It is said of a lie, you earn its fruits at the moment.

Yet, pay for it later on.

So goes un-earned dishonor, as well.

You are awareness disguised as a human being.
2013-April-21st 8:30 AM @EckhartTolle
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Gossip means we haven’t emboldened ourselves to talk directly to the people we take issues with

You ‘re built not to shrink down to less, but to blossom into more

Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owner’s manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.

The reason I so rarely break promises to other people? It breaks trust. Without trust, there’s no relationship.

Honour the difficult.

I will not be taking a paternity test, ever!

I hear people say all the time, “I’m not really religious, but I consider myself spiritual.” I definitely have always been spiritual, being raised by my grandmother on that little acre in Mississippi, indoctrinated, born into the church and the ways of the church.

I grew up in the Baptist Church, and going to church with my father; I remember being 8 years old, trying to determine whether I was really ready to give up sin, and for days I agonized.

[People] might have a different word for the yearning of the heart and the yearning of the spirit that is looking for what I call “God,” it still is the same thing. It is the heart’s yearning to know the origin of its mystery. It’s a heart’s yearning to know the power of the divine in each of our lives. It’s a heart’s yearning to be connected to that.

My first deepening of spirituality came when I was 6, when I was moved from my grandmother and sent to live with my mother – whom I really did not know – who had moved to Milwaukee. Something inside myself knew that I was never going to see my grandmother again – I would be wasting my time to live in that space of wanting that.

I remember a specific moment, watching my grandmother hang the clothes on the line, and her saying to me, ‘you are going to have to learn to do this,’ and me being in that space of awareness and knowing that my life would not be the same as my grandmother’s life.

I was probably toward 8 1/2 when I actually joined the church and was baptized – and, my God, did I take it seriously! I was a zealot who irritated every one of my third-grade friends. They didn’t beat me up, but I got labeled “the preacher girl.”

I love what the church offers to us as a culture – black people in particular. We would be nowhere without the black church.

For me to live in a world that is not inclusive of other people who are not Christian would be the opposite of Christianity.

There were lots of little boys having their bar mitzvahs all over the world, and they sent me tapes of some of them that they interviewed, probably six or seven little boys, and there was something about Mendel. I just loved his little face. I loved the energy of Mendel.

The nature of Buddhism, as I understand it, is to believe that we are all pure and radiant at our core. And yet we see around us so much evidence that people are not acting from a place of purity and radiance.

Tithe in kind where your spirit is fed.

If this was the last day of your life, would you spend it the way you’re spending today?

For me at this time in my life I recognize that everything is about moving closer to that which is God. And without a full, spiritual center – and I am not talking about religion, I am talking about without understanding the fullness from which you’ve come you can’t really fulfill your supreme moment of destiny.

Material success is rewarding and a lot of fun, but it’s not the most important thing in my life because I know when this is all over, the Master isn’t going to ask me how many things I owned or how many television shows I did. I think the questions will be, What did I do to make a difference? Did I learn to live with love in my heart?

I set out to really build this universe of interfaith connectedness, where people could see that other people in different parts of the world are very much like them.

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.

I’m always interested in people being able to share stories that allow us to see the landscape of human foibles, challenges, and ultimately triumph.

We’re all here to figure out how to best give ourselves away.

When you run a race, you hurt your ability to compete when you turn your head to look at the competition chasing you, you lose a step physically and psychologically. Run the race always stretching to do your best, imitations will come in last, no one can catch an original.

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.

If I had kids, my kids would hate me. They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would’ve probably been them.

If you don’t give something back when you get, you don’t keep.

If you are a woman living, you’ve been done wrong by a man.

The roles we play in each other’s lives are only as powerful as the trust and connection between us–the protection, safety, and caring we are willing to share.

Often when someone comes to you and wants to vent, it’s so tempting to start giving advice. But if you allow the person just to let the feelings out, and then at another time come back with advice or comments, that person would experience a deeper healing.

There were no ugly people in Ethiopia

I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools (in America) that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.

A gift isn’t a gift unless it has meaning. Just giving things to people, especially children, create the expectation of more things.

I truly understand that there is a lesson in everything that happens to us. So I tried not to spend my time asking “Why did this happen to me?” but trying to figure out why I had chosen this.

I know that you cannot hate other people without hating yourself.

Ask the right questions, and the answers will always reveal themselves.

When people say they are looking for happiness, I ask, What are you giving to the world?

You can’t give it to others if you don’t have it in yourself.

What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.

If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are.

The essential question is not, “How busy are you?” but “What are you busy at?”

Everyone is the keeper of a dream

Death shows up to remind us to live more fully.

