiritual practice is full recovery, and the only thing you need to recover from is a fractured sense of self.
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The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world.
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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.
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The spiritual path – is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don’t know it.
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Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.
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As we become purer channels for God’s light, we develop an appetite for the sweetness that is possible in this world. A miracle worker is not geared toward fighting the world that is, but toward creating the world that could be.
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Joy, has no cost.
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God exists in eternity. The only point where eternity meets time is in the present. The present is the only time there is.
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Fill you mind with the meaningless stimuli of a world preoccupied with meaningless things, and it will not be easy to feel peace in your heart.
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The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.
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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.
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Dear God, Please send to me the spirit of Your peace. Then send, dear Lord, the spirit of peace from me to all the world. Amen.
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We receive His peace when we ask Him for it. We keep His peace by extending it to others. Those are the keys and there are no others.
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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.
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If I choose to bless another person, I will always end up feeling more blessed.
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When an idea reaches critical mass there is no stopping the shift its presence will induce.
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I deepen my experience of God through prayer, meditation, and forgiveness.
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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.
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If you give your life as a wholehearted response to love, then love will wholeheartedly respond to you.
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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.
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The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive.
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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.
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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.
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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 about you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.
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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.
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Some men know that a light touch of the tongue, running from a woman’s toes to her ears, lingering in the softest way possible in various places in between, given often enough and sincerely enough, would add immeasurably to world peace.
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God is definitely out of the closet.
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As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.
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Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.
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