163 Quotes by Hugh Prather

I sometimes wonder if the “dead” are not more present, more comfort, more here than most of the living.

True humor is fun – it does not put down, kid, or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different, and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all in this together.

I sometimes react to making a mistake as if I have betrayed myself. My fear of making a mistake seems to be based on the hidden assumption that I am potentially perfect and that if I can just be very careful I will not fall from heaven. But a ‘mistake’ is a declaration of the way I am, a jolt to the way I intend, a reminder I am not dealing with the facts. When I have listened to my mistakes I have grown.

What I want are words that reflect my heart, not my cleverness.

Some people will like me and some won’t. So I might as well be myself, and then at least I’ll know that the people who like me, like me.

Our job this day is to become part of the answer to the world’s immense and protracted suffering rather than continuing our ancient task of being part of the difficulty.

If we knew everything that was ever said about us and if at the same time we took every word at face value, we would remain friends with no one.

We feel understood by people who like us; misunderstood by people who don’t – and those feelings are probably realistic.

Do I avoid looking a stranger in the eyes because I don’t want to make him uncomfortable, or do I turn my eyes so he can’t look into me?