Peter McWilliams Quotes & Sayings

Some of what we learned early on turned out to be true (the earth is round; if you want a friend be a friend; cleanliness is next to impossible) and some of it turned out to be false (Santa Claus; the Tooth Fairy; Kansas is more fun than Oz). — Peter McWilliams

The news media are, for the most part, the bringers of bad news ... and it's not entirely the media's fault, bad news gets higher ratings and sells more papers than good news. — Peter McWilliams

Because people are afraid of fear, they give up acre after acre of their own life. — Peter McWilliams

The ongoing successful treatment of my depression is the single most important positive step I have taken in my life, hence my enthusiasm for the subject. — Peter McWilliams

You're asking the government to control individual morality. This is a government that can't buy a toilet seat for under $600. — Peter McWilliams

What's more important-your goal, or others' opinions of your goal? — Peter McWilliams

Positive thoughts: joy, happiness, fulfillment, achievement, worthiness, have positive results: enthusiasm, calm, well-being, ease, energy, love ... — Peter McWilliams

Find your horse. Discover the direction the horse is going. Ride the horse in that direction. — Peter McWilliams

Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we're not well, laughter helps us get well. If we are well, laughter helps us stay that way. — Peter McWilliams

Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that's true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes. — Peter McWilliams

The simple solution for disappointment depression Get up and get moving. Physically move. Do. Act. Get going. — Peter McWilliams

As with most consensual crimes, this prohibition of hemp is both silly and sinister. — Peter McWilliams

We are all, right now, living the life we choose. — Peter McWilliams

The reason we feel hurt and anger when things and people outside us let us down is because we believe those things and people shouldn't. Well, sorry, that's not life here on earth. — Peter McWilliams

Send the light of your own loving ahead of you. When you get there, the loving will have prepared a place for you. Be kind, gentle, and enjoy the journey. — Peter McWilliams

Fill your life with people who applaud your positive thoughts, feelings, and actions; who encourage you toward more and better; who know how to praise the good and beautiful. — Peter McWilliams

AIDS has come upon us with cruel abandon. It has forced us to confront and deal with the frailty of our being and the reality of death. It has forced us into a realization that we must cherish every moment of the glorious experience of this thing we call life. We are learning to value our own lives of our loved ones as if any moment may be the last. — Peter McWilliams

Running from fear only strengthens fear-you are demonstrating that fear has power over you. Fear must be faced and gone through. — Peter McWilliams

Emotion is energy in motion. — Peter McWilliams

Definition of a victim: a person to whom life happens. — Peter McWilliams

The part of us that feels anger and depression is the same part that feels peace and love. If you refuse to feel the anger and the pain of a loss, you will not be able to feel anything else until that area heals. In other words, stay out of your own way. Let yourself feel bad if you want to feel bad. Feel joy, too. Healing is taking place. Give yourself the gift of healing. — Peter McWilliams

One of the great joys of life is creativity. Information goes in, gets shuffled about, and comes out in new and interesting ways. — Peter McWilliams

Willingness opens the doors to knowledge, direction, and achievement. Be willing to know, be willing to do, be willing to create a positive result. Be willing, especially, to follow your dream. — Peter McWilliams

For many, negative thinking is a habit, which over time, becomes an addiction ... A lot of people suffer from this disease because negative thinking is addictive to each of the Big Three - the mind, the body, and the emotions. If one doesn't get you, the others are waiting in the wings. — Peter McWilliams

E are trained as children to get good grades, get a good job, get a good spouse, get children, get ahead. In all this getting we get something else: anxiety and depression. — Peter McWilliams

Under this law (Controlled Substances Act) a bureaucrat-usually not elected-decides whether or not a substance is dangerous and how dangerous that substance is. There's no more messing around with legislatures, presidents, or other bothersome formalities. When MDMA (ecstasy) was made illegal in 1986, no elected official voted on that. It was done "in house." People are now in jail because they did something that an administrator declared was wrong. — Peter McWilliams

Ecause when medical marijuana is fully accepted for what it is, we will see a phenomenon that makes Viagra's phenomenon seem limp. — Peter McWilliams

When thought and action are combined, the results are powerful-among the most powerful forces on earth. The combination of successful communication-the sharing of thoughts-and physical action can, literally, move mountains. — Peter McWilliams

You need only look at what's in front of you and find something there to appreciate. — Peter McWilliams

If we learned everything there is to know in kindergarten, it was promptly drummed out of us in first grade. — Peter McWilliams

When it comes time to teach, teach from your experience. Go out and do, learn from the doing, then teach from the knowing. — Peter McWilliams

I'm a confirmed negaholic. I don't just see a glass that's half full and call it half-empty; I see a glass that's completely full and worry that someone's going to tip it over. — Peter McWilliams

Anger begins as an inner twinge. We sense something long before it blossoms (explodes?) into an emotional tirade. If we listen to this twinge
and follow its advice
the emotional outburst (or in burst) is not needed. — Peter McWilliams

