Popular Culture References
A passage from Williamson's book A Return to Love has been used in the 2005 film, Coach Carter, the 2006 film, Akeelah and the Bee, and in the 2011 novel, Badulina: Return of the Queen by Israeli author Gabi Nitzan. It is often incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela; Williamson herself is quoted as saying, "As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people." The quote is:
| “ | Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. | ” |
Williamson has been featured in some films, including The Power of Forgiveness showcased at the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival in 2009 and in the documentary movie "Living Luminaries on the Serious Business of Happiness" as well as recited in a scene from the film Coach Carter.
Read more about this topic: Marianne Williamson
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or culture:
“The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“One of the oddest features of western Christianized culture is its ready acceptance of the myth of the stable family and the happy marriage. We have been taught to accept the myth not as an heroic ideal, something good, brave, and nearly impossible to fulfil, but as the very fibre of normal life. Given most families and most marriages, the belief seems admirable but foolhardy.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)