Quotes by Hugh Prather

“If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire must be not to write.”

“Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.”

“Perfectionism is slow death”

“The heart loves, but moods have no loyalty. Moods should be heard but never danced to”

“Live as if everything you do will eventually be known”

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

“Life is also a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories and vague defeats-with very few moments of clear peace.”

“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.”

“Love expands.”

“Whenever we condemn, we cloak the world in pain.”

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

You say you just want to be my friend. I know that you mean you want to relate to my mind but not my body. I can understand that and will not ask you to relate to me in a way that you dont want to, or talk to me about subjects you find uncomfortable. But likewise I refuse to castrate myself for you by pretending not to have the feelings I have. If you want me as your friend you will have to accept my penis along with me.

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.

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.

Its not that we fear the place of darkness, but that we dont think we are worth the effort to find the place of light.

No matter what we talk about, we are talking about ourselves

Egos clash. Thats the nature of egos.Treat these outbursts as sneezing fits.

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.

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.

Boredom or discontent is useful to me when I acknowledge it and see clearly my assumption that theres 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 cant change the activity, can I look at it more honestly?