Skiing is the next best thing to having wings.

When people show you who they are … believe them!

One of the hardest things in life to learn are which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn.

You have to be responsible for the energy you’re putting out into the world.

When you don’t know what to do, get still. The answer will come.

I have crossed over on the backs of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Madam C. J. Walker. Because of them I can now live the dream. I am the seed of the free, and I know it. I intend to bear great fruit.

I’ve learned to rely on the strength I inherited from all those who came before me-the grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and brothers who were tested with unimaginable hardships and still survived. ‘I go forth alone, and stand as ten thousand,’ Maya Angelou proclaimed in her poem ‘Our Grandmothers.’ When I move through the world, I bring all my history with me-all the people who paved the way for me are part of who I am.

You did the best you could, the best you knew how at the time.” It was something like that. From Oprah on an Oprah show. Then I believe my quote above was from Maya Angelou on the Oprah show, not Oprah herself. I had heard it before but it was on Oprah’s show again 1-7-09 and she said Maya had said it.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give. Maya Angelou taught me that.

What stands out to me most about Maya Angelou is not what she has done or written or spoken; it’s how she lived her life. She moved through the world with unshakable calm, confidence and a fierce grace.

I was in a conversation and someone said: “You know, we were talking about the whole issue of transgender and how it has become so accepted now, and somebody said, ‘You know the Oprah show, I think has had a big impact.'” I said, I don’t think so. We did several transgender [shows], but we didn’t do as much for transgender as I did for, say, abused kids or battered women. And they said, “But no, you started the conversation. You started the conversation and the conversation has led us to here.”

I’m not even kind of a lesbian.

I am not in the closet. I am not coming out of the closet. I am not gay.

Mr. Right is coming, but he’s in Africa and he’s walking.

I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.

Never for a moment allow your greatness to interfere with your goodness.

It is your life and it is worth risking everything to make it yours.

Ignoring your passion is like dying a slow death…Passion whispers to you through your feelings, beckoning you toward your highest good. Pay attention to what makes you feel energized, connected, stimulated- what gives you your juice. Do what you love, give it back in the form of service, and you will do more than succeed. You will triumph.

If you don’t heal the wounds of your childhood, you bleed into the future.

Don’t get confused with what people say you are, with who you know you are.

To move forward you have to give back.

Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different, it’s accepting the past for what it was, and using this moment and this time to help yourself move forward.

The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance.

True forgiveness is when you can say, “Thank you for that experience”.

If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. That is the lesson, and that lesson alone will save you a lot of grief.

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.

Never give up your power to another person.

Once you clarify your purpose for doing something, the way to do it becomes clear

Helping others is the way we help ourselves.

My highest achievement: never shutting my heart down. Even in my darkest moments – through sexual abuse, a pregnancy at 14, lies and betrayals – I remained faithful, hopeful, and open to seeing the best in people, regardless of whether they were showing me their worst. I stayed open to believing that no matter how hard the climb, there is always a way to let in a sliver of light to illuminate the path forward.

You will be wounded many times in your life. You’ll make mistakes. Some people will call them failures but I have learned that failure is really God’s way of saying, “Excuse me, you’re moving in the wrong direction.” It’s just an experience, just an experience.

If friends disappoint you over and over, that’s in large part your own fault. Once someone has shown a tendency to be self-centered, you need to recognize that and take care of yourself; people aren’t going to change simply because you want them to.

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

If you seek what is honorable, what is good, what is the truth of your life, all the other things you could not imagine come as a matter of course.

In order to be truly happy, you must live along with, and you must stand for something larger than yourself.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.

Improving your life doesn’t have to be about changing everything – it’s about making changes that count.

The greatest contribution you can make to women’s rights, is to be the absolute … best at what you do.

Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have.

What I have learned in my life and work is that the more I am able to be myself, the more it enables other people to be themselves.

Anybody who has ever done anything knows that, when you believe, it doesn’t matter what other people think. You just have to keep finding a way to align your vision with other people who will receive and accept your vision. And when the time is right, if it is for you, it will show itself, if you believe.

You cannot continue to succeed in the world or have a fulfilling life in the world unless you choose to use your life in the service somehow to others and give back what you have been given. That’s how you keep it. That’s how you get it. That’s how you grow it.

I am guided by the vision of what I believe this show can be. Originally our goal was to uplift, enlighten, encourage and entertain through the medium of television. Now, our mission statement for The Oprah Winfrey Show is to use television to transform people’s lives, to make viewers see themselves differently and to bring happiness and a sense of fulfillment into every home.

An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind

People don’t realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind. – Author: Eckhart Tolle