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Mark Nepo Quotes

The glassblower knows: while in the heat of beginning, any shape is possible. Once hardened, the only way to change is to break.

Mark Nepo

The glassblower knows: while in the heat of beginning, any shape is possible. Once hardened, the only way to change is to break.

Inside Gravity Inside gravity, the same things happen, just slower. When a plate breaks, we call it an accident. When a heart breaks, we call it sad. If it is ours, we say tragic. When a dream breaks,...

Mark Nepo

Inside Gravity Inside gravity, the same things happen, just slower. When a plate breaks, we call it an accident. When a heart breaks, we call it sad. If it is ours, we say tragic. When a dream breaks,...

About Author
Mark Nepo (b. February 23, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York), is a poet and spiritual adviser who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over 40 years. Nepo is best known for his New York Times #1 bestseller, The Book of Awakening. He has published 23 books and recorded 15 audio projects. A cancer survivor, Nepo writes and teaches about the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship.

Let Go of the Rice In a world that lives like a fist mercy is no more than waking with your hands open. So much more can happen with our hands open. In fact, closing and stubbornly maintaining our gri...

Mark Nepo

Let Go of the Rice In a world that lives like a fist mercy is no more than waking with your hands open. So much more can happen with our hands open. In fact, closing and stubbornly maintaining our gri...

Whatever is held and listened to will show us where it lives in the world and in us.

Mark Nepo

Whatever is held and listened to will show us where it lives in the world and in us.

Perhaps one of the hardest remedies to accept for our pain of becoming is that wherever we are in our path—no matter how flawed or incomplete—is a blossoming unto itself.

Mark Nepo

Perhaps one of the hardest remedies to accept for our pain of becoming is that wherever we are in our path—no matter how flawed or incomplete—is a blossoming unto itself.

Since speed and confidence are the traits of success we are taught to strive with, it takes added courage to welcome time and humility into our lives.

Mark Nepo

Since speed and confidence are the traits of success we are taught to strive with, it takes added courage to welcome time and humility into our lives.

Reframing what happens to us can be a healthy way to survive terrible things, or it can become a veil of denial that keeps us from moving on. Often, we simply have to trust that we will see the truth...

Mark Nepo

Reframing what happens to us can be a healthy way to survive terrible things, or it can become a veil of denial that keeps us from moving on. Often, we simply have to trust that we will see the truth...

Originally, the word power meant able to be. In time, it was contracted to mean to be able. We suffer the difference. Iwas waiting for a plane when I overheard two businessmen. One was sharing the goo...

Mark Nepo

Originally, the word power meant able to be. In time, it was contracted to mean to be able. We suffer the difference. Iwas waiting for a plane when I overheard two businessmen. One was sharing the goo...

The Necessary Privilege Not to feel is to stop the heart from breathing. So often, we war against sadness as if it were an unwanted germ, and pine after happiness as if it were some promised Eden, who...

Mark Nepo

The Necessary Privilege Not to feel is to stop the heart from breathing. So often, we war against sadness as if it were an unwanted germ, and pine after happiness as if it were some promised Eden, who...

The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and t...

Mark Nepo

The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and t...

Tags: inspirational, life

Over time, staying real becomes the work of keeping our actions in the world connected to the truth of our inner being, allowing our True Self to see the light of day.

Mark Nepo

Over time, staying real becomes the work of keeping our actions in the world connected to the truth of our inner being, allowing our True Self to see the light of day.

Anything or anyone that asks you to be other than yourself is not holy, but is trying only to fill its own need.

Mark Nepo

Anything or anyone that asks you to be other than yourself is not holy, but is trying only to fill its own need.

If we could see ourselves from far enough away, we would seem like a colony of insects running into things repeatedly: thousands of little determined beings butting into obstacles, shaking our little...

Mark Nepo

If we could see ourselves from far enough away, we would seem like a colony of insects running into things repeatedly: thousands of little determined beings butting into obstacles, shaking our little...

…there are no wrong turns, only unexpected paths.

Mark Nepo

…there are no wrong turns, only unexpected paths.

Sit with a trusted loved one and take turns: Name one defining trait of who you are that distinguishes you from others. Name one defining trait of who you are that you have in common with others. Disc...

Mark Nepo

Sit with a trusted loved one and take turns: Name one defining trait of who you are that distinguishes you from others. Name one defining trait of who you are that you have in common with others. Disc...

We cannot eliminate hunger, but we can feed each other. We cannot eliminate loneliness, but we can hold each other. We cannot eliminate pain, but we can live a life of compassion.

Mark Nepo

We cannot eliminate hunger, but we can feed each other. We cannot eliminate loneliness, but we can hold each other. We cannot eliminate pain, but we can live a life of compassion.

Reflex or Response I did not survive to be untouched. The emotional patterns of our lives are very strong. They often come into being because we've needed them to survive. But sooner or later, we all...

Mark Nepo

Reflex or Response I did not survive to be untouched. The emotional patterns of our lives are very strong. They often come into being because we've needed them to survive. But sooner or later, we all...

Integrity is an unending process of letting our inner experience and our outer experience complete each other, in spite of our very human lapses.

Mark Nepo

Integrity is an unending process of letting our inner experience and our outer experience complete each other, in spite of our very human lapses.

Making Waves I would do anything for you. Would you be yourself? In the Hans Christian Anderson classic, The Little Mermaid, Ariel gives up her beautiful voice in exchange for legs. This is a seemingl...

Mark Nepo

Making Waves I would do anything for you. Would you be yourself? In the Hans Christian Anderson classic, The Little Mermaid, Ariel gives up her beautiful voice in exchange for legs. This is a seemingl...

It takes six million grains of pollen to seed one peony, and salmon need a lifetime of swimming to find their way home, so we mustn't be alarmed or discouraged when it takes us years to find love or y...

Mark Nepo

It takes six million grains of pollen to seed one peony, and salmon need a lifetime of swimming to find their way home, so we mustn't be alarmed or discouraged when it takes us years to find love or y...