The greatest barrier to achievement and success is not lack of talent or ability but rather the feeling that achievement and success, above a certain level, are outside our self-concept-our image of who we are and what is appropriate to us.

Out of fear, out of the desire for approval, out of the misguided notions of duty, people surrender themselves-their convictions and their aspirations-every day. There is nothing noble about it. It takes far more courage to fight for your values than to relinquish them.

If we do have realistic confidence in our mind and value, if we feel secure within ourselves, we tend to experience the world as open to us and to respond appropriately to challenges and opportunities.

The stability we cannot find in the world, we must create within our own persons.

The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.

Fear and pain should be treated as signals not to close our eyes but to open them wider.

Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.