Quotes by C. Terry Warner

Did I love what I was doing, or did I love myself in doing it?

Personal growth is not like the development of a skill. It does not take place in observable increments that can be measured and charted. Indeed, as we have seen, when were growing in sensitivity, generosity, and compassion, were not aware of it, because were not focusing on ourselves. The recovery of emotional freedom simply does not have the quality, for most of us, of a controllable sequence of transformations. Its more a career of discovering futher and further weaknesses and shedding them in turn.

Honest self-understanding liberates us from our stuck emotions.

Self-betrayal occurs when we do to another what we sense we should not do or dont do what we sense we should. Thus self-betrayal is a sort of moral self-compromise, a violation of our own personal sense of how we ought to be and what we ought to do.

Blame is the lie by which we convince ourselves that we are victims. It is the lie that robs us of our serenity, our generosity, our confidence, an our delight in life . . . For it is the act of blaming that cant co-exist with self-responsibility -- or with freedom from inner agitation and strained relationships. Abandon the practice of blaming, and we see the fear melt away that we have associated with being honest about ourselves and taking the full measure of responsibility for our emotional and spiritual condition.

The very fact that we need to struggle for approval proves that we do not approve of ourselves. Having to convince ourselves of something means we do not really believe it. That is why we contort ourselves grotesquely, lose sight of who we really are, and tangle ourselves pathetically in a complicated falsification of our lives.

Our humanity consists in our ability to sense and respect and respond to the humanity of others.

Some things are only real because they represent what we think. When we learn the truth and think it, the old reality is no longer real to us and loses its hold on us. The truth sets us free.

Except in a very few matches, usually with world-class performers, there is a point in every match (and in some cases its right at the beginning) when the loser decides hes going to lose. And after that, everything he does will be aimed at providing an explanation of why he will have lost. He may throw himself at the ball (so he will be able to say hes done his best against a superior opponent). He may dispute calls (so he will be able to say hes been robbed). He may swear at himself and throw his racket (so he can say it was apparent all along he wasnt in top form). His energies go not into winning but into producing an explanation, an excuse, a justification for losing.

When we criticize people, their consciences console them. When we love them, their consciences indict them.

We influence others most profoundly when we do not seek to change them at all, but simply go about straightforwardly doing the right and loving thing.

A responsible step in loosening the grip of any lie we might be living is to ask ourselves, solemnly and seriously, this momentous question: Might I be in the wrong? What gives this question its power? The answer can be stated very simply: Just to ask the question seriously, even without answering it, is already to undergo a change of attitude.

Living in the box means being convinced that other people and our circumstances are responsible for our feelings and our helplessness to overcome them. What we cant see when were in the box is that the way the world appears to us is our projection, and that we are making this projection to justify ourselves in self-betrayal. We cannot see that its not others actions but our accusations that result in our feeling offended.