Top 250 Melody Beattie Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “When we’re surrounded by things that look impossible, making a simple choice to do something that’s possible is a powerful thing to do.”

— Melody Beattie

52. “Choosing to take responsibility for ourselves and for the consequences our choices create looks like hard work, but it really sets us free.”

— Melody Beattie

53. “I never know what the next lesson is going to be, because we’re not supposed to know – we’re supposed to trust ourselves to discover it.”

— Melody Beattie

54. “Writing forces consciousness.”

— Melody Beattie

55. “Rest when you’re tired. Take a break when life stales. Take time to recharge your battery. Energy isn’t something you have – it’s something you are. To give and give and give, to put out without taking in, depletes your battery. It drains you, runs you down.”

— Melody Beattie

56. “It’s not what we don’t know that hurts us, people say. It’s what we believe is true that isn’t that does the damage.”

— Melody Beattie

57. “Today I will learn to reject shame. Shame is an overwhelming sense that who I am isn’t good enough. I realize that I am good enough, and that my imperfections are part of being human. I let go of shame.”

— Melody Beattie

58. “The surest way to make ourselves crazy is to get involved in other people’s business, and the quickest way to become sane and happy is to tend to our own affairs.”

— Melody Beattie

59. “Today I will surrender to discipline. I realize that sometimes it takes time to see the fruits of my labors, yet I still need to practice discipline. Help me to remember, God, that I’m moving forward, and that I’m learning the very important art of discipline.”

— Melody Beattie

60. “Furthermore, worrying about people and problems doesn’t help. It doesn’t solve problems, it doesn’t help other people, and it doesn’t help us. It is wasted energy.”

— Melody Beattie

61. “Arranging for and allowing ourselves to have fun is an important part of taking care of ourselves. It helps us stay healthy. It helps us work better. It balances life. We deserve to have fun. Fun is a normal part of being alive. Fun is taking time to celebrate being alive.”

— Melody Beattie

62. “It’s hard to give up the self-esteem connected to being codependent and appearing ‘right,’ which is probably a survival behavior learned from growing up in a crazy family. It feels like you will actually disappear.”

— Melody Beattie

63. “You don’t need to limit yourself anymore. You’ve opened your heart. Now open your mind. Look around. See all the possibilities. The universe is teaming with them. It will lead and guide you into this abundance if you ask it for help and then allow that to happen. Open to life’s abundance. Open to all its possibilities. The more open you become, the more creative you’ll be – in work, in play, in love, in life. The more creative you are, the more possibilities you’ll see.”

— Melody Beattie

64. “Map Your Own Journey Go on your own journey. Don’t let others hold you back; don’t hold them back. Don’t judge their journey, and don’t let them judge yours. All persons are free to have the experiences their souls lead them to.”

— Melody Beattie

65. “Believing that things happen too slowly or too quickly is an illusion. Timing is perfect.”

— Melody Beattie

66. “The formula is simple: In any given situation, detach and ask, “What do I need to do to take care of myself?”

— Melody Beattie

67. “Codependents are reactionaries. They overreact. They under-react. But rarely do they act. They react to the problems, pains, lives, and behaviors of others. They react to their own problems, pains, and behaviors.”

— Melody Beattie

68. “What’s a codependent? The answer’s easy. They’re some of the most loving, caring people I know.”

— Melody Beattie

69. “The New Year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written.”

— Melody Beattie

70. “The only person you can now or ever change is yourself. The only person that it is your business to control is yourself.”

— Melody Beattie

71. “I pray for faith that my future will be good if I live today well, and in peace. I will remember that staying in the present is the best thing I can do for my future. I will focus on what’s happening now instead of what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

— Melody Beattie

72. “Today I will do something just for the fun of it. I will find something to do that’s just for me and I won’t worry about what I should be doing. I will learn how to make myself feel good and enjoy life to the fullest.”

— Melody Beattie

73. “Seek healing, a refilling of energy and spirit, as soon as you see that you need it. You don’t have to push yourself to give, do, or perform when what your body, mind, soul and emotions need is to heal.”

