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.
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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
)
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.
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,
. 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 love you work
“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.
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!
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