Anne Lamott Quotes

I look back upon my youth and realize how so many people gave me help, understanding, courage - very important things to me - and they never knew it. They entered into my life and became powers within me.

I don't think I had a bad influence on anybody. I made people feel better about themselves.

I felt that I could look back on my life and think about lots of folks that I helped become better folks. And I've tried to be as good a man as I could be.

It's a successful feeling when someone tells you that you were instrumental in helping them heal from a great wound in their life.

You'll know you're amazing when you get devoted to making other people amazing.

There have been many instances of people combining the political life with the spiritual life, a life of constant self-examination. Gandhi was a great example of that.

The more I help out, the more successful I become. But I measure success in what it has done for the people around me. That is the real accolade.

To be a light to others you will need a good dose of the spiritual life. Because as my mother used to say, if you are in a good place, then you can help others; but if you're not well, then go look for somebody who is in a good place who can help you.

When I have my interview with my God, our conversation will focus on the individuals whose self-esteem I was able to strengthen, whose faith I was able to reinforce, and whose discomfort I was able to assuage—a doer of good, regardless of what assignment I had. These are the metrics of that matter in measuring my life. This realization, which occurred nearly fifteen years ago, guided me every day to seek opportunities to help people in ways tailored to their individual circumstances. My happiness and my sense of worth has been immeasurably improved as a result.

I feel like what's come out of me is the gift God has given me just to encourage people, to help them know that there's a better life.

I hope I make people feel better. I hope I take people out of their situations a little bit and make them happier. That's really why I do what I do.

Friends are people who help you be more yourself, more the person you are intended to be.

Just as I have insisted on his worth, he has always insisted on my strength, insisted that my capacity is greater than I believe. And I know, without being told, that's what love does, when it's right-it makes you more than you were, more than you thought you could be. This is right.

Strong role models and unconditional love can heal even the most emotionally impoverished person, and that goes for adults as well as youngsters.

Nurturing has the ability to transform people's lives.

I think if people raise their consciousness and find a purpose, everybody will be helped.

A little rain can straighten a flower stem. A little love can change a life.

All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are....Ten seconds of silence.

If I had in me something that inspires people towards the good and raises them one step on the ladder of mental and spiritual progress, I want to show it by example, indication, and deduction, not by preaching, threatening, and conspiring.

I've learned... that sometimes coming public with certain things, it inspires other people. And sometimes I want to keep things private... but then I found out that it helps other families.

The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.

So often people tell me: you got me through this, you've really helped me. And I never realized that part of what I do is that I give people hope.

I'm going to make my life everyday about being a blessing in people's lives. If I'm a blessing to people's lives, then there will be nothing to worry about again.

Life is all about finding yourself through experiences, and about learning more and more about who you are and what you’re capable of. If you’re getting older and not succeeding in anything or doing anything to make a positive impact on people, then you’re not living. You’re just waiting for death. Get out there and make an impact on people, whether it’s by helping them directly or by doing research to make their lives better or just by inspiring them. Do something good to be remembered for. This is more important than money.