Katie Byron Quotes

#1. Stories are the untested, uninvestigated theories that tell us what all these things mean. We don't even realize that they're just theories.

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#2. We never make a decision. When the
time is right, the decision makes itself.

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#3. I know that even at moments of apparent danger, nothing is out of order or lacking, other than our own unquestioned thoughts about those moments.

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#4. I often say that if I had a prayer, it would be this: God, spare me from the desire for love, approval, or appreciation. Amen. I

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#5. If you don't like your world, question your thoughts about it.

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#6. If you argue against reality you will suffer.

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#7. Nothing terrible has ever happened except in our thinking. Reality is always good, even in situations that seem like nightmares. The story we tell is the only nightmare that we have lived.

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#8. The mind's job is to validate what it thinks.

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#9. I suffered from severe depression for over a decade. My condition deteriorated steadily. I was suicidal.

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#10. Insanity is arguing with reality.

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#11. Discomfort is the call to set yourself free.

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#12. Any story that you tell about yourself causes suffering. There is no authentic story.

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#13. When I was in my early forties, I slept with a loaded gun under my bed. I'd become severely depressed in my thirties, and for almost a decade I spiraled down into paranoia, rage, self-loathing, and thoughts of suicide.

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#14. Thinking that what you want equals what's best for you is a dead end.

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#15. If you think he's supposed to be different from what he is, you don't love him. In that moment you love who he's going to be when you're through manipulating him. He is a throwaway until he matches your image of him.

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#16. Clarity moves much more efficiently than violence or stress.

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#17. We've been looking outside us for our own peace. We've been looking in the wrong direction.

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#18. Until we know that death is equal to
life, we live in fear.

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#19. If you're yelling within you that they shouldn't yell at you, that is where the pain begins, not with their yelling at you.

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#20. Rather than understand the original cause-a thought-we try to change the stressful feelings by looking outside ourselves.

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#21. That's the purpose of stress. It's a friend. It's an alarm clock, built in to let you know that it's time to do The Work.

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#22. There's no nightmare you can't wake yourself up from.

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#23. I am never unhappy, you can achieve that as well.

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#24. Everyone has equal wisdom. It is absolutely equally distributed. No one is wiser than anyone else.

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#25. Low self-esteem is not possible when you understand the nature of everything. Depression is not possible. The universe is absolutely friendly.

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#26. Life just happens. It's what you're believing about life that makes you suffer.

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#27. If your beliefs are stressful and you question them, you come to see that they aren't true - whereas prior to questioning, you absolutely believe them. How can you live in joy when you're believing thoughts that bring on sadness, frustration, anger, alienation, and loneliness?

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#28. The nature of mind is that it loves everything once it loves itself, just as it opposes everything when it opposes itself.

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#29. Whenever you think that your needs are not being met, you're telling the story of a future

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#30. Pay close attention to the particular thoughts you use to deprive yourself of happiness.

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#31. The ego is terrified of the truth. And the truth is that the ego doesn't exist.

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#32. The world is as you perceive it to be. For me, clarity is a word for beauty. It's what I am. And when I'm clear, I see only beauty. Nothing else is possible.

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#33. For me, if somebody tells me to go away, that is an opportunity: for me to give the person a better life, to realize where not to be, and to see what could be even better than being with that person I love.

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#34. There is no story that is you or that leads to you. Every story leads away from you.

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#35. When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.

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#36. As long as you think that the cause of your problem is "out there" - as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering - the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you're suffering in paradise.

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#37. The world is perfect. As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious. Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes. A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed. It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.

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#38. If you think the cause of your problem is 'out there,' you'll try to solve it from the outside. Take the shortcut: solve it from within.

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#39. The only thing you fear is the unreality that you yourself have invented.

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#40. Every mind deserves to be free. When the mind is free, that's the end of suffering.

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#41. Nothing ever goes wrong in life.

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#42. That's what I love about integrity. Each time we go inside, that's where it is.

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#43. Isn't it marvelous to discover that you're the one you've been waiting for? That you are your own freedom?

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#44. Each time your mind changes your whole world is changed.

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#45. You would be amazed at who people are once you know yourself.

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#46. There are no physical problems-only
mental ones.

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#47. You can't have an up without a down. You can't have a left without a right. This is duality. If you have a problem, you must already have the solution. The question is, do you really want the solution, or do you want to perpetuate the problem?

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#48. Whatever it takes for you to find your freedom, that's what you've lived.

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#49. People don't need sudden revelations. They get what they need when they need it, thought by thought by thought. It's a constant thing when the mind starts to wake up to itself.

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#50. It's only our story that keeps us from knowing that we always have everything we need.

