Eric Butterworth

The goal should not be to make money or acquire things, but to achieve the consciousness through which the substance will flow forth when and as you need it.

Faith is expectancy. You do not receive what you want; you do not receive what you pray for, not even what you say you have faith in. You will always receive what you actually expect.

The innermost essence of my being...is fearless; it is immune to criticism; it does not fear any challenge.

In an orderly universe, there is simply no way in which one can get something for nothing.

There is only one way in which you can "change your luck" and that is by altering your thoughts.

There is only one way by which you can achieve prosperity. It is to take charge of your mind.

The goal should not be to make money or acquire things, but to achieve the consciousness through which the substance will flow forth when and as you need it.

The great piano virtuoso Paderewski was once playing before an audience of the rich and the royal. After a brilliant performance, an elegant lady waxed ecstatic over the great artist. She said, “Ah Maestro, you are a genius!” Paderewski tartly replied, “Ah yes, madam, but before I was a genius I was a clod!” What he was saying was that his present acclaim was not handed to him on a silver platter. He, too, was once a little boy laboriously practicing his scales. And even at his peak, behind every brilliant performance there were countless hours of practice and preparation.

Seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing! You see things, not as they are, but as you are.

It is consciousness that sets all limits of life, if there are any limits.

Affluence = abundant flow.

Your most important asset is the conscious control of your own life.

Faith is really your consent to let your own uniqueness unfold and to let that which is attracted by your uniqueness manifest in your life. Thus when Jesus said, ‘All things are possible to those who believe,’ he did not say that a swan can become a duck or that a nonmusical person can become a concert pianist. You cannot become something that is not the outforming of your own inner potential. You can only be you. However you can unfold more of the you that may have been long frustrated.

When you believe you can do it, the ‘how-to-do-it’ develops.

The important thing is to know yourself, have faith in the cosmic process that will unfold in you like the life force unfolds in the lily of the field which toils not nor spins, and yet ‘Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these’ (Mt. 6:29).

Potentially, man is stronger than his fears and greater than his weakness. The role of teachers and preachers and philosophers is to help people, all people, to know this basic fact of life.

But you must still make that great decision to affirm your unity with the Infinite. You must still believe that I AM, and then work tirelessly to act the part. You must claim your freedom, realizing that it does not mean doing what you like, but becoming what you should.

You may say, ‘But I am only human.’ This is the understatement of your life. You are not only human—you are also divine in potential. The fulfillment of all your goals and aspirations in life depends upon stirring up and releasing more of that divine potential. And there is really nothing difficult about letting this inner light shine. All we must do is correct the tendency to turn off our light when we face darkness.

What is an acorn? It is an oak tree in the making. What is an egg? It is the first stage of a performance that will lead to a bird. What is man? A man is what he can be. And what is that? Only spiritual perception can tell.

Happiness in marriage is a conquest and not a bequest. Marriage is the license by which two people, who have seen the greater possibilities in each other, may work together to bring forth those possibilities. It is a laboratory of individual unfoldment.

Whatever you have, no matter how seemingly inadequate, bless it. Even if you have no money and no food, bless your hands, your mind, your skills, your friends, the air you breathe, the sun that brings light. Bless everything, and your life will be blessed with riches hitherto undreamed of.

The Christian church has preached about the saving of society, but Jesus called for a society of saviours. You must be a saviour. Don’t stand looking to the heavens. Stir up the gift of God within you. You can be a saving influence. You can be a peacemaker. Declare your unity with God and with mankind by affirming: ‘I am now established in spiritual unity with God and with all people of the earth.’

The more we understand the concepts of Jesus, the more we realize that the only time we can truthfully say, ‘That’s just the way I am,’ is when we are referring to the divinity within us. You have a great potentiality, a divine self within you that needs to be released. This is what Jesus really taught.

Like the pattern in the seed, there is a plan for every person in the Mind of the Infinite, which gives rise also to a ceaseless urge within man toward fulfillment. This might be called God’s will. How important it is that we understand this.