99+ Hugh Prather Quotes On Success, Friendship And And Courage

Hugh Prather was an American writer known for his self-help books, including the popular Notes to Myself. He was a spiritual teacher and counselor who wrote about the importance of self-love, personal growth, and the power of positive thinking. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Hugh Prather on love, life, success.

Top 10 Hugh Prather Quotes

1. Love, the magician, knows this little trick whereby two people walk in different directions yet always remain side by side.
2. A messy mortal is my friend. Come walk with me in the mud.
3. It is enough that I am of value to somebody today.
4. There is a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen.
5. I can't be found in myself; I discover myself in others. That much is clear. And I suspect that I also love and care for myself in others.
6. Being myself includes taking risks with myself, taking risks on new behavior, trying new ways of 'being myself', so that I can see who it is I want to be.
7. The fatal mistake is waiting for life's circumstances to be right before we begin. Simply begin with your heart, look deeply into it and trust what you feel. Practice knowing and you will know.
8. Live as if everything you do will eventually be known.
9. Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty. When I am honest I never feel stupid. And when I am honest I am automatically humble.
10. Life is also a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories and vague defeats-with very few moments of clear peace.

Hugh Prather Short Quotes

• If a man takes off his sunglasses I can hear him better.
• Moods should be heard but never danced to.
• Perfectionism is slow death.
• Unless I accept my faults, I will most certainly doubt my virtues.
• I like a man with faults, especially when he knows it. To err is human
• Letting people in is largely a matter of not expending the energy to keep them out.
• Why choose to be right instead of happy when there is no way to be right?
• We are all saying the same thing in different words.
• Because the results are unpredictable, no effort of mine is doomed to failure.
• Happiness is a present attitude and not a future condition.

Hugh Prather Quotes About Love

But it's morning. Within my hands is another day. Another day to listen and love and walk and glory. I am here for another day. — Hugh Prather

Love expands. — Hugh Prather

Love itself is not an act of will, but sometimes I need the force of my volition to break with my habitual responses and pass along the love already here. — Hugh Prather

When we recognize that nothing has to go right for us to be happy, that people do not have to behave for us to love them, our walk home can be surprisingly simple. We have enormous power not to manipulate the world, but to be happy and to know peace. — Hugh Prather

All my life, I have made it complicated, but it is so simple. I love when I love. And when I love, I am myself. — Hugh Prather

Don't strive for love, be it. — Hugh Prather

There is no place love is not. — Hugh Prather

When we persist in looking for and finding what there is to value within our self, we discover a pure and loving being. — Hugh Prather

Hugh Prather Quotes About Life

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes. — Hugh Prather

Fears, indecision, and frustration feed on words. Without words they usually stop. . . . Words are at times good for looking back, but they are confining when I need to act in the present. — Hugh Prather

When I have listened to my mistakes, I have grown. — Hugh Prather

Every moment that I am centered in the future I suffer a temporary loss of this life. — Hugh Prather

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes and I am left the same. The more things change the more I am the same. I am what I started with, and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me. — Hugh Prather

What an absurd amount of energy I have been wasting all my life trying to find out how things 'really are', when all the time they weren't. — Hugh Prather

It's not that "today is the first day of the rest of my life," but that now is all there is of my life. — Hugh Prather

My trouble is I analyze life instead of live it. — Hugh Prather

Hugh Prather Quotes About Live

To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward is in my actions and not from them. — Hugh Prather

I live now and only now, and I will do what I want to do this moment and not what I decided was best for me yesterday. — Hugh Prather

Don't fight a fact, deal with it. — Hugh Prather

Today I don't want to live for, I want to live. — Hugh Prather

Hugh Prather Famous Quotes And Sayings

perfectionism is a slow death. if everything were to turn out just like i would want it to, just like i would plan for it to, then i would never experience anything new; my life would be an endless repetition of stale successes. when i make a mistake i experience something unexpected.... when i have listened to my mistakes i have grown. — Hugh Prather

True humor is fun - it does not put down, kid, or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different, and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all in this together. — Hugh Prather

Stands must be taken. If I am to respect myself I have to search myself for what I believe is right and take a stand on what I find. Otherwise, I have not gathered together what I have been given; I have not embraced what I have learned; I lack my own conviction. — Hugh Prather

Support your friends - even in their mistakes. But be clear, however, that it is the friend and not the mistake you are supporting. — Hugh Prather