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#51. Bottom line is, if someone says something about me and it upsets me, it's true.

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#52. I came to see that there was nothing to forgive, that I was the one who caused my own problems.

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#53. The person who finds peace inside and lives it, is the one who teaches what true peace is.

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#54. You either believe what you think or
you question it. There's no other choice.

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#55. Your nature is truth, and when you oppose it, you don't feel like yourself. Stress never feels as natural as peace does.

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#56. I am entirely motivated without anger. The truth sets us free, and freedom acts.

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#57. That's where the fear comes from-from your uninvestigated thoughts.

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#58. Nothing belongs to me. Everything comes and goes. Serenity is an open door.

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#59. I use the word inquiry as synonymous with The Work ... Inquiry is a way to end confusion and to experience internal peace, even in a world of apparent chaos. Above all else, inquiry is about realizing that all the answers we ever need are always available inside us.

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#60. Your most intimate relationship is the one you have with your thoughts.

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#61. Some children are afraid to die because their parents are afraid to die. My own children have come to understand that it's totally okay with me if they die. They don't have to live for my sake.

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#62. Everything that happens is God's will. When you realize that, you're home free.

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#63. And as long as we believe what we believe-until that is questioned-there's no progress as a human race. Again, we still have war. So, effective rehabilitation is to question what we believe. When that happens, everyone gets out of prison.

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#64. Life is so simple: We walk; we sit; we lie horizontal. That's about it. Everything else is a story about what's going on while we're doing it.

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#65. When you believe that your problem is caused by someone or something else, you become your own victim.

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#66. All I have is all I need and all I need is all I have in this moment.

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#67. Reality doesn't wait for your opinion, vote, or permission, sweetheart. It just keeps being what it is and doing what it does.

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#68. Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.

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#69. My happiness isn't dependent on anyone else's.

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#70. Asking the questions - that's what changes lives. Every cell in your body is awake with inquiry. And you cannot believe the old thoughts again.

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#71. What would it be like to let go of wanting things to be other than they are?

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#72. Until you can see everything in the world as your friend, your work is not done.

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#73. How do I know that I don't need what
I want? I don't have it.

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#74. Who would you be without the thought that happiness depends on someone else?

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#75. Placing the blame or judgment on someone else leaves you powerless to change your experience; taking responsibility for your beliefs and judgments gives you the power to change them

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#76. I'll tell you that for me, one when someone used to say something that was true, one way I knew it was true was that I immediately felt defensive. I blocked it off, and I went to war with them in my mind and suffered all that goes with it. And they were only saying what was true.

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#77. It's good that it hurts. Pain is the signal that you're confused, that you're in a lie.

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#78. Thought the mind can justify itself faster than the speed of light, it can be stopped through the act of writing.

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#79. I saw that we're all doing the best we can. This is how a lifetime of humility begins.

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#80. It's not possible to have a problem without believing a prior thought. To notice this simple truth is the beginning of peace.

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#81. Your suffering is never caused by the person you're blaming.

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#82. You don't experience anxiety unless you're attached to a thought that isn't true for you. It's that simple.

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#83. Who would you be if you didn't believe this lie?

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#84. What we really believe is what we manifest. What we believe, we see.

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#85. Everyone in your life is a figment of your imagination
ev en you.

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#86. Sleep just gives the ego a little time out. It has to stay strong in order to be something that it isn't.

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#87. It is not your business to love me. It is mine.

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#88. There is no peace in the world until you find peace within yourself in this moment.

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#89. The last story: God is everything, God is good.

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#90. Lack of understanding is always painful.

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#91. The way to truly help someone is for me to not get immersed in their suffering.

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#92. The world is nothing but my perception of it. I see only through myself. I hear only through the filter of my story.

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#93. When you realize that suffering and discomfort are the call to inquiry, you may actually begin to look forward to uncomfortable feelings. You may even experience them as friends coming to show you what you have not yet investigated thoroughly enough.

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#94. The opening to reality, as it really is, is beauty.

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#95. Behold your world! The judgments you believe just created it.

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#96. You can never make yourself believe that you're loveable, however hard you try, because when the chips are down what you really believe rises to the surface of the mind to replace what you want to believe.

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#97. The pain shows you what's left to investigate.

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#98. People try so hard to let go of their negative behaviors and thoughts, and it doesn't work, or it works only for a short time. I didn't let go of my negative thoughts; I questioned them, and then they let go of me, and so did my addictions and depression.

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#99. You are your only hope, because we're not changing until you do. Our job is to keep coming at you, as hard as we can, with everything that angers, upsets, or repulses you, until you understand. We love you that much, whether we're aware of it or not. The whole world is about you.

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#100. When your mind opens, the whole world falls into place.

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