1. Acceptance is like a calm sea upon which the will can sail smoothly, whereas upon a rebellious sea the will can barely make headway against the wind.
2. One can accept evil, even one's own evil, as inseparable from life without surrendering to it, simultaneously embracing those who are evil and vigorously opposing them.
3. Acceptance of desire - that is, feeling it vividly with neither guilt nor shame - paradoxically frees one from it, so that one need no longer surrender to it or struggle against it, but can simply act according to reason and love.
4. Acceptance of oneself is like becoming one's own parent, loving oneself unconditionally while attempting to guide one's way.
5. One can either dance across a rock-strewn field or curse the rocks as one stumbles and weaves. To the rocks it is all the same.
6. One of the least satisfactory things one can do is wish one were doing something else.
7. One ought not worry about getting what one wants, but rather about wanting what one gets.
8. The secret of happiness is simple - if one is alive and not in pain, one is happy. But only if one knows it.
9. The quality of one's life is determined more by attitude than by altitude.
10. Acceptance is not acquiescence. What is surrendered is not the will but the heart.
Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.