Quotes By Martha Beck

Tiny steps will get you to your goal months and months sooner. A little is better than a lot.

My point is that perceptual bias can affect nut jobs and scientists alike. If we hold too rigidly to what we think we know, we ignore or avoid evidence of anything that might change our mind.

Children who assume adult responsibilities feel old when they're young.

You get social pressure from your parents, who teach you to pay attention to certain things and not to others. You get it in school.

We virtually never feel our age, but thinking that we should can lead to disaster.

Only since the Industrial Revolution have most people worked in places away from their homes or been left to raise small children without the help of multiple adults, making for an unsupported life.

As much horror as we have always created, we are a species that keeps moving forward, seeing new sights in new ways, and enjoying the journey.

I fell in love with Africa and began helping people fix things there.

Most of my clients don't realize that the way they look and the way they think about their looks are two separate issues.

People are so afraid of authority figures and doctors are authority figures.

When you meet people, show real appreciation, then genuine curiosity.

Bracketing has turned all my experiences, remembered and present, into a gallery of miracles where I wander around dazzled by the beauty of events I cannot explain.

Friends, there are many areas in which I need encouragement, but worrying is not one of them. I worry the way Renee Fleming sings high Cs: Effortlessly. Loudly. At length.

What laughter is to childhood, sex is to adolescence.

Caring for your inner child has a powerful and surprisingly quick result: Do it and the child heals.

To make an activity joyful, keep adding things until the activity as a whole becomes more appealing than repulsing.

I majored in Chinese. I was never really good at Chinese but I really, really benefited from having been exposed to Asian philosophy early in my life.

In fact, when care appears, unconditional love often vanishes.

Rest until you feel like playing, then play until you feel like resting, period. Never do anything else.

Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury.

If you'd rather live surrounded by pristine objects than by the traces of happy memories, stay focused on tangible things. Otherwise, stop fixating on stuff you can touch and start caring about stuff that touches you.

In one century, we've added 28 years to our average life span - a change so rapid that our brains couldn't possibly have evolved to accommodate it.

Polite strangers often tell soothing lies about our physical appearance that prevent many of us from facing, discussing and solving our real problems.

Anger elicits anger, fear elicits fear, no matter how well meaning we may be.

Basic human contact - the meeting of eyes, the exchanging of words - is to the psyche what oxygen is to the brain. If you're feeling abandoned by the world, interact with anyone you can.

Do whatever it takes to convey your essential self.

If you want to end your isolation, you must be honest about what you want at a core level and decide to go after it.

I'd like to help repair the earth's ecosystems, and to fully live until I'm fully dead.

Anything you're trying to will is focused on the future; it's always associated with some sort of anxiety that makes the present moment somewhat uncomfortable.

My own nature hovers between neurotic and paranoid. I've developed the habit of mentally listing things that make me optimistic about the future. I do it every day.