Hugh Prather
Hugh Prather
Hugh Edmondson Prather IIIwas an American self-help writer, lay minister, and counselor, most famous for his first book, Notes to Myself, which was first published in 1970 by Real People Press, and later reprinted by Bantam Books. It has sold over 5 million copies, and has been translated into ten languages...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth23 January 1938
CountryUnited States of America
people matter energy
Letting people in is largely a matter of not expending the energy to keep them out.
fighting self-worth people
Before, I thought I was actually fighting for my own self-worth; that is why I so desperately wanted people to like me. I thought their liking me was a comment on me, but it was a comment on them.
change giving-up people
Very seldom will a person give up on himself. He continues to have hope because he knows he has the potential for change. He tries again - not just to exist, but to bring about those changes in himself that will make life worth living. Yet people are very quick to give up on friends, and especially on their spouses, to declare them hopeless, and to either walk away or do nothing more than resign themselves to a bad situation.
people trying want
When someone disagrees with me, I do not have to immediately start revising what I just said. People don't want me to always agree with them. They can sense this is phony. They can sense I am trying to control them: I am agreeing with them to make them like me. They feel; "I don't want to exist to like you. I DON'T exist to like you."
people feelings misunderstood
We feel understood by people who like us; misunderstood by people who don't -- and those feelings are probably realistic.
girl years people
There were seventy-five people in the lobby and only a seven-year-old girl was finding out what it felt like to sit on the Marble Floor
creativity people might
Some people will like me and some won't. So I might as well be myself, and then at least I'll know that the people who like me, like me.
love-you two people
Love, the magician, knows this little trick whereby two people walk in different directions yet always remain side by side....
life mistake want
perfectionism is a slow death. if everything were to turn out just like i would want it to, just like i would plan for it to, then i would never experience anything new; my life would be an endless repetition of stale successes. when i make a mistake i experience something unexpected.... when i have listened to my mistakes i have grown.
looks
We become what we look at most.
book hands self
Books seek us out. They slip themselves into our hands just at the time we are ready for a new self-concept.
change life-changing live-life
Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes and I am left the same. The more things change the more I am the same. I am what I started with, and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me.
fun humor kids
True humor is fun - it does not put down, kid, or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different, and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all in this together.
believe taken together
Stands must be taken. If I am to respect myself I have to search myself for what I believe is right and take a stand on what I find. Otherwise, I have not gathered together what I have been given; I have not embraced what I have learned; I lack my own conviction.