M. Scott Peck Quotes

I believe now that love is letting people in. Love is bigger than all of us.

I tell you this to break your heart, by which I mean only that it break open and never close again to the rest of the world.

When we have nothing to cling to as our own and cease thinking of ourselves as people who must defend privileges, we can open ourselves freely to others with the faithful expectation that our strength will manifest itself in our shared weakness.

I think that sometimes we open our hearts a little more easily to animals than we do to each other.

I think that a lot of times, we all want to help each other and be a part of each other's lives. It's just - we don't allow ourselves into each other's lives.

The healing power of even the most microscopic exchange with someone who knows in a flash precisely what you're talking about because she experienced that thing too cannot be overestimated.

I watched him, filled with tenderness and ache, wondering what it was that connected us. Was it the wounded places down inside people that sought each other out, that bred a kind of love between them?

Surely it's better to love others, however messy and imperfect the involvement, than to allow one's capacity for love to harden.

To be without love is to be without grace, what matters most in life. We is so much better than I.

Pity can be nearsighted and condescending; shared suffering can be dignifying and life-changing.

When I walked into the Christian section of a bookstore, the message was clear: Faith is something you do alone. Rick does not have much tolerance for people living alone. He's like Bill Clinton in that he feels everyone's pain. If Rick thinks somebody is lonely, he can't sleep at night. He wants us all to live with each other and play nice so he can get some rest. Tortured soul.

As a body in a world, here is our choice: we can be more loving or less loving. That's it. We can relax as the entire moment's show of love's swirl, feeling open as all--a vicious rainstorm, tweeting birds, our lover's lips, a sense of worthlessness-- or we can close to some aspect of experience, pulling away as if we were separate.

Love is an attempt at penetrating another being, but it can only succeed if the surrender is mutual.

I think the negative traits are what makes us love other human beings, the foibles and the flaws.

It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch each other, and find sympathy. It is in our follies that we are one.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

Human love is often but the encounter of two weaknesses.

To give and receive love, you have to be in touch with pain, you have to be capable of provoking it and feeling it.

We all need each other.

In life, when stuff happens the instinct is to close off your heart. By leaving your heart open, it leaves room for someone else to come in.

If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.

Having felt people's love and support first hand through difficult moments in my life makes me feel it's our responsibility to help one another.

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

I think what makes us human - is our interconnectedness among people. It's our ability to form and maintain relationships. It's the barometer by which we call ourselves human.

I understand now that the vulnerability I've always felt is the greatest strength a person can have. You can't experience life without feeling life. What I've learned is that being vulnerable to somebody you love is not a weakness, it's a strength.