65. MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: Our deepest fear
Marianne Williamson (1952-) is a spiritual activist and best-selling author who has helped millions of people though her books, lectures, workshops and television appearances.
This quote is by far the most requested by you, the readers. Someone emails me this passage at least once a week – I won’t name each person because there are too many, so thank you to all of you who did and I hope I did it justice (I know it’s probably not what you had in mind).
This passage is from Williamson’s book, A Return to Love, and you can read the full quote here. It took me so long to adapt because I wasn’t comfortable including the references to God as I’m not religious. But after seeing this quote appropriated all over the internet in heavily edited versions, including two Hollywood movies (Coach Carter and Akeelah and the Bee), I decided I could edit the passage too. As long as I remained true to the overall message of the quote, then I think the author would be ok with it (I hope!).
(UPDATE: After thinking long and hard about this, I decided it was a poor decision on my behalf to edit the quote. I’ve subsequently amended the comic to feature the full text. Thanks for the feedback.)
– Williamson’s official website.
– This quote is often misattributed to Nelson Mandela for some reason.
– Check out the website of Nathan Sawaya, the real life Lego artist who quit his high-paying job as a lawyer to make amazing Lego sculptures.
Discussion (128) ¬
Probably my all time favourite quote- I have it on a post it stuck on my computer. Beautiful interpretation Gav.
Thanks Morgs!
wow, amazing once again!
One of your best pieces in my opinion. You nailed it! Great job! 🙂
You Rock Gav!!! every single quote is beautifully interpreted, keep shining.
Absolutely fantastic. Great GREAT Job
I have read this after reading the latest chapter of bleach wherein the theme was fear.. thanks for this wonderful insight. I love the art! and the legos! (i hope they dont step on one of those though :D)
This is the very first quote that I disagree with. My personal experience is that when you shine, those who envy you will try to bring you down. It angers them. They never feel encouraged or inspired.
I’ve allways had to be carefull and keep my little succeces to myself becouse of this…
But I loved the comic nevertheless and the big ass dinosaur on the living room!
That is quite sad to hear. Perhaps each of us need to clean our hearts in order to ‘see’ clearly with it. Personally I found the quote to be very truthful, especially when it’s those closest to you that start to shine.
Agreed… “Bura jo dekhan main chala bura na mileya koii, jo mann khoja apnaa to mujhse bura na koii.” – Sant Kabir
Maray, those are the kinds of people that you should stay away from and don’t let them bother your success.
And this is another great comics, I love the quote, and yes, I agree that we should use our talents and abilities to inspire others 🙂
There are always those who are envious of achievement.
What this quote is talking about is the feeling that, in being a tall poppy, you put others in the shade. It’s a form of ‘zero sum’ thinking. The people you are talking about also have ‘the syndrome’, and are applying it to others.
The quote goes on to suggest an alternate interpretation: that in allowing your native brilliance to shine, you illuminate everyone else nearby.
Still, the kid did seem to have enough lego to achieve his ends… or was he missing a few blocks? (quick re-check, nope! He still had plenty left over! A non-lopping correction is still in order!))
It is impossible to have enough lego blocks.
Though I take it as that his mother did not appreciate his passion for lego and probably did not buy him any further. Thus, he stole handfuls to feed his habit.
People like that will always exist. But I believe a little envy is necessary to cause some major changes in our lives. In the context of that quote, sometimes you shine on so many people, they’ll hate you for being that bright cause they do what they can to stay in the shadows. Others will envy you cause you have found your light when they have been looking for theirs their whole life. That alone motivates them to search further in themselves for that spark.
So in the end… You have three kinds of people: the one in the dark, the ones in the… ‘twilight’? And the ones in the light. That quote refers to the last two.
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
— Mark Twain
Maray, I think it’s sad to be surrrounded in a community that cannot celebrate your success- that rather than a toast for coming so far, they would pour out the champagne. I pray that you will keep striving and for you to be a forgiving light unto others.
The majority of the people I have met and shared my talents with tore me down. It pushed me deeper and deeper into seclusion and not being able to share my heart and soul and talent and enthusiasm… But a select few, they dug through it all, and made me shine and they shined in turn.
The world is an dark place, but you don’t have to illuminate the entire thing.
Love it!!! Let is shine, let it shine, let it shine! 🙂
Fantastic – love your work and look forward to every new one 🙂
One of my favorite quote ever!! Nice interpretation Gav 🙂
Dude , truly an awesome job, this quote goes good without that godly references …thank u!
I though the little kid is Jonathan Gay, the guy who made Macromedia Flash grew up playing LEGO. Haha.
Nice quote, nice drawing as always! I’m a regular visitor to this site now! 🙂
Your awesome interpretation almost made me cry. This is my favorite!you rock!
