What I Know for Sure

by Oprah Winfrey

when you know something, really know something, it tends to stand the test of time.

When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.

Isn’t this a gift—after so many years of nightly phone calls, to have someone who tells me the truth and to laugh this loudly about it?

What I know for sure is that pleasure is energy reciprocated: What you put out comes back. Your base level of pleasure is determined by how you view your whole life.

Who could I have become if I had finally done the things I always wanted to do?

I don’t have to consume the whole thing just because it’s there.

Insight, information, knowledge, inspiration, power: All that and more can come through a good book.

What I know for sure is that reading opens you up. It exposes you and gives you access to anything your mind can hold.

And my number-one spiritual practice is trying to live in the present moment . . . to resist projecting into the future, or lamenting past mistakes . . . to feel the real power of now. That, my friends, is the secret to a joyful life.

You must be fearless enough to give yourself the love you didn’t receive.

Every choice gives you a chance to pave your own road. Keep moving. Full speed ahead.

What I know for sure is that there is no strength without challenge, adversity, resistance, and often pain.

What I know for sure is that a lack of intimacy is not distance from someone else; it is disregard for yourself.

I’ve found that the best option is always to ask the other person, “What do you really want here?”

When you can let go of the desire to acquire, you know you are really on your way.

You’re not your body, and for sure you’re not your body image.

Let your life awaken in you. Whatever your challenge—overeating, overindulging in any substance or activity, the loss of a relationship, money, position—let it be an open door to your holiest revelations about yourself, an invitation to your best life.

Happiness is never something you get from other people. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you are able to give.

See what comes into your life when you spend extra time with your children. Let go of your anger with your boss or coworker and see what gets returned. Be loving to yourself and others and see that love reciprocated. This rule works every time, whether or not you are aware of it. It occurs in little things, big things, and the biggest things.