Jean Shinoda Bolen Quotes

“Before you can do something that you've never done, you have to be able to imagine it is possible.”

“I think people don't place a high enough value on how much they are nurtured by doing whatever it is that totally absorbs them.”

“There is a potential heroine in every woman.”

“To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive feeling. Logic can tell you superficially where a path might lead to, but it cannot judge whether your heart will be in it.”

“When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.”

“Bliss and joy come in moments of living our highest truth – moments when what we do is consistent with our archetypal depths. It's when we are most authentic and trusting, and feel that whatever we are doing, which can be quite ordinary, is nonetheless sacred.”

“Feeling authentic means being free to develop traits and potentials that are innate predispositions. When we are accepted and allowed to be authentic, it is possible to have self-esteem and authenticity at the same time.”

“The conformity demanded of men in our patriarchal culture is like Procrustes’ bed in Greek mythology. Travelers on their way to Athens were placed on this bed. If they were too short, they were stretched to fit, as on a medieval torture rack; if they were too tall, they were merely cut down to size.”

“The wild man is a symbol of masculinity that is instinctive, untamed by women, in touch with nature and part of nature – that will be dishonored and disregarded, even feared, until men seek to know and bring this source of strength and masculinity into consciousness, and into the culture.”