Our deepest fear
is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
"Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened
about shrinking so that other people
won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us:
It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fears,
our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson
from A Return to Love (HarperCollins)
(often attributed to the
1994 Inaugural Speech
of Nelson Mandela)
Added 25 June 1996
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