Vernon Howard Quotes
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Freedom begins as we become conscious of it.
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A chief cause of unhappiness is what I call mental movies. Mental movies are a misuse of the imagination. You know how it goes. You have a painful experience with someone, then run it over and over in your mind. You visualize what you said, what he did, how you both felt. As awful as it is, you feel compelled to repeat the film day and night. It is as if you were locked inside a theatre playing a horrible movie.
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You cannot stop destructive actions by others, but you can stop your own destructive reactions to them
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Just as surely as distress must follow self-deceit, healing must follow self-honesty.
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The Truth must be told at all costs, no matter how unpopular it may be. The authentic spiritual leader, having freed himself of his own false need to be popular, tells the Truth whether it falls on fertile or stony ground. Such a teacher is the salt of the earth, though few know it. If you think the world is delirious as is, you would find it intolerable without his healing influence.
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We never get upset over what happens. Never. We get upset because of preconceived ideas as to what we think should happen, what we want to happen. When our preference clashes with the reality, we get hurt. Rid yourself of all preconceived ideas as to what should happen. You are then at peace whatever happens.
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What you really want for yourself is always trying to break through, just as a cooling breeze flows through an open window on a hot day. Your part is to open the windows of your mind.
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Learn this great secret of life: What people call interruption or disturbance to their routine is just as much a part of living as the routine. To split life into two parts, one called routine and the other called interruption, is to be caught between them.
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Cruelty practiced as a matter of social principle or public policy, and presented to the community as a means to a higher goal is the most obscene and decadent phenomenon of any civilization.
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You know what is right. Deep down, you know. The battle between your true wisdom and the counterfeit wisdom of society is what causes frustration. Refuse to compromise with what you know is right-with what is right for you.
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Interpretation blocks reception while masquerading as reception. Rightness does not need interpretation; it requires simple acceptance and nothing else.
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There is no way reality can be prevented from flowing the way it flows. It is our vain attempts to force it to flow in the service of our imaginary needs which sets us in painful conflict with our- selves and nature. You are not separate from the flowing reality; you are that flowing reality. See this and you will not see any- thing else which conflicts with it. You will be what you see.
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Happiness is not the acquisition of anything; it's the understanding of something.
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We clearly realize that freedom's inner kingdom cannot be touched by exterior attacks.
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Persistence prevails, like a stream that is temporarily blocked by boulders and then collects force enough to overflow onward.
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One of society's absurd delusions is that the spending of money can cure something.
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Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.
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You have it made when you don't care whether you have it made or not.
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The answers come when you are quietly willing to be without them.
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Change is never a loss - it is change only.
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All heartache is caused by wrong viewpoints.
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Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn, and you will.
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We can become slaves to things we don't understand
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Learn to see things as they really are, not as we imagine they are.
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If you call one thing good, you must call its opposite bad. If you think it wonderful to make a big profit in your business, you will also think it terrible if you incur a large loss. The idea is to live above the opposites.
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It is utterly useless to try to change the outer world, for it is but a reflection of inner causes. The true seeker seeks to change himself.
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Do not mistake desire for love. Desire leaves home in a frantic search for one gratification after another. Love is at home with itself.
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We cannot be free of nagging desires through suppression. This is like trying to keep a rubber boat beneath the water. But we remove compulsive desires altogether by understanding their nature.
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You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
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You can end half your troubles immediately by no longer permitting people to tell you what you want.
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