Hugh Prather Quotes

55 Sourced Quotes

Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty. When I am honest I never feel stupid. And when I am honest I am automatically humble.

Hugh Prather
If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire must be not to write.

Hugh Prather
Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.

Hugh Prather
Sometimes when I generalize, I am saying, 'Let's pretend I am God,' and of course the other person argues that point endlessly. But I notice that if the other person takes a stand for himself and states his thoughts as his thoughts, I pay more attention to what he is saying and look deeper in myself.

Hugh Prather
True humor is fun — it does not put down, kid, or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different, and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all in this together.

Hugh Prather
I talk because I feel, and I talk to you because I want you to know how I feel.

Hugh Prather
There are only three things you need to let go of judging, controlling, and being right. Release these three and you will have the whole mind and twinkly heart of a child.

Hugh Prather
It is your right to be happy. This is what you were made for. And if you will not resist, happiness will find a way to pour from your heart and fill your days.

Hugh Prather
Before, I thought I was actually fighting for my own self-worth; that is why I so desperately wanted people to like me. I thought their liking me was a comment on me, but it was a comment on them.

Hugh Prather
Letting people in is largely a matter of not expending the energy to keep them out.

Hugh Prather
Happiness is gentleness, peace, concentration, simplicity, forgiveness, humor, fearlessness, trust, and now.

Hugh Prather
Whenever I find myself arguing for something with great passion, I can be certain I'm not convinced.

Hugh Prather
But it's morning. Within my hands is another day. Another day to listen and love and walk and glory. I am here for another day.

Hugh Prather
If the ocean was pure mind and I was a wave, I would be in terror if Itried to distinguish myself fromthe water that produced me.What is a wave without water, and what is a mind without God?

Hugh Prather
Stands must be taken. If I am to respect myself I have to search myself for what I believe is right and take a stand on what I find. Otherwise, I have not gathered together what I have been given; I have not embraced what I have learned; I lack my own conviction.

Hugh Prather
When I get to where I can enjoy just lying on the rug picking up lint balls, I will no longer be too ambitious.

Hugh Prather
You're wrong means that I don't understand you, I'm not seeing what you're seeing- and I'm not seeing all of you there is to see. But there is nothing wrong with you. You are what you need to be, doing what you need to be doing, and although I may take steps to protect myself of others, I do not know all and therefore am literally inadequate to judge.

Hugh Prather
Being myself includes taking risks with myself, taking risks on new behavior, trying new ways of 'being myself', so that I can see who it is I want to be.

Hugh Prather
I like a man with faults, especially when he knows it. To err is human

Hugh Prather
The components of happiness are quite simple. Happiness is gentleness, peace, concentration, simplicity, forgiveness, humor, fearlessness, trust, and now. In its true form each quality includes all the rest, for happiness is whole, and one feels whole when genuinely happy.

Hugh Prather
My prayer is: I will be what I will be, I will do what I will do.

Hugh Prather
I live now and only now, and I will do what I want to do this moment and not what I decided was best for me yesterday.

Hugh Prather
Life is also a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories and vague defeats-with very few moments of clear peace.

Hugh Prather
Love itself is not an act of will, but sometimes I need the force of my volition to break with my habitual responses and pass along the love already here.

Hugh Prather
To sing with the voice of angels as we do the work of angels. To laugh with the laugh of Buddha as we go to our awakening. To extend the arms of Jesus to welcome the presence of children and let them climb into our hearts.

Hugh Prather
If my attention is wandering, there is somewhere it wants to go, so obviously it does not want to be where I am holding it in the name of some self-styled obligation.

Hugh Prather
If I work toward an end, meantime I am confined to a process.

Hugh Prather
One element of maturity is the realization that we don't get away with anything. Any advantage gained or convenience taken, any private procrastination or insincerity, no matter how subtle or quick in passing, is paid for.

Hugh Prather
Most words evolved as a description of the outside world, hence their inadequacy to describe what is going on inside me.

Hugh Prather
Boredom or discontent is useful to me when I acknowledge it and see clearly my assumption that there's something else I would rather be doing. In this way, boredom can act as an invitation to freedom by opening me to new options and thoughts.

Hugh Prather