George MacDonald Quotes

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

Some people have theorized that I lurched to prove myself intellectually. But it was not any lurch. It was more a kind of awakening.

Science, which has transformed the material world, gives man the power of transforming himself.

Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change themselves

Now I know that this energy within me is seeking more than the mate or the profession or the religion - more even than pleasure or power or meaning. It is seeking more of me; or better, it is, thank God, releasing more of me.

'Aquarian Conspiracy' is the term I have coined for the network of people working for social transformation based on personal inner change. Such a notion is not at all alien to the American milieu.

If you want to change the world - I do - you have to start with yourself.

There is no fixed, true and real person inside of you or me, precisely because being a person necessarily implies becoming a person, being in process.

Even with limited intelligence, knowing oneself is not as difficult as some say, but to act according to what one has realized about oneself in real life is as difficult as practicing anything else, compared to theory.

The real value of setting and achieving goals lies not in the rewards you receive, but in the person you become as a result of reaching your goals.

the spiritual meaning of every situation [is] not what happens to us, but what we do with what happens to us and who we decide to become because of what happens to us. The only real failure is the failure to grow from what we go through.

A man who says, 'I want to change, tell me how to', seems very earnest, very serious, but he is not. He wants an authority whom he hopes will bring about order in himself. But can authority ever bring about inward order? Order imposed from without must always breed disorder.

Self-realization is a process of permanent auto-creation, an elaboration of the new man at the expense of the old.

In the deepest realm of being, is the imagination of ourselves. What is your next evolutionary leap? What are you imagining, (for yourself) right now?

There are those who receive as birthright an adequate or at least unquestioned sense of self and those who set out to reinvent themselves, for survival or for satisfaction, and travel far. Some people inherit values and practices as a house they inhabit; some of us have to burn down that house, find our own ground, build from scratch, even as a psychological metamorphosis.

I have spoken to many people who have begun to live in presence, and they find many changes come into their lives. Sometimes these changes happen as inner realizations - "This is what I have to do" - or they arise from the external when something suddenly happens.

When you give yourself away you find that a new and more real self has somehow been given to you.

Back in the autumn I had awakened to a growing darkness and cacophony, as if something in the depths were crying out. A whole chorus of voices. Orphaned voices. They seemed to speak for all the unlived parts of me, and they came with a force and dazzle that I couldn't contain. They seemed to explode the boundaries of my existence. I know now that they were the clamor of a new self struggling to be born.

Self-realization is a comedown from salvation, but still gives us something to hope for.

Once you begin the journey toward a life of purpose, you enter the realm of real magic.

We may experience a realization of our true Self the first time we meditate, but most often the process of awakening is gradual.

Well, my opinion is that real change occurs through deep interpersonal experiences. Others will also say deep spiritual experiences.

I'm a better person now, and not only that - I'm a better man

The fear that we cannot grow beyond whatever distortions we may find within ourselves keeps us docile and loyal and obedient, externally defined, and leads us to accept many facets of our own oppression as women.

The saved man is not a perfect man, but his heart's desire is to become perfect.