Guy Finley Quotes

Believing that anxious thoughts and feelings can restore order to your life is like using a chain-saw to fold your laundry.

Our greatest strength isn't our ability to imagine brighter days ahead, it is that we are empowered-in every present moment-to effortlessly dismiss any dark thought or feeling that, left unattended, diminishes our happiness.

Everything passes. There is great beauty in this, both in the passing of pain and in the passing of pleasure. When things present themselves to you as permanent, don't believe it.

The only mistake that we can make as human beings is to be asleep, unaware of ourselves.

Trying to “fix” the people in your life that cause you pain is like massaging your shoes because your feet ache.

The character of greatness must be measured in two ways, else the measurement is flawed. First, and by far most popular of all, is by one's ability to succeed in times of trial where others may fail. But of no less importance, and perhaps foundational to any form of greatness, is one's willingness to start over in spite of failure, when success seems farthest away.

See that any time you feel pained or defeated, it is only because you insist on clinging to what doesn't work. Dare to let go and you won't lose a thing except for a punishing idea.

Each moment of every one of my relationships serves as the secret path to the summit of myself.

You must learn to stop thinking in terms of beginnings and endings, successes and failures, and begin to treat everything in your life as a learning experience instead of a proving one.

Do the moment-to-moment work of dropping anything that wants to drag you down, and Reality itself will see to it that you rise.

Real achievement -- the true measure of how far we have advanced in life -- is not determined by what we have acquired, but rather by the degree to which we have put our fears behind us.

You don't need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.

Getting stressed and struggling to change the outcome of any past event is like arguing with an echo to make it see your point of view.

Discouragement is a negative emotion with more than one trick up its dark sleeve. It tricks you into mentally or emotionally dwelling in the very place you want to leave. Drop all such sorrow permanently by daring to see through this deception of the unconscious mind. You have a destination far beyond where you find yourself standing today

A crisis is a close encounter of the third kind.

To know that every moment — regardless of how it comes wrapped — is a gift greater than you can give yourself, is to be well on your way to a life without fear.

Instead of always asking yourself why so-and-so acts this or that way, learn to ask: "What's inside of me that wants to hurt itself over how anyone else acts?"

Love is effortless attention.

Walk lightly through life.

One of the most important rules for me is: Don't ever defend myself. If we could put this one principle into practice, how much more simple life would be.

The next time you catch yourself starting to feel bad about anything, immediately stop everything you are doing for a moment and, as simply and as honestly as you can, ask yourself: "Is this what I really want?

It's important for us to become aware of the fact that we are needful, for with that awareness also comes the sensing that we couldn't be needful if there weren't something to fulfill the need.

Instead of always asking how to get others to approve of you... learn to ask: What do I really want, the applause of the crowds or to quietly have my own life?

Never speak out of anger, Never act out of fear, Never choose from impatience, But wait... and peace will appear.

All created forms are fractal, as is their purpose, use, and allotted time for existence.

False life is exhausting; Real Life is inexhaustible.

On the other side of resistance is the flow of real life.

Talking to yourself proves only one thing: you're still unable to tell the difference between good and bad company.

The only world in which "defeat" exists as a reality is the one darkened by the false idea that what may have happened to us a moment ago is the same as what's possible for us to achieve now.

Every truth ever discovered -- each new light that will ever burn bright -- already exists in our consciousness. All we will ever know and share about love, humility, compassion, and sacrifice -- the secrets that will reveal and then resolve old sorrows -- awaits us within ourselves. Hidden in this truth is our great promise, both as individuals and as a race of beings.

Every relationship that we have in our lives - our contact with each person, place, and event - serves a very special, if yet to be realized purpose: They are mirrors that can serve to show us things about ourselves that can be realized in no other way.

Any conclusion you reach about yourself has to be an unseen limitation because there's always more to see.

All we will ever know and share about love, humility, compassion, and sacrifice - the secrets that will reveal and then resolve old sorrows - awaits us within ourselves.

We can only begin to change the world around us when we are willing to become a conscious part of all that is changing.

Each time that you don't know you are choosing, then of those choices you are not the chooser.

Discouragement tricks you into mentally or emotionally dwelling in the very place you want to leave.

The fear of seeing ourselves as we are ensures we will never see the end of our fears.

The only thing worried thoughts have the power to change is what the next thing will be for you to worry over!

Eventually, we reach the point where we start to realize that we are not going to find peace, contentment, happiness, strength, fearlessness - all of the things that in our heart of hearts we wish we had - outside of us.

Trying to change ourselves in order to please others - so that we can feel temporarily whole for having won their approval - is like cutting a flower into pieces so that it will fit into a vase.

Anyone or anything that asks you to be untrue to yourself has already acted against you.

Chasing after a pleasure to ease a pain is like running after a breeze to cool you down.

Your past is just that, the past, a place within your psyche with no more reality to it then the picture of a castle on a postcard is made from stone.

The right attitude toward any negative state begins with understanding that its only authority over you is a direct reflection of your attitude towards it.

Looking to any angry, anxious, or otherwise stressed emotional state to help you sort out the pain you're in is like trying to organize your monthly bills by throwing them into a blender

Past mistakes cannot create a present pain; no mistake in life has the power to make us ache any more than the echo of someone crying can shed tears.

You have a destination far beyond where you find yourself standing today.

Never run from what you don't understand, as it will be waiting for you every time you come to a stop.

The more time we spend considering the shortcomings of others, the smaller a person we become.

The secret self knows the anguish of our attachments and assures us that letting go of what we think we must have to be happy is the same as letting go of our unhappiness.

Letting go, at its heart, is an act of agreement with Life.

What you don't want to know about yourself wants to be known, which is why it keeps 'showing up' at your door unannounced!

If you don't leap, you'll never know what it's like to fly.

Wasting your time in anxious worry over what you may not have is a good way to waste what you need to get it.

Learn to be one with who you are in Reality, and the waves of a thousand passing worlds cannot wash you away.

Fearlessness comes with the birth of this new understanding: The only reason life changes as it does is to reveal the secret Goodness underlying those same changes.

Instead of always asking yourself how to clear up your mental fog, learn to ask: "Can confusion know anything about clarity?"

Being fully present is the best guarantee for a bright future.

What is the nature of that place where our original self is one with its longing to explore its own deepest possibilities, and where discovering the treasures waiting there is the same as fulfilling our purpose for being?

Staying present, living in Presence is the best gift anyone can give to those they love.