If my attention is wandering, there is somewhere it wants to go, so obviously it does not want to be where I am holding it in the name of some self-styled obligation. — Hugh Prather

The components of happiness are quite simple. Happiness is gentleness, peace, concentration, simplicity, forgiveness, humor, fearlessness, trust, and now. In its true form each quality includes all the rest, for happiness is whole, and one feels whole when genuinely happy. — Hugh Prather

If your reaction to your partner's fear-or any other form of distress- is disdain or irritation, you do not want oneness or even friendship with your partner at that moment. — Hugh Prather

Whenever I find myself arguing for something with great passion, I can be certain I'm not convinced. — Hugh Prather

There were seventy-five people in the lobby and only a seven-year-old girl was finding out what it felt like to sit on the Marble Floor — Hugh Prather

By approaching my problems with "What might make things a little better?" rather than "What is the solution?" I avoid setting myself up for certain frustration. My experience has shown me that I am not going to solve anything in one stroke; at best I am only going to chip away at it. — Hugh Prather

We feel understood by people who like us; misunderstood by people who don't -- and those feelings are probably realistic. — Hugh Prather

One element of maturity is the realization that we don't get away with anything. Any advantage gained or convenience taken, any private procrastination or insincerity, no matter how subtle or quick in passing, is paid for. — Hugh Prather

The first step of letting go: To remove what obstructs your experience of wholeness and peace, you must first look at the obstruction. — Hugh Prather

Negative feedback is better that none. I would rather have a man hate me than overlook me. As long as he hates me I make a difference. — Hugh Prather

Boredom is useful to me when I notice it and think: Oh I'm bored; there must be something else I want to be doing... boredom acts as an initiator of originality by pushing me into new activities or new thoughts. — Hugh Prather

When someone disagrees with me, I do not have to immediately start revising what I just said. People don't want me to always agree with them. They can sense this is phony. They can sense I am trying to control them: I am agreeing with them to make them like me. They feel; "I don't want to exist to like you. I DON'T exist to like you." — Hugh Prather

Before, I thought I was actually fighting for my own self-worth; that is why I so desperately wanted people to like me. I thought their liking me was a comment on me, but it was a comment on them. — Hugh Prather

I don't need a "reason" to be happy. I don't have to consult the future to know how happy I feel now. — Hugh Prather

You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely. You are only young once, then you need another reason to act foolish. You are the only authority on what is best for you. — Hugh Prather

No matter what we talk about, we are talking about ourselves — Hugh Prather

Today I acknowledge that I am not in position to judge what mistakes anyone is making or what lessons anyone needs to learn. I don’t know how far someone has come or when that person will have a breakthrough, I simply don’t know what other people should be doing. But when I think I do know, I clearly am not doing what I should be doing, which is taking responsibility for my own life. — Hugh Prather

My prayer is: I will be what I will be, I will do what I will do. — Hugh Prather

Problems assault us to the degree they preoccupy us. The key to release, rest, and inner freedom is not the elimination of all external difficulties. It is letting go of our pattern of reactions to those difficulties. — Hugh Prather

Next time I will ..." "From now on I will ..." - What makes me think I am wiser today than I will be tomorrow? — Hugh Prather

It is your right to be happy. This is what you were made for. And if you will not resist, happiness will find a way to pour from your heart and fill your days. — Hugh Prather

I sometimes react to making a mistake as if I have betrayed myself. My fear of making a mistake seems to be based on the hidden assumption that I am potentially perfect and that if I can just be very careful I will not fall from heaven. But a 'mistake' is a declaration of the way I am, a jolt to the way I intend, a reminder I am not dealing with the facts. When I have listened to my mistakes I have grown. — Hugh Prather

Sometimes I doubt and sometimes I believe. And I like not making myself believe when I am doubting, and not making myself doubt when I am believing. Surely neither God nor Accident need my consistency. — Hugh Prather

It's this simple: If I never try anything, I never learn anything. If I never take a risk, I stay where I am. — Hugh Prather

To sing with the voice of angels as we do the work of angels. To laugh with the laugh of Buddha as we go to our awakening. To extend the arms of Jesus to welcome the presence of children and let them climb into our hearts. — Hugh Prather

Many books on communication are strong on theory but impractical on application. Marshall Rosenberg's instant classic is the stand-out exception. It is clear and compelling in its logic and flat-out inspiring in its inviting exposition of usable techniques and strategies. If this book is read by enough people, the world will transform. — Hugh Prather

