Mcgill Quotes

A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting.

Some ghosts are so quiet you would hardly know they were there.

No one is more insufferable than he who lacks basic courtesy.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that you have to agree with people and their beliefs to defend them from injustice.

A man's bookcase will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about him.

One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.

Stop holding-on to the wrong people. Let them go on their own way; if not for you, then for them.

Your suffering needs to be respected. Don't try to ignore the hurt, because it is real. Just let the hurt soften you instead of hardening you. Let the hurt open you instead of closing you. Let the hurt send you looking for those who will accept you instead of hiding from those who reject you.

The greatest joys in life are found not only in what we do and feel, but also in our quiet hopes and labors for others.

Who were you before the world told you what you were not?

If you can sit with your pain, listen to your pain and respect your pain — in time you will move through your pain.

Within you, you will find everything you need to be complete.

The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places. (p 57)

There is no greater intelligence than kindness and empathy.

The worst bullies you will ever encounter in your life are your own thoughts.

You will be a beautiful person, as long as you see the beauty in others.

Your past is like a bag of bricks; set it down and walk away. Quit collecting every painful word, memory and mistake. Collect hope.

Most people do not actually know how to think for themselves, and unfortunately that prevents them from even knowing it.

Some people have abusive, negative, controlling tendencies in their blood; they are wired for havoc, bickering and deception.

A polite enemy is just as difficult to discredit, as a rude friend is to protect.

Good manners are appreciated as much as bad manners are abhorred.

We are all damaged. We have all been hurt. We have all had to learn painful lessons. We are all recovering from some mistake, loss, betrayal, abuse, injustice or misfortune. All of life is a process of recovery that never ends. We each must find ways to accept and move through the pain and to pick ourselves back up. For each pang of grief, depression, doubt or despair there is an inverse toward renewal coming to you in time. Each tragedy is an announcement that some good will indeed come in time. Be patient with yourself.

Respectful communication under conflict or opposition is an essential and truly awe-inspiring ability.

Your life was meant for more than being a life-long doormat for deadbeats, losers, gossipers, nay-sayers, dream-crushers, energy vampires, users, abusers, ragers and passive-aggressive backstabbers.

There is something beautiful in you seeking freedom.

If you are rude, cynical, habitually-sarcastic or pessimistic, your life options are going to be very limited.

The woman must be restored to her rightful place, as the strong, loving maternal leader of peace and reason.

Toxic relationships are dangerous to your health; they will literally kill you. Stress shortens your lifespan. Even a broken heart can kill you. There is an undeniable mind-body connection. Your arguments and hateful talk can land you in the emergency room or in the morgue. You were not meant to live in a fever of anxiety; screaming yourself hoarse in a frenzy of dreadful, panicked fight-or-flight that leaves you exhausted and numb with grief. You were not meant to live like animals tearing one another to shreds. Don't turn your hair gray. Don't carve a roadmap of pain into the sweet wrinkles on your face. Don't lay in the quiet with your heart pounding like a trapped, frightened creature. For your own precious and beautiful life, and for those around you — seek help or get out before it is too late. This is your wake-up call!

If you do not like a certain behavior in others, look within yourself to find the roots of what discomforts you.

The ignoramus crow of "love it or leave it" omits other viable options, such as staying and changing it.

You cannot save everyone. Some people are going to destroy themselves no matter how much you try to help them.

A man's bookcase will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about him," my father had told me more than once. "A businessman has business books and a dream has novels and books of poetry. Most women like reading about love, and a true revolutionary will have books about the minutiae of overthrowing the oppressor. A person with no books is inconsequential in a modern setting, but a peasant that reads is a prince in waiting.

We believe we are the consumers, but we are the consumed.

A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.

People use words to do battle and to hurt one another terribly, tragically and even mortally.

Taking care of yourself is the most powerful way to begin to take care of others.

Suffering is one of life's great teachers.

Choose thoughts that give you the emotions of being alive and excited about life.

Being alone is much better than being around negative people out of loneliness or desperation.

To have our needs met, to love, to be loved, to feel safe in this world and to each know our purpose, is a simple matter of creating those blessings for others.

One of the most important things one can do in life is to brutally question every single thing you are taught.

It was at that moment he realized that his spirit was truly human once more. For he no longer remembered how to be alone without being lonely.

You have to make the decision to let go of the past if you want to move forward.

Life moves forward. The old leaves wither, die and fall away, and the new growth extends forward into the light.

Unless someone is trying to help you, don't you dare, ever let anyone tell you who and what you are, because, on this planet, you are the unquestionable and supreme authority on — you.

Every soul is beautiful and precious; is worthy of dignity and respect, and deserving of peace, joy and love.

Courteousness is consideration for others; politeness is the method used to deliver such considerations.

Some people are so addicted to their misery that they will destroy anything that gets in the way of their fix.

To understand the journey you have to do the walking.

As your consciousness, refinement and pureness of heart expands you will become less judgmental, less corrective, less reactive, less black-and-white, less critical, less apt to blame and less tormented by others and their faults and views.

Every journey begins with the first step of articulating the intention, and then becoming the intention.

People who have had little self-reflection live life in a huge reality blind-spot.

And," added Mikey. "she's my sister." The others looked at him for a moment, and broke out laughing. "Yeah, yeah," Squirrel scoffed, "and the McGill is my cousin." Now Allie burst out laughing, which made Mikey more annoyed. "If the McGill was your cousin," Mikey said, "I can guarantee he'd disown you.

When someone is suffering, there is a deep, visceral reaction in the core of our being, a flood of empathy and a frightfully desperate compulsion to give aid.