— Melody Beattie

74. “Now is a time of magic. Let the universe take your hand and show you things you have never seen before. Now, at last, you’re open and vulnerable enough to begin. Celebrate the magic, the mystery of the unknown. Celebrate the miracles that will certainly come.”

— Melody Beattie

75. “Today I will tell myself that I’m lovable. Just because some people haven’t been able to love me in ways that worked doesn’t mean that I’m unlovable. I’ve had lessons to learn, and some of them have hurt deeply, but I can still love, and I still am loved.”

— Melody Beattie

76. “Detachment is based on the premises that each person is responsible for himself, that we can’t solve problems that aren’t ours to solve, and that worrying doesn’t help.”

— Melody Beattie

77. “Nurtured, nourished people, who love themselves and care for themselves, are the delight of the Universe.”

— Melody Beattie

78. “The more we learn to love and respect ourselves, the more we will become attracted to people who will love and respect us and who we can safely love and respect.”

— Melody Beattie

79. “Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don’t.”

— Melody Beattie

80. “We don’t have to do it any better than we can – ever. Do our best for the moment, then let it go. If we have to redo it, we can do our best in another moment, later.”

— Melody Beattie

81. “Control is an illusion. It doesn’t work.”

— Melody Beattie

82. “Love means each person is free to follow his or her own heart.”

— Melody Beattie

83. “Resentments are hardened chunks of anger. They loosen up and dissolve with forgiveness and letting go.”

— Melody Beattie

84. “We learn the magical lesson that making the most of what we have turns it into more.”

— Melody Beattie

85. “I saw people who were hostile; they had felt so much hurt that hostility was their only defense against being crushed again.”

— Melody Beattie

86. “When we don’t ask for what we want and need, we discount ourselves.”

— Melody Beattie

87. “According to some Eastern religion, there is a belt that goes across the world, and I’ve heard that Minnesota is right in the heart of this spiritual-creative belt of energy.”

— Melody Beattie

88. “Detachment involves “present moment living” – living in the here and now. We allow life to happen instead of forcing and trying to control it. We relinquish regrets over the past and fears about the future. We make the most of each day. Detachment.”

— Melody Beattie

89. “The lesson I was learning involved the idea that I could feel compassion for people without acting on it.”

— Melody Beattie

90. “Others do not have our magic. We have our magic. It is in us.”

— Melody Beattie

91. “It’s our job to first make ourselves feel better and then make ourselves feel good.”

— Melody Beattie

92. “If you did not have that person or problem in your life, what would you be doing with your life that is different from what you are doing now? How would you be feeling and behaving? Spend a few minutes visualizing yourself living your life, feeling and behaving that way – in spite of your unsolved problem.”

— Melody Beattie

93. “If that person doesn’t want to be in your life, just let him or her leave.”

— Melody Beattie

94. “When it’s too difficult to keep swimming, float.”

— Melody Beattie

95. “It’s easy to see and notice what we like in other people. Sometimes, it’s not as easy to see the attributes and beauty in ourselves. It’s good to see the beauty in others. But sometimes, take a moment and get excited when you notice what’s beautiful in yourself, too.”

— Melody Beattie

96. “If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a fact, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system,” wrote Dr. Wayne W. Dyer in Your Erroneous Zones.2.”

— Melody Beattie

97. “Even if the most important person in your world rejects you, you are still real, and you are still okay.”

— Melody Beattie

98. “Today, I will focus on what’s right about me. I will give myself some of the caring I’ve extended to the world.”

— Melody Beattie

99. “I trust so much in the power of the heart and the soul; I know that the answer to what we need to do next is in our own hearts. All we have to do is listen, then take that one step further and trust what we hear. We will be taught what we need to learn.”

— Melody Beattie

100. “Go easy. You may have to push forward, but you don’t have to push so hard. Go in gentleness, go in peace. Do not be in so much of a hurry. At no day, no hour, no time are you required to do more than you can do in peace.”

— Melody Beattie