Quotes About Letting go

We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable. -Suyuan

Just as Mary, like Hannah before her, sang a song of divine redemption, so Mary will learn, as did Hannah, that she will have to let her son go.

Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves!

A man cannot free himself from the past more easily than he can from his own body.

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget... Here we are on this earth, with only a few decades to live, and we lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings. For life is too short to be little.

The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past

You've got to kill your darlings.

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings.

A tree 'fires' its leaves every autumn, and a mother bird 'fires' its babies from the nest in spring, right? Be alert to the need to call an end to a relationship within your business, and if it's your turn to fire, do it swiftly.

Perhaps there are just some things you leave behind when you choose a new life.

How could you escape a past that was so determined to make you pay?

I wanted to be cleared up about that Lost Weekend. I've heard enough of the myth. It was frustrating, but I let it go.

I think that what I have been truly searching for as a person, as a writer, as a thinker, as a daughter, is freedom. That is my mission. A sense of liberty, the liberty that comes not only from self-awareness but also from letting go of many things. Many things that weigh us down.

Things don't weigh me down any more. I confront things, and I move on. I don't dwell on things; I don't let things simmer under the surface. I am where it starts and where it ends. I have the power in my life to be happy.

If you hold onto stuff, it holds on to you. It just weighs you down, and it's a waste of energy. Why would I waste my energy on being bitter and hating when I could be using it to go out and do some really good stuff, you know?

I learned a long time ago that you need to bury the hatchet. No need to hold grudges. That only weighs you down.

I'm one of those who cut off seeing people after a certain time, when the weight is gone and they sound like the dementia is very advanced - I don't want to see that. I don't even go in to look at the body. That's not my last memory.

I did a weird thing when I was about 24. For four years I had written quite a lot of poetry, and I started reading through it and thought some of it was really good. So I burnt it all.

Whether or not you welcome it, moving house requires you to make choices about the past as you move into the future. What of all of your bits of stuff is truly valued? What should be left behind?

I have stopped thinking too much. It all started against West Indies. I told myself that I want to enjoy my life. I don't want selection issues to rule my happiness.

In the case of the classic Western helicopter parent, it starts with Baby Einstein and reward charts for toilet training, and it never really ends, which is why colleges have to devote so many resources to teaching parents how to leave their kids alone.

Being deeply contented with God in my everyday life is a focused attitude. It is always available. It means practicing letting go of my obsession with how I'm doing. It means training myself to learn to actually be present with people, and seeking to love them.

My motto is never to hold on to anything. I accept and then let go: not just the negatives, but the praise, too. Or it'll get to my head.

I say a prayer several times a day about what I can control and what I can't control.