Quotes from Vernon Howard

Rushing emotions have no more real power to sweep you away than a tiny brook can move a boulder.

A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep." My old neighbors...so glad to be free from that negativity.

The intelligent person ignores what to do. He or she concentrates on what to be. We must put first things first. To be clearminded is first. Obviously, that is the only kind of mind that makes accurate and profitable decisions.

To return to the basic idea, you must see that there is a difference between your True Self and your False Self. The True Self is the essential you. It is pure, unconditioned, natural, spiritual. It has nothing to do with ego-competition, pretense, self-deception, pride, vanity, arrogance, and other negativities that keep a man afraid. All such items belong to the False Self.

Remember, you are not your negative thoughts. You are not your painful imaginations. See yourself as separate from your thoughts. This will aid you in dismissing the horror films. Just as fire fades when not fed additional fuel, so do emotional fires fade away when we cease to fuel them with negative imagination.

When a truly mature man has sex with a woman it is the same with him as if he had lunch with her. Afterward he casually remarks to the woman, "That was very nice"---while referring to either the sex or the salad.

What a dawning appears to the man or woman who earnestly inquires, 'Who is living my life for me?' Am I really thinking for myself or am I unknowingly projecting acquired ideas which may be all wrong?

Fifty years of internal damage done by the time-self is healed instantaneously by the entrance of the eternal self.

From time to time you will hear someone starting an accusation with the phrase, "But YOU told me...." When hearing this, know that you are hearing someone who demands that you think for him, but who is eager to blame you when things go wrong. Beware of weak and revengeful people who accuse, "But YOU told me....

There is no real happiness for those on the wrong side. The greatest pleasure in life is the security of the true side. You can vainly try to win over the world or you can nicely be over the world. Your task is to change your operating center from strained imagination to relaxed reality.

Know that distress and disappointment are states of stupidity and nothing else. Do not trust them. They have no intelligence whatsoever in them; they can only lead you astray. You are very foolish in being lured after their frantic shrieks. They shout that they are right, but they are always wrong and wrong for you personally. Do not follow deceitful lures of distress and disappointment.

Your wrongness is your present idea of happiness. Try to see how it is wrecking your life. You have one real chance. That once chance is to find yourself wrong. Never forget the first sentence of this paragraph, which is, your wrongness is your present idea of happiness. Replace that idea.

Weakness invites contempt from weak people.

Whenever we resist something—perhaps an unkind remark, a shocking event, or a depressing feeling—our very resistance indicates a belief in the power of that event to hurt us. Although it is really powerless, our mistaken belief in it induces despair. But by not resisting, we dissolve the false belief and consequently the false power for harm.

Now, thought is both good and necessary for the mechanical processes of life, like building a house or cooking dinner. But because your spiritual self is not mechanical, it must be elevated by an entirely different power. That power is awareness.

Don't make a direct effort to understand things. Rather, concentrate on your present misunderstanding. Try to see through your own false viewpoints.

When understanding another person's problem you help him correctly, even though there is nothing you can do about it.

Beauty is only skin deep, but it's a valuable asset if you're poor or haven't any sense.

You can't come into this world without becoming its victim.

Quit thinking that you must halt before the barrier of inner negativity. You need not. You can crash through... whatever we see a negative state, that is where we can destroy it.

Find yourself for courage and confidence are as easy as breathing to the person who really knows who he is.

What most men call their conscience is imaginary virtue switching left or right according to self-interest.

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.

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.