{"author":"Martha Beck","author_id":"Martha+Beck","total_quotes":37,"quotes":[{"text":"Whether you've seen angels floating around your bedroom or just found a ray of hope at a lonely moment, choosing to believe that something unseen is caring for you can be a life-shifting exercise.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["caring","believe","lonely "],"id":703,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"There’s a Chinese word that means “soul sister,” and that is the word I would use to address you in my heart. Listen to me, soul sister: Fate or luck or destiny already put you through hell once. Please don’t make it worse by condemning yourself. There is no choice that would have left you feeling no guilt. Every time I watch Adam struggle to speak, every time I see another child laugh and point at him, every time I watch his face fall as he realizes he is not going to be treated like the other kids, I feel wrenched by guilt just as you did when you heard my story. Life is hard. We make the best choices we can. Condemnation, whether it comes from around you or inside you, only robs the world of another dram of compassion. God knows, we need all the compassion we can get. If you promise to try to forgive yourself, I’ll try to forgive myself as well. I think, in my heart of hearts, that there is nothing for either one of us to forgive.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["choices","choices-and-consequences","compassion","condemnation","forgiveness","guilt","life","love","understanding"],"id":8767,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"Western democracies exalt the ideal of social equality, but our economic system arguably emerged from 16th-century Calvinism, a religion whose members believed that God showed favor by bestowing wealth and other forms of success on what they called 'the chosen.'.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["success","god","religion "],"id":9217,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"Sometimes a psychic tells you something and it feels wrong and others may be right on the money. It's your choice about whom to trust, and giving that trust is something we do ourselves.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["money","giving","choice "],"id":17955,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"As a life coach, I love makeovers, from new clothes to surgery, pedicures to highlights. But redoing makes you feel better only if approached with the right attitude.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["love","life","clothes "],"id":35793,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"Getting bogged down in old stories stops the flow of learning by censoring our perceptions, making us functionally deaf and blind to new information. Once the replay button gets pushed, we no longer form new ideas or conclusions - the old ones are so cozy.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["blind","ideas","information "],"id":36841,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"The process of spotting fear and refusing to obey it is the source of all true empowerment.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["process","empowerment","true "],"id":38700,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"Although beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, the feeling of being beautiful exists solely in the mind of the beheld.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["beautiful","eye","mind "],"id":49418,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"Every day brings new choices.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["day","choices","every day "],"id":57829,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"},{"text":"Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don't. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life.","author":"Martha Beck","tags":["life","pain","society "],"id":59172,"author_id":"Martha+Beck"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":37,"pages":4,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}