Vernon Howard Quotes

Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.

A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.

Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn, and you will.

Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from.

A cheery relaxation is man's natural state, just as nature itself is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.

No one on earth can hurt you, unless you accept the hurt in your own mind. . . The problem is not other people; it is your reaction.

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.

You cannot stop destructive actions by others, but you can stop your own destructive reactions to them

Run forward when possible, walk ahead when you can, stagger onward when you must, but never cease your forward movement.

We can accept God becoming Man to save Man, but not Man becoming God to save himself.

Be teachable. That is the whole secret.

Many of us knock on the door but remain outside, because knocking and entering are entirely different actions. Knocking is necessary, consisting of reading books, attending meetings, asking questions. But entrance requires much bolder action. It requires one to enter into himself, to uncover hidden motives, to see contradictions, and to realize his actual power for self-change.

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.

Is the beam from a lighthouse affected by howling wind and rain? It remains perfectly steadfast and unaffected by the storm. Your true self is like that. Nothing can ever harm you once you are consciously aware that it is so.

Happiness is not the acquisition of anything; it's the understanding of something.

You must dare to disassociate yourself from those who would delay your journey... Leave, depart, if not physically, then mentally. Go your own way, quietly, undramatically, and venture toward Trueness at last.

Don't try to be spiritual. That is only a word in the dictionary. Make it your goal to become a normally functioning individual. Let these principles shape you according to your real nature of a simple, decent, honest, unafraid human being.

It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.

Every day that you attempt to see things as they are in truth Is a supremely successful day.

The need to impress others causes half the world's woes.

It is against the law to permit weak people to steal your strength. Never permit it.

Whenever encountering a troublesome person, do not identify him as being cruel or stupid or rude or anything else like that. Instead, see him as a frightened person.

To change what you get you must change who you are.

The only way to do something truly important every day is to seek to understand yourself every day.

Worried thought prevents practical thought which could prevent worried thought.

Truth does not really hurt, rather it is our resistance to its message that causes us pain.

Inner guidance is heard like soft music in the night by those who have learned to listen.

A false path must be tensely and angrily defended by those it has deceived.

All we have to do is to receive what we are given...We are given the naturalness to love someone, to be calm in crisis, to ignore self-defeating suggestions, to be pleasant, forgiving, tender, helpful, unworried, brave, energetic.

Truth is not a matter of personal viewpoint.

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.

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.

It is a thousand times more sensible to climb one foot up the mountainside than to chatter for years about the mountaintop.

You can not escape a prison if you do not know you're in one.

Have the daring to stop doing the things you really don't want to do. Can you see them? Look closely. Can you observe the many things you do because you reluctantly feel you should or must? Watch closely. Examine every action and reaction. Do you act naturally or do you act because you feel compelled? If you feel compelled, stop. Compulsion is slavery. Example: Refuse to go along with the crowd.

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.

Be very careful that you do not unconsciously assume that nervous tension is power. This is vital. Watch yourself the next time you work toward some goal. Look very closely to discover tense feelings and nervous thoughts whirling around inside. Do not let them deceive you into assuming that they are creative forces; they are not. They are thieves of genuine powers. As always, your awareness of their thievery is your first fine step toward casting them out.

Just be honest with yourself. That opens the door.

The leap is made by dropping vanity over knowledge and by a willingness to become nothing in order to become everything.

See human nonsense as nonsense and save years of trying to make sense out of it.

Our life-transformation is in exact proportion to the amount of truth we can take without running away.

An obvious fact about negative feelings is often overlooked. They are caused by us, not by exterior happenings. An outside event presents the challenge, but we react to it. So we must attend to the way we take things, not to the things themselves.

Healing fails to occur because it is much easier to injure another than to heal oneself.

Suppose you stand on a high place to enjoy the beauty of the sparkling sea below. You need do nothing to create that beauty; you need only BE IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE IT IS, and let nature do the rest. So it is with the inner life. There is nothing we can DO to gain psychic beauty. It already exists without our effort. We need only be where we belong, that is, in self-union. Then, beauty IS.

Don't look for someone in whom to believe. Believe in yourself. The only authentic authority is your own original nature.

One false idea is that anyone can hurt you. Events can ruin your reputation, take your money, mistreat you, revenge itself upon you, deceive, betray, abandon you, but cannot hurt you.

We must become acquainted with our emotional household: we must see our feelings as they actually are, not as we assume they are. This breaks their hypnotic and damaging hold on us.

The reason why most people are frustrated is because a lie cannot be turned into a truth.

You have it made when you don't care whether you have it made or not.