Quotes from Marilyn Ferguson

Evolution happens in jumps, very rapidly.

We should not become so ashamed of the disappointments and travesties of democracy that we become ashamed of the idea itself. It is the outer reflection of our self-acceptance.

You can certainly make the case that we're devolving, that it may already be too late to save the rain forests, let alone the planet.

Things fall apart, so they can fall together at a higher level of order.

We are going to see a burst of creativity that will make the Renaissance pale in comparison.

An atmosphere of trust, love, and humor can nourish extraordinary human capacity. One key is authenticity: parents acting as people, not as roles.

You can break through old limits, past inertia and fear, to... richness of choice, freedom, human closeness.

I didn't intend to go into the seminar business.

Most of us are having to invent, discover, and create the next steps of our lives without a light, a map, or a relevant tradition.

We rarely think to mark the trail for others to follow. 'Live and learn,' we say, acknowledging the value of experience. We usually forget about 'Live and teach.'

'Aquarian Conspiracy' is the term I have coined for the network of people working for social transformation based on personal inner change. Such a notion is not at all alien to the American milieu.

Love is a context, not a behavior.

A self-defined challenge is an irresistible teacher.

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them.

There is a better place, the hard but joyful work beyond struggle, beyond the shadow of a doubt. It is our real home, the long-remembered future when everything worked and things made sense.

People are seeking more power in the individual and less in government and institutions; they want more cooperation and less competition.

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is an illness, because illness contains information, our fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if we explore them.

Risk always brings its own rewards: the exhilaration of breaking through, of getting to the other side; the relief of a conflict healed; the clarity when a paradox dissolves.

Cultural transformation announces itself in sputtering fits and starts, sparked here and there by minor incidents, warmed by new ideas that may smolder for decades. In many different places, at different times, the kindling is laid for the real conflagration-the one that will consume the old landmarks and alter the landscape forever.

Despair is a cop-out, the ultimate abdication of all responsibility, in which people feel justified in their feelings of impotence. But if, on the other hand, you feel that your work in the world does make a difference and that you do have the power to change things, the nay-sayers will turn a deaf ear.

Everybody knows that love is better than hate, and peace is better than war.

The paradigm of the 'Aquarian Conspiracy' sees humankind embedded in nature. It promotes the autonomous individual in a decentralized society... The new perspective respects the ecology of everything: birth, death, learning, health, family, work, science, spirituality, the arts, the community, relationships, politics.

Radical common sense is the wisdom gleaned from the past that recognizes the perishable opportunities of the moment. It is the willingness to admit error and the refusal to be deterred by failure.

Power is changing hands, from dying hierarchies to living networks.