Sometimes when I generalize, I am saying, 'Let's pretend I am God,' and of course the other person argues that point endlessly. But I notice that if the other person takes a stand for himself and states his thoughts as his thoughts, I pay more attention to what he is saying and look deeper in myself. — Hugh Prather

Very seldom will a person give up on himself. He continues to have hope because he knows he has the potential for change. He tries again - not just to exist, but to bring about those changes in himself that will make life worth living. Yet people are very quick to give up on friends, and especially on their spouses, to declare them hopeless, and to either walk away or do nothing more than resign themselves to a bad situation. — Hugh Prather

It seems that the truth is needed today is always a lie by tomorrow. — Hugh Prather

I can not 'make my mark' for all time - those concepts are mutually exclusive. 'Lasting effect' is a self-contradictory term. Meaning does not exist in the future and neither do I. Nothing will have meaning 'ultimately.' Nothing will even mean tomorrow what it did today. Meaning changes with the context. My meaningfulness is here. It is enough that I am of value to someone today. It is enough that I make a difference now. — Hugh Prather

Boredom or discontent is useful to me when I acknowledge it and see clearly my assumption that there's something else I would rather be doing. In this way boredom can act as an invitation to freedom by opening me to new options and thoughts. For example, if I can't change the activity, can I look at it more honestly? — Hugh Prather

If the ocean was pure mind and I was a wave, I would be in terror if Itried to distinguish myself fromthe water that produced me.What is a wave without water, and what is a mind without God? — Hugh Prather

To avail yourself of His certain wisdom, ask of Him whatever questions you have. But do not entreat Him, for that will never be necessary. — Hugh Prather

If I work toward an end, meantime I am confined to a process. — Hugh Prather

Forgive and be happy. That is the ancient secret?the only wisdom ever to be attained. — Hugh Prather

When I get to where I can enjoy just lying on the rug picking up lint balls, I will no longer be too ambitious. — Hugh Prather

Letting go is freedom. When you find yourself in a useless battle, you merely walk off the battlefield. — Hugh Prather

I talk because I feel, and I talk to you because I want you to know how I feel. — Hugh Prather

A whole mind cannot create chaos. A conflicted mind can create nothing else. — Hugh Prather

Books seek us out. They slip themselves into our hands just at the time we are ready for a new self-concept. — Hugh Prather

Our job this day is to become part of the answer to the world's immense and protracted suffering rather than continuing our ancient task of being part of the difficulty. — Hugh Prather

There are only three things you need to let go of judging, controlling, and being right. Release these three and you will have the whole mind and twinkly heart of a child. — Hugh Prather

You're wrong means that I don't understand you, I'm not seeing what you're seeing- and I'm not seeing all of you there is to see. But there is nothing wrong with you. You are what you need to be, doing what you need to be doing, and although I may take steps to protect myself of others, I do not know all and therefore am literally inadequate to judge. — Hugh Prather

Some people will like me and some won't. So I might as well be myself, and then at least I'll know that the people who like me, like me. — Hugh Prather

'Fault' means failure to meet a standard. Whose? Mine. — Hugh Prather

It's not that we fear the place of darkness, but that we don't think we are worth the effort to find the place of light. — Hugh Prather

We become what we look at most. — Hugh Prather

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing my intuition. — Hugh Prather

There is nothing more painful than walking around with bitterness in your heart. — Hugh Prather

Peace, or freedom from conflict, is the absolute core of happiness. It is in learning to watch our sense of peace that we avoid unhappiness. All forms of misery are heralded by a frame of mind that must become immediately recognizable if we are ever to gain mastery in happiness...Take the time to look in your heart and be clear. Walk through life being clear. Practice doing each thing in peace. — Hugh Prather

An argument is always about what has been made more important than the relationship. — Hugh Prather

Now that I know that I am no wiser than anyone else, does this wisdom make me wiser? — Hugh Prather

If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire must be not to write. — Hugh Prather

Happiness is gentleness, peace, concentration, simplicity, forgiveness, humor, fearlessness, trust, and now. — Hugh Prather

I'd rather be happy than right. — Hugh Prather

Life Lessons by Hugh Prather

1. Hugh Prather taught that life is a journey of self-discovery, and that it is important to take time to reflect on our experiences and learn from them.
2. He also believed that it is important to be kind to ourselves and to others, and to take time to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.
3. Finally, he encouraged us to be open to change and to embrace the uncertainty that comes with it, as it can lead to unexpected growth and new opportunities.