What a wonderful and poignant and unique interpretation of Marianne Williamson’s quote. It has been misattributed to Nelson Mandela because he quoted this in his amazing inaugural speech in 1994. How apt to see this today on his 94th birthday! Well done!
When those of us who shine in helping to understand and transcend fear through art and wisdom… sharing the candlelight… it makes the very big and very cold universe… a little less dark. 😉
Thank you, Gav. What a beautiful, honest and poignant interpretation.
I loved playing with lego before, but wow, that guy’s an artist!
This is truly beatiful – could you not please also offer this for sale as a print or send a high res pdf on request? I know someone who would love this as a present.
You make amazing job man! I’m waiting for some Arnold Schwarzenegger poster 😉
Nice work. Always inspiring to come here. I would love to a quote from catcher in the rye visualized by you. It is by far my favourite book. So what about this nice quote about poetry itself:
“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”
Keep the good work up and thanks for another very inspiring comic 🙂
Greetings from Germany.
Hi Gav,
Really nice work. I think you could have used the whole quote, tho. Each reader would, hopefully, interpret it individually and apply it to themselves. It’s not at all preachy in a particular religion or another. That said, you did a beautiful job with it!
lovin’ every comic you throw. this one is no different. i can relate cuz i have doctor parents. thanks for the inspiration.
P.S the nose on the kid on the panel where he’s looking out the window, looks just too alien. like a trunk. sorry if I’ve offended you.
Gav, your talent is unbelievable. I tune in every week and am always more amazed than I was the previous week. You deserve so much praise and attention for all your inspiring, motivating and beautiful art work. Simply put — YOURE AMAZING!!!!!!!!
Elisa-Marie
It would be cool to see this same quote drawn in different situations, I feel it is juicy enough as to give foot to many different scenarios as in that movie with samuel l, jackson… cheers. and thank you for your great work.
Lovely and absolutely inspiring. Plus… Legos!!
Please don’t let a quote with references to God make you uncomfortable, it very likely wasn’t meant to be that way… but IF the overall message of a quote does intend (and succeed) at making others feel awkward then no worries…
Frankly, because I don’t see you using a quote like that anyway 😉
I stumbled upon this site a few weeks ago – I have to say that thus far – this is by far the best quote you’ve done…….
I have to agree though – IF the omission of the “GOD” reference was to make others comfortable, you shouldn’t stoop to their level, if on the other hand it was to make you feel more comfortable, then by all means……. dont stop your mission because of it…..
Keep up the phenomenal work
this is MOST moving and inspirational… I love the flow of your story and how, despite adult admonishments to the contrary, our young here (looks a little like you?) DOES exceed everyone’s expectations, his own included, and look how happy it made his exhausted mother. Brilliant rendering of a very profound truth!!!
thank you!!
🙂
I want to be you when I grow up.
Yesterday.
Wonderfully adapted comic. I love your work here.
I do have to say though, that although I can understand your reasons for wanting to avoid religious references I’m personally against altering quotes like this. It feels a little disingenuous to the quote’s originator, like how people speak out every time somebody alters the John Lennon song “Imagine” to coincide with their religious beliefs.
Hi,
I just discovered your website, and i think it is amazing.
Keep up the good work, keep up the inspirational !
From Belgium
Nice work Gav.. I am happy to be a regular at your website.
Gav,
I love you work :). Can you please make one with a Tupac Shakur frase. He was a real inspiration for me, he made me realize that there was another path for my life, he made me realize how lucky I was for having a normal family and, most of all, he made me realize anybody can make their dreams come true.
“I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing.
Through every dark night, theres a bright day after that.
So no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep ya head up…. and handle it.” – Tupac (just an example, there are better ones :))
love your work very amazing.
Horrible quote. Nice application. Sounds like an attempt to re-frame people’s inherent insecurity as something positive.
Or maybe just yours, Bob…
Thats actually kinda rude coming from someone who doesnt understand the full meaning of this quote let alone the work he does.
Love your work, Gav.
I know comics should be the way the artist and author wants them to be, but just a few words: part of what makes your work amazing is the variety. I mean, there are Buddha quotes, Carl Sagan quotes, scientists quotes. I’m not a religious person myself, too, but I don’t understand the need to apply this kind of word filter (God) given the context of this site. That wouldn’t abstract from the quote nor from the art. It’s a quote, after all. IMHO we should respect that.
This is exactly what parenting is like. Excellent work!!!
