Part I:

We cannot control the way the world turns. We cannot change day into night. We cannot keep what is not ours, and we cannot hide these facts from ourselves no matter how hard we try. But what we are given to do, and that turns out to be the one power of ours truly capable of transforming our experience of life, is that we can choose the internal company we keep. It is our created right to be in relationship with only those thoughts and feelings whose presence is both pleasing to us, and our higher purpose.

Part II:

Any thought or feeling that jumps up within us to explain to us why we are the way we are, that wants to help us justify ourselves after we catch a glimpse of something less than flattering about ourselves– appears there within us for only one reason. Let’s see what it is: It wants to pass itself off as our friend-in-need; a feat it does by working to soften the blow of our having seen some formerly unsuspected truth about our present nature. This would-be friend is our secret enemy! Here’s the proof of this truth: what is true never needs an agent of any kind to soft-pedal its presence. Truth is living light, and nothing is more gentle than that!