Bernie Siegel famous quotes

I am convinced that unconditional love is the most powerful known stimulant of the immune system. If I told patients to raise their blood levels of immune globulins or killer T cells, no one would know how. But if I can teach them to love themselves and others fully, the same changes happen automatically. The truth is: love heals.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Powerful #Unconditional Love #Love Is

I believe that we are here to contribute love to the planet - each of us in our own way
-- Bernie Siegel

#Believe #Way #I Believe

Diseases can be our spiritual flat tires - disruptions in our lives that seem to be disasters at the time but end by redirecting our lives in a meaningful way.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Meaningful #Spiritual #Adversity

Compliments are the helium that fills everyone's balloon; they elevate the person receiving them so he or she can fly over life's troubles and land safely on the other side.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Positive #Land #Receiving

Life is a labor pain; we are here to give birth to ourself.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Pain #Giving #Birth

When you accept that you are not in charge of everything, you can begin to work with the one who really is in charge. This has been my experience; when I accepted that I was not in charge and started to work with someone else's plan, the Boss showed up. Now we are a team and I have less to be concerned about. He organizes my schedule. I just follow it, and when He is taking a day off my wife steps in.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Team #Acceptance #Wife

One cannot get through life without pain...What we can do is choose how to use the pain life presents to us.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Pain #Grief #Use

Refusal to hope is nothing more than a decision to die.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Decision #Refusal

Being a survivor doesn't mean being strong - it's telling people when you need a meal or a ride, company, whatever. It's paying attention to heart wisdom, feelings, not living a role, but having a unique, authentic life, having something to contribute, finding time to love and laugh. All these things are qualities of survivors.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Strong #Heart #Mean

Our Creator has given us five senses to help us survive threats from the external world, and a sixth sense, our healing system, to help us survive internal threats.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Healing #Five Senses #World

God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Compassion #Perfect #Suffering

We are here to feel, wonder and gaze in awe at the world. Instead of just teaching our children how to use things and do things, I suggest we nourish their sense of wonder.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Children #Teaching #Use

Hoping means seeing that the outcome you want is possible and then working for it.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Hope #Mean #Want

You cannot fail at being yourself. A cat doesn't try to be a tiger, and you shouldn't try to be something you aren't. You are a process, not a product. Your job is to discover what you are and create that creature. You still won't be perfect, but success isn't about perfection-it is about authenticity. You are a success if you are being your real, authentic self.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Success #Being Yourself #Jobs

By disregarding intuition in favor of science, or science in favor of instincts, we limit ourselves.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Intuition #Favors #Limits

The simple truth is that happy people generally don't get sick
-- Bernie Siegel

#Simple #Sick #People

If you see what you do each day as your way of loving the world and helping it heal, then life gets to be a lot different. The difference between burning up and burning out is the difference between loving what you are doing and not loving it.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Differences #Different #Burning

Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Opportunity #Self #Challenges

For me, a lovely day is any day I wake up.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Gratitude #Lovely #Wake Up

If you watch how nature deals with adversity, continually renewing itself, you can't help but learn.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Adversity #Watches #Helping

Life is an opportunity to contribute love in your own way.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Love #Marriage #Opportunity

It is the experience of living that is important, not searching for meaning. We bring meaning by how we love the world.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Important #World

If God came in and said, I want you to be happy for the rest of your life, what would you do?
-- Bernie Siegel

#Dream #Want #Said

It takes more distress and poison to kill someone who has peace of mind and loves life.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Love Life #Mind #Contentment

When guilt rears its ugly head confront it, discuss it and let it go. The past is over. It is time to ask what can we do right, not what did we do wrong. Forgive yourself and move on.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Happiness #Moving #Past

I see people who die a few minutes after a doctor tells them there is no hope of a cure. They give up and go. Others get angry and find joy in proving the doctor wrong. Something within them is challenged and hopeful. Hope is the divine motivator.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Giving Up #Doctors #People

Disease is surely one of the ways in which we are tried by life and offered the chance to be heroic. Though few of us will win Olympic gold medals or slay dragons, disease can be the spark or gift that allows many of us to live out our personal myths and become heroes.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Hero #Winning #Dragons

Doctors are busy playing God when so few of us have the qualifications. And besides, the job is taken.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Jobs #Taken #Doctors

Don't do things to not die, do things to enjoy living. The by-product may be not dying.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Life #Dying #May

If you talk to your body, it will listen.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Body

When my body gets to the point where I can no longer function or feel gratitude, then I'll leave it and become grateful again. But until then, I will appreciate what I have and not whine about what I don't have. I will feel blessed by life and the opportunity to help others see that they are blessed, too.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Gratitude #Blessed #Grateful