Do not let your grand ambitions stand in the way of small but meaningful accomplishments.

Real love sometimes means saying goodbye.

All discomfort comes from suppressing your true identity.

How can you get rid of a book? That’s like throwing away knowledge.

Control is not humble; control is arrogant.

A person who is humble would never be abusive or selfish; so don't abuse yourself or withhold self-love or self-care.

A moment of truth is very powerful. Instead of smiling to be polite, just frown. Instead of laughing when you are nervous or uncomfortable, just speak your truth. Instead of acting like everything is all right, proclaim it isn't alright, and talk about your feelings! Honor your truth. Honor yourself. Be real.

We must quit thinking we know everything, and quit placing "knowledge" over kindness and compassion.

Protesting is never a disturbance of the peace. Corruption, injustice, war and intimidation are disturbances of the peace.

You can know something is a lie when it has no love in it.

Let go of everything. That is how you get everything.

Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges. So relax.

capitaine,

The storm is out there and every one of us must eventually face the storm. When the storm comes, pray that it will shake you to your roots and break you wide-open. Being broken open by the storm is your only hope. When you are broken open you get to discover for the first time what is inside you. Some people never get to see what is inside them; what beauty, what strength, what truth and love. They were never broken open by the storm. So, don't run from your pain — run into your pain. Let life's storm shatter you.

Women do not need a knight in shining armor or a Prince Charming to come to their rescue.

Real spirituality is about getting the bullshit out of your life and getting real.

When you give others a new chance, a new chance is really being given to you.

There is a difference between giving-up and strategic disengagement. Know the difference.

If you cannot be open-minded, then you do not possess your ideas, your ideas possess you.

We must be free, but to have real freedom, you must be wild and free yourself.

We must plant trees, grow gardens instead of lawns, ride bicycles when we can and support responsible local businesses over big brands.

There is a deep interconnectedness of all life on earth, from the tiniest organisms, to the largest ecosystems, and absolutely between each person.

Don't run from your pain — run into your pain.

You will be a different person after the storm, because the storm will heal you from your perfection.

When the storm rips you to pieces, you have to decide how to put yourself back together again.

If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in poor company.

Misery loves good company, so if you are surrounded with drama, gossip and fools you may want to consider that you are presently at risk of becoming one of them.

Our minds have been poisoned and our accepted beliefs are unnatural and artificial.

A mistake made by many people with great convictions is that they will let nothing stand in the way of their views, not even kindness.

Crisis is what suppressed pain looks like; it always comes to the surface. It shakes you into reflection and healing.

Enthusiasm is the energy and force that builds literal momentum of the human soul and mind.

Having a sense of purpose is having a sense of self. A course to plot is a destination to hope for.

The common person fears to think beyond the common.

Change comes from confrontation. You have to be confronted or confront yourself.

The intimate space of your personal life should be reserved for amazing, beautiful, radiant souls — good, wholesome and loving people.

Know yourself. Be yourself. Love yourself. Seek goodness and be goodness. Seek beauty and be beauty. Seek love and be love.

Ambition is not what a man would do, but what a man does, for ambition without action is fantasy.

Our identities are tremendously warped and distorted by yesterday's trauma and tomorrow's expectations.

To live a wonderful life create more, buy less, hug more, scold less, give more, take less, forgive more, worry less and be grateful everyday for life.

Librarians are wonderful people, partly because they are, on the whole, unaware of how dangerous knowledge is. Karl Marx upended the political landscape of the twentieth century sitting at a library table. Still, modern librarians are more afraid of ingnorance than they are of the potential devastation that knowledge can bring. (p. 192)

The value of consistent prayer is not that [God] will hear us, but that we will hear Him.

The more evolved you are the less you will agree or disagree with others, and the more you will gently sift through the fullness of what people are offering and gratefully take only what you need.

The natives have a way of putting it themselves: “the real world behind this one,” they call it, suggesting that what we see and understand of the surface world is but a façade, which they are capable of navigating beyond. And so it is that in living among them, such things as shape-shifters, talking bears, men turning into birds and flying, all seem somehow plausible.

Crying is like a thundershower for the soul. The air feels so wonderful after the rain. Don’t think too much. Breathe. Don’t be harsh or demanding on yourself. Just experience your feelings and know that your tears are announcing change in your life. Change is coming; like a summer rain — to wash away your pain. Have faith that things are getting better.

Look behind you now. Do you feel in your heart a slight hastening of its beat, and a powerful sense that something momentous is about to happen? ... Perhaps, then, this is the hour that Mary Hightower takes to the sky with thousands Afterlights heading toward Memphis. ... Perhaps this is the moment that Nick, the Chocolate Ogre, arrives in the same city in search for Allie, only to find that he has no idea where to look. ... Perhaps this is the very instant that a monster called the McGill arrives there as well, aching to ease his pain by sharing his misery - not only with his new minions, but with anyone he can. ... And perhaps you can sense, in some small twisting loop of your gut, the covergence of the wrong, of the right, and the woefully misguided. If you do, then pay sharp attention to the moment you wake, and the moment you fall asleep.... For maybe then you will know, without a shadow of doubt, which is which.

The beauty of being shattered is how the shards become our character and our marks of distinction. This is how we are refined by our pain. When the storm rips you to pieces, you get to decide how to put yourself back together again. The storm gives us the gift of our defining choices. You will be a different person after the storm, because the storm will heal you from your perfection. People who stay perfect and unblemished never really get to live fully or deeply. You will not be the same after the storms of life; you will be stronger, wiser and more alive than ever before!