Quotes About Self-acceptance

The first item on a spiritual agenda is that I am not what I do, that I am what I am, and therefore I am a walking miracle, on a daily basis.

We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.

It takes time to heal the pain of loss, and then it takes time to heal the memory of the pain, and the belief that honour requires us to hold that pain for ever. Then it takes more time to find that the loves of our past can still be loved, that something new – or something old, rewoven – does not diminish them. And then while we may know that to be true for others, while we see it in others and want to speak of it daily, it is harder to see it equally in ourselves.

What are you now, Jaz Bond? Double-oh-Six, the chhakka secret agent?

I'm not for everyone. I'm barely for me.

Our grounding in the soul means that regardless of how badly we think of ourselves, there is a wholesomeness in us that no one has ever been able to damage.

Humility is the freedom to stop trying to be what we're not, or pretending to be what we're not, and accepting our "appropriate smallness.

Catrin Mattsson was doing all right. She was still screwed up and admitted it, but drugs and shrinks were moving her around to the place where she could live with herself. She'd become friends with his wife and daughter, and would occasionally drop around for dinner and a chat.

You say 'cure.' I hear 'you're not human enough.

Making people change because you can't deal with who they are isn't how it's supposed to be done. What needs to be done is for people to pull their heads out of their asses.

Now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.

Being at ease with himself put him at ease with the world.

If we could learn to like ourselves, even a little, maybe our cruelties and angers might melt away.

I think he didn't like himself, and when that is so the subject usually must find an area for dislike outside himself.

Cal's mind careened in anger at himself and in pity for himself. And then a new voice came into it, saying coolly and with contempt, "If you're being honest—why not say you are enjoying this beating you're giving yourself? That would be the truth. Why not be just what you are and do just what you do?" Cal sat in shock from this thought. Enjoying?—of course. By whipping himself he protected himself against whipping by someone else.

Lately I never felt good enough. I always wanted to explain to him that I was not good. And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good. Is that it?

Lately I never felt good enough. I always wanted to explain to him that I was not good. And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good. Is that it? I guess so. Maybe that's it.

be what you are. Don't try to be Sally or Johnny or Fred next door; be yourself.

A psychiatrist once told me early in treatment, "Stop trying to make me like you," and what a sobering and welcome smack in the face that statement was. Yet somehow, every day of my life is still a campaign for popularity, or better yet, a crowded funeral.

First of all, accept that something is wrong with you. It's a good start. Something has always been wrong with me, too. We're in a club of sorts, the lunatic fringe who are proud to band together. There's a joyous road to ruin out there, and if you let me be your garbage guru, I'll teach you how to succeed in insanity and take control of your low self-esteem. Personality disorders are a terrible thing to waste.

You can always look back and see where you might have done something differently, changed this or that. If you can learn something, fine, but never second-guess yourself. It's wasted effort.

Perhaps we just need little reminders from time to time that we are already dignified, deserving, worthy. Sometimes we don't feel that way because of the wounds and the scars we carry from the past or because of the uncertainty of the future. It is doubtful that we came to feel undeserving on our own. We were helped to feel unworthy. We were taught it in a thousand ways when we were little, and we learned our lessons well.

When we can be centered in ourselves, even for brief periods of time in the face of the pull of the outer world, not having to look elsewhere for something to fill us up or make us happy, we can be at home wherever we find ourselves, at peace with things as they are, moment by moment.

A good place to start is with yourself. See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation—to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.