Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Vernon Howard (American Philosopher)

Vernon Linwood Howard (1918–92) was an American spiritual teacher, author, and philosopher known for his teachings on personal development and self-awareness. His philosophy centered on the idea that true liberation comes from shedding the false self, which he described as a collection of conditioned ego-driven images.

Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, he began his writing career in the 1940s, initially focusing on humor and children’s books. By the late 1950s, he transitioned to lecturing on personal growth and later authored books on spiritual and psychological development.

Howard’s teachings drew from various philosophical and spiritual traditions, including Christian and Eastern mysticism, Gurdjieffian Fourth Way teachings, Jungian psychology, J. Krishnamurti, and American Transcendentalism. He emphasized self-honesty, persistence, and the study of spiritual principles as a means to inner transformation. In 1979, Howard founded the New Life Foundation, a nonprofit learning center dedicated to his teachings.

Influential works include The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power (1988,) The Power of Your Supermind (1967,) The Mystic Masters Speak: A Treasury of Cosmic Wisdom (1988,) and The Power of Psycho-Pictography (1983.) His teachings continue to inspire individuals seeking personal and spiritual growth. A prominent biography of Howard is Vernon Howard: A Spiritual Teacher’s Legacy, which explores his life and contributions to self-awareness and inner transformation.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Vernon Howard

Learn to see things as they really are, not as we imagine they are.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Truth

Persistence prevails, like a stream that is temporarily blocked by boulders and then collects force enough to overflow onward.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: War, Power, Persistence, Mind

The search for truth is really a lot of good fun.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Truth

You have it made when you don’t care whether you have it made or not.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: War, Power, Mind

When you are genuinely strong, you neither attack nor defend and so retain your energy.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Power, Mind, War, Energy

We clearly realize that freedom’s inner kingdom cannot be touched by exterior attacks.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Freedom

Pseudo-mysticism seeks to evade reality; authentic mysticism wants to live it.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Live, War

Don’t try to live. Let yourself be lived.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Live, Try, War

Can you think of anything more permanently elating than to know that you are on the right road at last?
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Planning

There exists a special self which takes every event as if it were the very thing you wanted to happen. That self is the Supermind, which is never upset by anything. Your goal is to nourish it into greater strength. Then, every step is sunlit.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Mind, Great, Power, War

Don’t try to be unafraid. That is impossible. Rather, go ahead while being afraid. That is the entire secret for abolishing fear. The Supermind teaches us to have no self-concern at all. Whatever happens to you, act as though it happened to someone else.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: War, Teach, Act, Try, Fear, Mind, Secret

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Simplicity, Happiness

Truth is not a matter of personal viewpoint.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Truth

We are exactly where we have chosen to be.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Chance, Circumstance

Aloneness is a wise teacher. Kierkegaard remarked that one sign of spiritual maturity was the ability to be comfortable when alone.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Spiritual, Wise, Mind, Power, War, Teach, Spirit

Mysticism is not this or that particular cup on the table; it is the water poured into all of them.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: War, Water

A clear understanding of a negative emotion dismisses it .
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Emotions

You are free when you have no anxious thoughts about what happens to you.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: War, Thoughts

Mysticism is: a. An advanced state of inner enlightenment. b. Union with Reality. c. A state of genuinely satisfying success. d. Insight into an entirely new world of living. e. An intuitive grasp of Truth, above and beyond intellectual reasoning. f. A personal experience, in which we are happy and healthy human beings.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Health, Truth, Success, Light, Experience, New, Happy, Reason, War, Yin, Persona

We must become acquainted with our emotional household: we must see our feelings as they actually are, not as we assume they are. This breaks their hypnotic and damaging hold on us.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Conflict

If you call one thing good, you must call its opposite bad. If you think it wonderful to make a big profit in your business, you will also think it terrible if you incur a large loss. The idea is to live above the opposites.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Business, Good, Power, Think, War, Sin, Live, Mind

A cheery relaxation is man’s natural state, just as nature itself is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: War, Doing, Nature, Power, Mind, Water

Genuine effort is success.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: War, Success, Effort

Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Learning

Freedom begins as we become conscious of it.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Freedom

One false idea is that anyone can hurt you. Events can ruin your reputation, take your money, mistreat you, revenge itself upon you, deceive, betray, abandon you, but cannot hurt you.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Mind, Power, War, Money

We are slaves to whatever we don’t understand.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Understanding

Quit thinking that you must halt before the barrier of inner negativity. You need not. You can crash through whatever we see a negative state, that is where we can destroy it.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Bravery, Courage, Attitude

Just be honest with yourself. That opens the door.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Honesty

Don’t try to be spiritual. That is only a word in the dictionary. Make it your goal to become a normally functioning individual. Let these principles shape you according to your real nature of a simple, decent, honest, unafraid human being.
—Vernon Howard
Topics: Spirit, Principles, Nature, Power, Spiritual, War, Try

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