I love your artistic interpretation of this quote, as always, but I really, REALLY wish you hadn’t edited out the religious elements of the language itself. From you I have come to expect a purity of message, save where it truly improves the flow, and I find myself disappointed that you edited here for censorship reasons. Would you edit out the Carlin quotes to protect people’s sensibilities? And would your art of the Buddha and Bodhidharma quotes have been as powerful if they did not contain the Buddhist religious symbols that they based their lives around?
Yet here you threw out Williamson’s starting point (‘you are a child of God’) AND her initial conclusion (‘we were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us’). You have taken away the reason WHY Williamson concluded we are all extraordinary, and left only unsupported platitudes (and a reference to ‘children’ that now makes no sense), because you could not get past some fear or intolerance of the word ‘God’.
I’ve thought about it a lot and I agree that I shouldn’t have edited it. I’ll add the remaining words and fix it when I get the chance.
Thoroughly enjoying your work, it’s a wonderful site. I’m not religious either but found that switching the word universe for God makes sense to me….Child of the Universe..good ring to it!
Comic has now been amended to contain the full quote. Thanks for the feedback.
Hi Gav,
As an artist, I think you should have maintained that you omitted the God reference. I love this quote, but I also do not feel comfortable since I am also not religious.
Why do you draw Gav? Is it to please your audience? This comic is a representation of you. You. Not the audience. Like all great works of art, they were based on the experiences of their creators. You, as a creator, an artist, do not feel comfortable with using god. That is you.
Decades from now, when we are all but ashes, people will look into your history. Will they see a an artist who turned made comics to satisfy his audience? Or will they see an artist who created art from his beliefs and interpreted them from his experiences?
Most of this is assuming on my part, for that I apologize. But I want my children to look back and see you among those of whom you write about.
Of Bukowski and Sagan, of Carlin and Kipling.
Why did you really feel that you had to maintain the original? Was it for them?
Nicola Tesla was never famous and all around considered crazy when we was still alive.
First off, let me say that I’ve become a fan of your comics. I actually started paying attention to your work after reading this very comic. The original one, at least.
I’m rather disappointed that you’ve decided to include the religious reference when you originally decided to leave it out.
I think adaptations of quotes are fine, especially if they’re done in a tasteful way to reduce the level of potential offensiveness from the original quote. You did that with your adaptation. As have many others.
As long as the main message shines through, I see no reason why you couldn’t leave the comic as it was. I know some people seem to prefer the God reference here, but others don’t. I would rather have seen a “version A” and “version B” to accommodate both rather than an edit of the original.
Thanks for the feedback Josh. I originally shared your sentiment but even when I was doing version A, my gut was telling me not to edit it but I went ahead and did it anyway. It kept eating away at me – now that I’ve included the original text, I feel a lot better about it.
I just LOVE LOVE LOVE………………your work!!! Great. I’m just amazed since the first time I discovered your site…Keep on inspiring us GAV!!!
Amazing interpretation! Thank you – I just shared it with 47 students 🙂
Great thank you!
Your work is important: makes my week to see which quote and which visualization/story you have chosen…
Voluminous Thanks-
v
Wow your work is just so amazing, please don’t stop what you’re doing. I enjoy the inspirational goosebumps I get from all of your comics.
Regards,
Ted
It’s been a while since I first encountered this comic in 9gag. I could not describe how inspirational it was, not just because of the quote, which really resembles what everyone should do if they have some kind of talent, but I was overwhelmed by the way you made a story out of that single quote.
I’ve became a great fan of your work ever since, and I hope you keep delighting us with another masterpiece, like this, in my own opinion, is yours.
Thanks Jeunedr
STOP MAKING ME CRY.
Never!
franchment bsahtek frere
games g9g
don’t be hatin’ on GOD, i mean its up to us if we “believe” him or”not” but remember its the people(fanatics) who do bad stuff not god , no one has seen god so that means no one has seen god doing evil .remember without the thought of God there will be no morality(good and bad) either. so don’t alter the qoute & respect other people’s religion, i like your comics its on 9gag those rebloggers:) .
You don’t have to be religious to believe in God
WOW! 🙂
Very wise of you to revert to the original text. I too am not religious but it’s a humble act on your part to keep true to the writers words.
THAT QUOTE IS IN COACH CARTER!!!!!!!! AMAZING
Hey! Your comics always make my day! Thanks a lot! If you could do something on Randy pausch then that’ll be great. Cheers!
Man, i never ever cried reading a comics before…it was AWESOME!!!
Dude, you made it, great message and comics!!!
Word needs it.
Tks
It was nice and good until it started talking about god and stuff… 😛 Sorry but that ruined it. Still, the story in the images was good enough. Thanks for that at least.
i am addicted to your works.. its like every time i ope my pc… first thing i log on to is zenpencils and the facebook … Wish you good luck!