As doctors, we are not trained to communicate and understand the power of our words as they relate to a patient's ability and desire to survive.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Doctors #Desire #Our Words

Inspiration is the greatest gift because it opens your life to many new possibilities. Each day becomes more meaningful, and your life is enhanced when your actions are guided by what inspires you.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Meaningful #Inspiration #Inspire

Your body loves you, but if you do not love your life, it will end it far sooner, thinking it is doing you a favor.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Love You #Thinking #Doing You

The Secret Language of Your Body truly is the essential guide to restore your body to its healthiest state and assist you to heal your life. Inna Segal offers invaluable insights into the underlying causes of illness and disease and provides practical advice which will undoubtedly empower many to self-heal. So read on and learn from the wisdom of this book, which can guide you to the life you were truly meant to live.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Book #Self #Empowering

A surgeon is surrounded by people who are sick, discouraged, afraid, embittered, dying - but also courageous, loving, wise, compassionate and alive.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Wise #People #Sick

I know patients who bring a dozen roses to the doctor's office. And, boy, the next visit, nobody forgets that. You come in and hey - 'Here's the lady who brought the roses' vs. 'Here's the lung cancer.'
-- Bernie Siegel

#Cancer #Boys #Doctors

Feelings aroused by the touch of someones hand, the sound of music, the smell of a flower, a beautiful sunset, a work of art, love, laughter, hope and faith - all work on both the unconscious and the conscious aspects of the self, and they have physiological consequences as well.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Beautiful #Art #Laughter

Stories change people while statistics give them something to argue about.
-- Bernie Siegel

#People #Giving #Stories

Give someone who has faith in you a placebo and call it a hair growing pill, anti-nausea pill or whatever, and you will be amazed at how many respond to your therapy.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Hair #Giving #Growing

You can't control the world, but when you control your thoughts, you bring order.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Order #World

I wish medical schools helped us to analyze our healthy and unhealthy reasons for becoming doctors.
-- Bernie Siegel

#School #Doctors #Healthy

Traditional doctors say I'm a mystic. I don't deny it.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Doctors #Deny #Mystic

Most of us never stop to consider our blessings; rather, we spend the day only thinking about our problems. But since you have to be alive to have problems, be grateful for the opportunity to have them.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Grateful #Blessing #Opportunity

Medicine is a very tough thing. I mean, everyone is going to die. Sooner or later. That's a tough thing to face.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Mean #Medicine #Faces

An awareness of one's mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Meaningful #Wake Up #Awareness

It's not about curing the disease, but healing the life; then the physical benefits come.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Healing #Benefits #Disease

I once heard a man say he knew there was a God, he just didn't think he needed Him. It is nice to take care of yourself and be independent, but it is also nice to know that you have a resource to rely on in times of need. If you are used to fending entirely for yourself, then when a catastrophe occurs you will expend a lot of energy looking for help at a time when you need your energy looking for help at a time when you need your energy for creative work.
-- Bernie Siegel

#God #Nice #Independent

Do not be afraid to love. Remember dear old Don Quixote, viewing the world with love. He saw many beautiful things no one else saw. Try being dear Don Quixote for a day. You'll see that love improves your vision and allows you to see more than your eye has ever seen before. But be forewarned: Those who look on the world with love will need a handkerchief, not to use as a blindfold, but to blow their nose and dry their tears.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Love #Beautiful #Eye

Do things to make your day precious.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Healing

We have to create perfection through love
-- Bernie Siegel

#Perfection

No matter what the statistics say there is always a way.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Statistics #Matter #Way

I always remember the words of George Halas, the owner of the Chicago Bears football team. When he was well into his eighties a friend found him in his office on Sunday, and asked him why, at his age, he was working on a Sunday. His response, 'It’s only work if there’s someplace else you’d rather be.'
-- Bernie Siegel

#Football #Team #Sunday

Information doesn't mean a thing to people without inspiration.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Inspiration #Mean #People

What if Jesus was the only normal person who ever lived?
-- Bernie Siegel

#Jesus #What If #Normal

Getting well is not the only goal. Even more important is learning to live without fear, to be at peace with life and ultimately death.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Get Well #Goal #Important

Some spiritual traditions view the moment of birth as a passage from a state of wholeness and knowledge to a state of forgetting. In this view of the world, we spend the rest of our lives searching for wholeness and knowledge, wellness and health-the balance and harmony we lost when we were born. If our wholeness is interrupted, then our health suffers, and we need to find a way to restore our sense of meaning. When we move in the direction of that meaning, we're healing.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Spiritual #Moving #Healing

