Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

Becoming a mom forced me to re-prioritize and make room for the things that are most important, while recognizing that there are things I can let go of, and the world won't crumble around me.

Music changes, life changes. It's like Jay Z said: 'If people like the old Jay, then go listen to the old Jay.' I always heard that, but never understood it.

As you recognize that you already own the wholeness you seek, and no one outside you can give you more than you already are, dysfunctional situations will evaporate like bad dreams exposed to the morning sun.

I saw that all aspects of my life had been pulling me out of balance because I hadn't perceived them as part of a "whole," or the totality that was "me."

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

What you resist will persist; what you befriend, you will transcend.

I'd always believed that a life of quality, enjoyment, and wisdom were my human birthright and would be automatically bestowed upon me as time passed. I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live - that there were specific disciplines and ways of seeing the world I had to master before I could awaken to a simple, happy, uncomplicated life.

Commit to growing yourself. Do not avoid problems and or complain about problems. Don't let them bother you. In fact, don't even call them problems; refer to them as "challenges" or "situations". Let go of the emotion and drama you create when you don't get what you want. Just stay present and handle one situation at a time with an open mind and an open heart. Trust yourself and in the universe that everything will work out in the end.

The past was always there, lived inside of you, and it helped to make you who you were. But it had to be placed in perspective. The past could not dominate the future.

So few people know what they're capable of.

You must come to terms with your wholeself. the wholeness which exceeds all our virtue and all our vice.

If we don't know ourselves, our essence, where our true power comes from, we will believe our power comes from collecting victories, trophies, money, or recognition. And these are all fine, but it's not ultimately what life is about. When we think it is, we really waste our greatest possibilities.

Man never falls so low that he can see nothing higher than himself.

You cannot drop the ego. Once you start trying to drop the ego you will get in a very deep mess; you will become more and more worried and puzzled. And this is not the way to get rid of the ego. The only way to get rid of the ego is to look at it.

I think that ordinary people who are placed in extraordinary circumstances find themselves pushed beyond their limits, and learn new truths about themselves.

The man who renounces himself, comes to himself.

Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else.

The willingness to reach inside every part of yourself opens the door to total understanding. You place your entire identity on the line, not just an isolated part. This may sound daunting, but actually it’s the most natural way to approach any situation. When you hold some part of yourself in reserve you deny it exposure to life; you repress its energy and keep it form understanding what it needs to know.

It is not new continents the earth needs, but new men.

Of all the discoveries which men need to make, the most important, at the present moment, is that of the self-forming power treasured up in themselves. They little suspect its extent, as little as the savage apprehends the energy which the mind is created to exert on the material world.

You cannot let go of anything if you cannot notice that you are holding it. Admit your 'weaknesses' and watch them morph into your greatest strengths.

I'm sorry for my inability to let unimportant things go, for my inability to hold on to the important things.

There's so much to learn! And just when we think, "I've got it. I really understand what's going on," we're shown a whole new stage set on which to play.

Maturity is the ability to live in peace with that which we cannot change.

Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn.