Bell Hooks Quotes

Anything that happens that's good, they think, Oh, it's an accident, when is the roof caving in? You've got to get them out of that mental framework.

It's easier to poke holes in an idea than think of ways to fill them. And it's easier to focus on the 100 reasons you shouldn't do something rather than the one reason you should.

There is a tendency to overestimate the positive things in our lives and underestimate the possibility of negative things

Sometimes pessimism or optimism gets popular, and it's contagious.

... reality stands before them, yet they don't see it, because what you call real is just the mirror image of your expectations.

Two types of voices command your attention today. Negative ones fill your mind with doubt, bitterness, and fear. Positive ones purvey hope and strength. Which one will you choose to heed?

Optimism may sometimes be delusional, but pessimism is always delusional.

I understood that the stories we believe have power over us. They work into our bodies and minds and change us from inside out. What if one day these stories become something stronger, more real, than fairy tales?

Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.

I noticed a long time ago that the Universe rewards belief systems. It doesn't really matter what you believe - it'll be there and waiting for you if you go and look for it. Decide the universe is, say, run by secret enormous teddy bears, and I can guarantee you'll immediately start running across evidence that this is true.

I can't help it. I always focus in on the negative.

Was it always my nature to take a bad time and block out the good times, until any success became an accident and failure seemed the only truth?

Delusion: belief said to be false by someone who does not share it.

If you raise your standards but don't really believe you can meet them, you've already sabotaged yourself. You won't even try; you'll be lacking the sense of certainty that allows you to tap the deepest capacity that's within you... Our beliefs are like unquestioned commands, telling us how things are, what's possible and impossible and what we can and can not do. They shape every action, every thought and every feeling that we experience. As a result, changing our belief systems is central to making any real and lasting change in our lives.

I believe that we face incredible obstacles in our attempts to see the world. Everything in our nature tries to deny the world around us; to refabricate it in our own image; to reinvent it for our own benefit. And so, it becomes something of a challenge, a task, to recover (or at least attempt to recover) the real world despite all the impediments to that end.

So one could say that the only real problem is dysfunctional thinking, the rest are challenges, not problems.

God works where there's an attitude of faith. I believe faith is all about hope.

Because you continue to inhabit and believe your metaphors, you cannot see what is true.

What ardently we wish, we soon believe.

if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.

If you want good things to happen in your life you first have to believe good things are possible for yourself. Quit allowing negative and cynical thinking to get in the way of the good life you deserve.

You become what you think about most. When you continually focus on the fear of failure, failure will become real for you. Look instead at the possibilities. Look at what could happen if only you would attempt it. Sure, it might not succeed completely. Yet even then you will learn something.

For Conservatives, seeing is believing; for liberals, believing is seeing.

My stepdad always said, "If you're going to believe the good, you're going to believe the bad." I think that's really important.

Americans like to believe we can overcome all obstacles and always triumph in the end, but that's not real life and a steady diet of stories like that will give you a pretty unhealthy view of reality.