Prison is a crash course in the darker side of life. Few survive it without becoming a different person: more cynical, jaded, fearful, angry. Its hard to trust again, hard to believe, easy to hate a system that destroyed your life behind the pompous pretense of saving you from yourself, for your own good. — Peter McWilliams

There is no answer to any of these questions. It's a matter of time and timing, of seas and seasons, of breathing in and breathing out. It's a matter of balance. — Peter McWilliams

People who want to appear clever rely on memory. People who want to get things done make lists. — Peter McWilliams

To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all. — Peter McWilliams

Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on? — Peter McWilliams

Learn to forgive fully and completely. If you want health, wealth, and happiness, you can't afford the luxury of lugging around all those unforgiven, unforgotten past events. Let them go. — Peter McWilliams

As the world gets dumber and dumber, I feel more and more at home. — Peter McWilliams

To the degree we can live without the things of this world, to that degree we are wealthy. — Peter McWilliams

Drugs, gambling, and prostitution are the Big Three underground 'moneymakers' in consensual crime. There would be, however, significant boosts to the economy if the stigma attached to the other consensual crimes were eliminated through legalization. — Peter McWilliams

To visualize is to see what is not there, what is not real - a dream. To visualize is, in fact, to make visual lies. Visual lies, however, have a way of coming true. — Peter McWilliams

While goals are chosen, a purpose is discovered. Our purpose is something we have been doing all along, and will continue to do, regardless of circumstances, until the day we die. — Peter McWilliams

I am the representative of all the sick people and what they are doing to me is only the worst case right now, but there will be others. I am living on borrowed time anyway. I owe this part of my life to luck and modern medical science. But I can't imagine what the rest of it will be like if they won't let me use medical marijuana. — Peter McWilliams

Avoid People and Situations That Upset You. Those things, people, situations, and experiences you dont like
avoid them. Stay away. Walk away. Do something else. Some might call this cowardly. I call it smart. The world is brimming with things, people, and experiences. We will never experience all of them if we live to be 10,000. So why not associate with the ones that naturally please you? — Peter McWilliams

Nothing adventured, nothing attained. — Peter McWilliams

If we want the freedom to take part in our bit of differentness, then we must allow others their rights to take part in theirs, as long as they do not harm the person or property of a non-consenting other, of course. IT'S JUST common sense. It's also constitutional and it forms the cornerstone of the American ideal: free individual expression, tolerance and compassion. — Peter McWilliams

We have a problem with drugs? Let's declare war on drugs! We have a problem with crime? Let's declare war on crime! We have a problem with violence? Let's declare war on violence! The deeply ingrained American attitude that we can solve any problem w/enough force creates, feeds, & rewards the epidemic of violence we are currently experiencing. — Peter McWilliams

We can do anything we want. The next time you hear yourself saying, to another-and especially yourself-I Can't, take a deep breath and say instead, My resources are otherwise engaged. — Peter McWilliams

If you were arrested for being kind to yourself..would there be enough evidence to convict you? — Peter McWilliams

Everyone thinks they can be a writer. Most people dont understand whats involved. The real writers persevere. The ones that dont either dont have enough fortitude and they probably wouldnt succeed anyway, or they fall in love with the glamour of writing as opposed to the writing of writing. — Peter McWilliams

In order to truly master the comfort zone, you have to learn to love it. — Peter McWilliams

By pursuing any one of our dreams, we can find fulfillment. We don't need to pursue them all. — Peter McWilliams

You can have anything in life you really want - but you can't have everything in life you really want. Decide. — Peter McWilliams

Wealth is enjoying what we already have, not getting more of what we think will make us happy. — Peter McWilliams

Acceptance is such an important commodity, some have called it "the first law of personal growth". — Peter McWilliams

For writing, getting off our buts means getting on our butts-putting it into a chair and not moving from the chair for a set period of time. — Peter McWilliams

The irony is that the person not taking risks feels the same amount of fear as the person who regularly takes risks. — Peter McWilliams

You are powerful. Sorry. Hate to be the bearer of bad news. You are. You can continue arm wrestling with yourself, or you can use both arms, your whole heart, and all your strength to wrestle with greatness. The choice is yours. — Peter McWilliams

Desire happiness, aspire to gratitude, long for health, crave compassion, seek satisfaction, lust after God, however & whatever you perceive God to be, want to love yourself, others & everything around you more and more each day — Peter McWilliams

The amount of power freed by telling yourself you no longer choose to put energy into something can be remarkable. Be prepared for extra energy. — Peter McWilliams

The Bible, taken as a whole, can be used to praise or condemn practically any human activity, thought, belief, or practice. — Peter McWilliams

Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it's a small price to pay for living a dream. — Peter McWilliams

There is more empty space in the book you're holding, than book. The electrons in the atoms of the book are moving so fast, they give the illusion of solid ink on solid paper. It's not. It's just an illusion. If all the electrons would stop moving for even an instant, the book would not just crumble into dust, it would disappear. Poof — Peter McWilliams

Pettiness seems to go hand in hand with vindictiveness. The smaller the person, the larger the need for revenge. This may account for the fact that some consensual crimes have stiffer penalties than do most crimes with innocent victims. — Peter McWilliams

In life, we have either reasons or results — Peter McWilliams

Fear is something to be moved through, not something to be turned from. — Peter McWilliams

Every time we give our word, it counts. For the most part, most people give it entirely too often. Our word is a precious commodity and should be treated as such ... — Peter McWilliams

Courage, contrary to popular belief, is not the absence of fear. Courage is the wisdom to act in spite of fear ... — Peter McWilliams

We can consciously end our life almost anytime we choose. This ability is an endowment, like laughing and blushing, given to no other animal ... in any given moment, by not exercising the option of suicide, we are choosing to live. — Peter McWilliams

If you want peace with others, don't fight them. Go your own way. Live your own life. If some walk with you, fine. If you walk alone for awhile, fine. If you don't like what's going on somewhere, leave. Maintain a portable paradise within yourself. — Peter McWilliams

The laws against public nudity make no sense. The idea that Jerry Falwell can go topless while Cindy Crawford cannot is an absolute affront to logic, common sense and the 5000 year human struggle for aesthetic taste. — Peter McWilliams

Many people weigh the guilt, they will feel against the pleasure of the forbidden action they want to take. — Peter McWilliams

The only difference between fear and excitement is what we label it. The two are pretty much the same physiological/emotional reaction. With fear, we put a negative spin on it: "Oh no!" With excitement, we give it some positive english: "Oh, boy!" — Peter McWilliams

I must conquer my loneliness alone. I must be happy with myself or I have nothing to offer you. Two halves have little choice but to join; and yes, they do make a whole. But two wholes when they coincide ... that is beauty. That is love ... — Peter McWilliams

Whenever something good happens, write it down. Buy a special notebook ... and use it to list all the good in your life. — Peter McWilliams

To affirm is to make firm. — Peter McWilliams

Worrying is the interest paid on a debt you may not owe. — Peter McWilliams

This is a lifetime of good-byes. In our time, we will say good-bye to cherished people, things, and ideas. Eventually, we say good-bye to life itself with our death. Learn to say a good good-bye. Allow yourself to mourn each loss. As with a physical wound, the body has its own schedule for healing. It will tell you when it has healed. — Peter McWilliams

We are not responsible for every thought that goes wandering through our mind. We are, however, responsible for the ones we hold there. We're especially responsible for the one's we put there. — Peter McWilliams

When we realize one Dream, sometimes a deeper Dream reveals itself. At other times a parallel Dream appears. The one that scares the hell out of you is probably it. — Peter McWilliams

Keep your goals away from the trolls. — Peter McWilliams

Pain (any pain
emotional, physical, mental) has a message.
The information it has about our life can be remarkably
specific, but it usually falls into one of two categories: We
would be more alive if we did more of this and Life would be
more lovely if we did less of that. Once we get the pain's
message, and follow its advice, the pain goes away.
— Peter McWilliams

Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort. — Peter McWilliams

Learn to ask for what you want. The worst people can do is not give you what you ask for which is precisely where you were before you asked. — Peter McWilliams

I'd have a nervous breakdown except that I've been through this too many times to be nervous. — Peter McWilliams

Choosing what you want to do, and when to do it, is an act of creation. — Peter McWilliams

You have to follow the old rule for a while. In fact, once you master the old rule, you are then the master-and masters get to change things. — Peter McWilliams

You can change anything you want. You just can't change everything you want. — Peter McWilliams

Negative thinking is always expensive
dragging us down mentally, emotionally, and physically
hence I refer to any indulgence in it as a luxury. — Peter McWilliams

For the most part, most people most often choose comfort - the familiar, the time-honored, the well-worn but well-known. After a lifetime of choosing between comfort and risk, we are left with the life we currently have ... — Peter McWilliams

Most people, once they graduate from the School of Hard Knocks, automatically enroll in the University of Adversity. — Peter McWilliams

Marijuana is the finest anti-nausea medication known to science, and our leaders have lied about this consistently. [Arresting people for] medical marijuana is the most hideous example of government interference in the private lives of individuals. It's an outrage within an outrage within an outrage. — Peter McWilliams

The willingness to do creates the ability to do. — Peter McWilliams

The media tends to report rumors, speculations, and projections as facts ... How does the media do this? By quoting some 'expert' ... you can always find some expert who will say something hopelessly hopeless about anything. — Peter McWilliams

Heroes became heroes flaws and all. You don't have to be perfect to fulfill your dream. — Peter McWilliams

If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts. — Peter McWilliams

First, all relationships are with yourself-and sometimes they involve other people. Second, the most important relationship in your life-the one you have, like it or not, until the day you die-is with yourself. — Peter McWilliams

Mistakes show us what we need to learn. — Peter McWilliams