Today I am amazed at the things our children have done and their wide range of interests. They are all living their lives and not the ones I would have planned for them. But I have learned that their lives are theirs, not mine, and in living their own lives they have given me experiences and an education I would never have had if I'd been fool enough to make them do what I thought they should do.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Letting Go #Children #Done

It can be tempting to blame others for our loss of direction. We get lots of information about life but little education in life from parents, teachers, and other authority figures who should know better from their experience. Information is about facts. Education is about wisdom and the knowledge of how to love and survive.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Education #Teacher #Loss

It is astounding how much the immune system is strengthened by reducing daily mental stress levels with either visualization or meditation. The other great tonic for the immune system is love—loving ourselves as well as others.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Stress #Meditation #Levels

Open your mind to all possibilities and believe!
-- Bernie Siegel

#Believe #Mind #Possibility

When you love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable, you’re free.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Forgiving #Unforgivable #Unlovable

You can find examples of how little we value ourselves everywhere you look. The signs on the front of the convenience stores where Stephen lives in Florida tell the story. Beer, ice, bread and milk are the big come-ons. The order of the words varies, but beer and ice are always two of the top four staples for sale. If we were all taking care of ourselves, wouldn't the convenience stores compete for our dollars with signs that read "Fruit, Vegetables, Bread, Milk"?
-- Bernie Siegel

#Health #Beer #Florida

Miracles and angels are a part of our lives, so anticipate them and tune in through your quiet mind.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Angel #Miracle #Mind

Love and peace of mind do protect us. They allow us to overcome the problems that life hands us. They teach us to survive... to live now... to have the courage to confront each day.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Courage #Hands #Mind

We destroy ourselves when we stop feeling. If you bury your feelings within you, you become a graveyard.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Feelings #Graveyard

Every time I jog through the world, I am awed by what I find. On a winter morning, when it seems too cold and slippery for safe jogging or bicycling, I can still go out and experience the glory of sunlight turning icy branches into strings of sparkling diamonds.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Morning #Winter #World

I truly feel the best doctors are ones who are criticized by nurses, patients and family. They do not make excuses and learn from their mistakes.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Mistake #Doctors #Nurse

God is in everyone and everything. When we save each other or guide each other or just love each other, we are doing God's work. So God dresses in Eskimo clothing or other disguises, and responds to us whether or not we are aware enough to hear, see, or feel God's loving guidance. Everything is a tool of God, from DNA to the weather.
-- Bernie Siegel

#God #Dna #Weather

The inexplicable happens all the time. It makes more sense to simply accept things we observe but cannot understand. It is really more scientific to keep an open mind. Until we can understand and explain the things we now label miracles, let us accept them and try to create more of them.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Miracle #Mind #Trying

Be grateful simply for being alive. When you are grateful for life, pure and simple, your life becomes one you can be grateful for. That may strike you as circular or even backward logic, but your attitude really does have an effect on how things work out. When you can't change your life any other way, you can still change your attitude. When you do, your life changes. You find more chances to love, and you will be surprised to see how much more love is returned to you.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Thanksgiving #Attitude #Life Changing

Several of our children have married outside my faith. Would I prefer they marry within their religion? Yes, because I know that marrying outside the family faith will very likely bring them more problems-but not from me. My job is to accept them and love them, not to criticize them and make their lives more difficult.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Jobs #Children #Acceptance

You may have heard about living today, tomorrow, or "tonow." Tonow, children tell us, is a gift, which is why we call it "the present." Children understand that tonow is the place to live. The present is really the only moment we have. Sure, bad things can happen in the tonow. But when bad things happen to children, they show us the way again, because they know how to be in touch with their feelings and needs.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Children #Feelings #Needs

Love is giving with no expectations...Love cures, heals, and rewards two people: the lover and the beloved.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Love #Two #People

What thoughts are so important that it is worth holding on to them even when they make you miserable? Why are you holding on? You are in charge of your thoughts and feelings. If you are willing to search for the reason that you can't let go of disturbing thoughts, you can learn about yourself and restore your own peace of mind.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Letting Go #Feelings #Mind

Unconditional love is the most powerful stimulant to the immune system.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Best Love #Powerful #Unconditional Love

You too are a work of art.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Art #Self Esteem #Works Of Art

To paraphrase something the anthropologist Ashley Montagu once said, the way I change my life is to act as if I'm the person I want to be. This is, to me, the simplest, wisest advice you can give anyone. When you wake up and act like a loving person, you realize not only that you are altered, but that the people around you are also transformed, because everybody is changed by the reception of this love....
-- Bernie Siegel