This needs to be a print so I can buy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDFC16ptx-0
Thank you, I am still crying and thanking you through my tears. I had a troubled relationship with my own mother, and as a mother now I sometimes catch myself acting so mean and harsh to my children.I’ve liked this quote for a long time, but never seen it this way before. This illustration gives me hope and reminds me of what I really believe in.
I wish this was a print, my favorite quote!
I’m surprised to see someone so educated in this specific matter. I am sure your visitors will find that information very useful.
I have friends one in particular that I met recently that are exactly like this. He has unconsciously influenced me to be more motivated to indulge in life and to speak up when I’m given attention and to let the world see who I am, and he did that without saying anything of the sort.
I am glad you decided to keep the reference to God. It is a powerful line, even if you do not believe in a deity, and it is part of the original writers beliefs. You should not change their words to match your ideas: the words belong to them and are an expression of their thoughts and beliefs. They should remain that way, or what was the point of using their quote in the first place?
Gets me everytime.
Truly beautiful…
This reminds me of a poem by Charles Bukowski, The Laughing Heart.
I actually already sent an e-mail with quotes I like… but since you do poems as well, I think I’ll send another e-mail your way! 🙂
this is a great cartoon, I am going to let me kids read it as well.
Yes it does remind me of “the Laughing Heart” as well, I see your point.
An amazing job, I just wanted to congratulate you on this fantastic work
I’m surprised to see someone so educated in this specific matter.
really i like your comic
hguhf g9g
C.S. Lewis wrote about something similar in “Screwtape proposes a toast”. The demon Screwtape is speaking at the graduation ceremony of “The Tempters College” and has gotten to the part of his toast where he is talking about using “Democracy” in the diabolic sense. A part of the toast reads thus:
“You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them ‘tyrants’ then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy into a field of grain, and there he snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level. The moral was plain. Allow no preeminence among your subjects Let no man live who is wiser, or better, or more famous, or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level; all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals. Thus tyrants could practice, in a sense, “democracy”. Now “democracy” can do the same work without any tyranny other than her own. No one need now go through the field with a cane. The little stalks will now of themselves bite the tops off the big ones. The big ones are beginning to bite off their own in their desire to Be Like Stalks.”
Quote from Screwtape Proposes a Toast, taken from The Saturday Evening Post December 19, 1959, p88.
Don’t “Be Like Stalks”. Grow. Stand tall, become great, and inspire others to follow your example and become great themselves, either as you did or, better yet, as their abilities allow. This will bring the entire fields level up.
A few years ago, I gave my friends two enormous boxes filled to the brim with Legos for their daughter; for her to play with when she gets old enough. Looking back, she might just be old enough now. From Kindergarten all the way through high school, I played with Legos, JUST Legos. In college, a friend and I bought a set just because! Furthermore, this quote by Marianne Williamson is my favorite. I send it to all my coworkers, I have it hanging in my office right in plain view, and I even use it as an inspirational exercise with my clients. I’ve always received positive feedback, from everyone, about this quote. I’ve even watched clients go through a spiritual awakening right in front of me after reading this. I know that sounds like, “how can you even see that happen?” but it’s an incredible sight. It’s like watching a light turn on. Someone goes from scared and unsure, to inspired, with a fire in their eye.
keep on sharing great work I needed to thank you for this educational and helpful read. I was exceptionally urged to discover this site. You rock.
It is impossible to have enough lego blocks.
Though I take it as that his mother did not appreciate his passion for lego and probably did not buy him any further. Thus, he stole handfuls to feed his habit.
Hi Gav,
I loved your comics and tweeted about this comic originally when there was no reference to God. Now someone favorited the tweet after all these years, and when I come back I see an edited version with religious text back in it. I feel like cheated. Please don’t edit published versions – go ahead and create alternate versions to please the audience or if you want to change your stances. But once published, you owe it to your audience. Do you think Shakespeare would have gone back and changed climax of his plays once people didn’t like it ? This is YOUR art (even though you borrow quotes) and please be strong to stand by or modify or adapt. Do people remember Mona Lisa the person, or Mona Lisa the painting ? Your art is bigger than you and will last longer. Be thoughtful when you publish or put out your art, but after that please respect that audience have invested themselves and become a part of your art. Keep up the great work. Thanks.
It makes me return once more. Much thanks for your better than average site page. Have a decent day.
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Thank you for un-editing the quote. Personally I am happy to use the words ‘god’ and ‘universe’ interchangeably, but that’s not really the point. It wouldn’t be a quote if you changed it, it would be an interpretation or something – imagine editing ‘god’ into a Richard Dawson quote. Enough said probably.
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Everyone is the age of their heart.
Volunteer firemen do it for free!
I cannot give you a formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. Herbert Bayard Swope
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