I liked M. Scott Peck's "The Road Less Traveled" so it was a no-brainer to buy this sequel to that bestseller in February 1995. Little did I know that less than two weeks later, my bed-ridden father would join his Creator. That's the sentimental link of this volume to me. Here are my choice cuts:
On "Life":
"Life is complex."
* * *
"There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another."
On "Suffering":
"There is such a thing as constructive suffering."
On "Guilt":
"We need a certain amount of guilt in order to exist in society. And that's what I call existential guilt."
On "Courage":
"The absence of fear is not courage; the absence of fear is some kind of brain damage."
* * *
"Courage is the capacity to go ahead in spite of fear, or in spite of the pain."
On "Immaturity":
"...what characterizes most immature people is that they sit around complaining that life doesn't meet their demands."
On "Pain":
"The quickest way to change your attitude toward pain is to accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth."
On "Salvation":
"Salvation is the process of healing and the process of becoming whole."
On "Consciousness":
"Consciousness brings more pain, but it also brings more joy."
* * *
"The more pain you are willing to take on, the more joy you will also begin to feel."
On"Forgiving":
"A big part of growing up is learning to forgive."
On"Anger":
"Blame always begins with anger."
On "Will Power":
"A strong will is, I believe, the best asset that a human being can possess, not because it guarantees success or goodness, but because a weak will pretty much guarantees failure."
* * *
"The worst side effect of a strong will is a strong temper--anger."
* * *
"Your will has to be harnessed to a power higher than yourself".
On "Blessings":
"All blessings are potential curses, all have their side effects."
On "Forgiveness and Affirmation":
"Make no mistake, forgiveness and affirmation are not the same. Affirmation is a way to avoid looking at evil....Forgiveness on the other hand requires facing evil squarely."
On "Forgetting and Forgiving":
"We cannot truly forget. We can only truly forgive..."
On "Humility":
"Humility is a true knowledge of oneself as one is."
--M. Scott Peck