#Love You #People #Giving

Remember this: Now is the only time you have. When God created the universe, it was now. You can't say to creation and energy, "I'll do it later, not now." Later doesn't exist. Creation doesn't know anything but now. Whenever you get around to doing what you want to do, it will be now. The things you need to do to live a happier, more fulfilling life-the only time you can possible start doing them is now.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Energy #Doing What You Want #Needs

The fundamental problem most patients have is an inability to love themselves, having been unloved by others during some crucial part of their lives.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Acceptance #Inability #Fundamentals

If something controls you in a way that puzzles you, think of it as a mystery. Mysteries are best approached by closing your eyes and mouth to experience darkness and silence. I find new and healing images in that dark, silent place away from emotions that control me. Do not be afraid to close your eyes and be silent in prayer, meditation, rest or sleep. In those states you may rediscover a new self. Then your life, time and thoughts will become yours again and you can live your unique myth.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Prayer #Healing #Sleep

Love and kindness are the basis of my religious beliefs. The rituals and outward signs are not as important as one's actions and deeds. Religion should be a path to God, not something to fight about.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Religious #Kindness #Fighting

It's hard to carry a child around with you, but fortunately, in most cases, you don't have to ask a child for directions if you have a well-chosen role model ready to guide you. This is the next prescription: Take one role model, as often as needed. Set aside a few minutes today to fill this prescription so you will have it handy when you need it. Think now about who your role models have been. What do they offer? Who else do you admire, and exactly what do you admire about them? Have your roster of role models ready and waiting to help you the next time you are perplexed.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Children #Thinking #Role Models

Do not go looking for problems to feed your soul. Just let life be your teacher. It will nourish you with its inevitable difficulties. How will you know whether you are letting life teach you and nourish you? If your physical senses become more sensitive to the beauty you see, the words of love you hear, and the life you feel touching your body and soul, then you know you have discovered the great value of misfortune.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Teacher #Love You #Soul

Life is full of painful events, and people who have lost their way and hurt others. Our pain is not lessened when we respond with hatred. In fact, the opposite occurs: When we hate people who hurt us, we come to resemble what we hate, or worse, and then we suffer all the more. What is evil is our response. We have choices, and love is the most powerful eliminator of all.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Hurt #Powerful #Pain

If a person can turn from predicting illness to anticipating recovery, the foundation for cure is laid.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Healing #Recovery #Foundation

When you embrace the mystery and open yourself to it, a new life is created, resistant to the old problems. You will notice at times that the new life isn't what you asked for. But asking for specific items or for particular events to occur isn't how I define prayer. I cannot guarantee that the orders you place with God will always be filled. Prayer is not a test of God, but a call for help to find your inner strength and talent.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Prayer #Order #Inner Strength

If none of your role models provide the answer, then it is time to go within and ask yourself, "What would make me happy?" In other words, let your feelings guide you. This doesn't work well if you focus narrowly on your personal needs. I am not talking about selfishness or self-interest. When I ask, What will make you happy?, I mean, What way of loving others feels right for you? Choose a way of loving that makes you happy, and your efforts will be play rather than work.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Mean #Self #Talking

What a shame to be so afraid of failure that you stop living. My wife has a great one-liner about failure: "Never consider yourself a failure-you can always serve as a bad example." She is right. Failure can be a better teacher than success.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Teacher #Failure #Wife

If nothing has helped you decide, go ask a child. Children know what they need, and more surprisingly, the know what we need. Adults think. Kids respond with their feelings. They don't think about what you will think of their answer, so they just speak the truth-if you can get to them before junior high school age. At that time, they grow up, stop feeling loved, become depressed and start thinking-and what they are thinking about worries me.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Children #Growing Up #Kids

Studies of volunteers have shown there is a benefit to performing acts of love for other people. The irony is that it is actually in your best interest to be selfless. The things you do for the benefit of others not only make you feel fulfilled, they increase your chances of living a long and happy life. Remember that an act of love always benefits at least two people.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Happy Life #Two #Long

As one woman told me, "When I decided to come in to work happy, everybody around me became happy." This woman had decided to quit a job she hated, and on the last day of her two weeks' notice, she woke up happy. At the end of the day, she noticed that everybody around her was happy, too- so she didn't quit after all. She decided to come to work happy instead. Two years later, she's still on the job, radiating happiness and love.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Jobs #Work #Years

Every day is my best day...I'm not going to have this moment again.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Positive #Moments

Bobby and I were married in 1954 and by now we know that anger does not mean "I don't love you" or "I want a divorce." It means, "I am wounded and in need of love, and I feel safe telling you about it because you are my family." Sometimes our behavior with each other is no different from the cry of an unattended baby.
-- Bernie Siegel

#Baby #Anger #Love You