“We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves,
unable to see that here, now,
this very moment is sacred;
but once it’s gone –
its value is incontestable.”
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Joyce Carol Oates 89
American author 1938Related quotes

“The More we value things, the less we value ourselves”

Variant: Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.

1960s, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (1967)
Context: Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

“A play is a world, with its own inhabitants and its own laws and its values.”
The Time of Your Life (1939)

Essays on Woman (1996), The Significance of Woman's Intrinsic Value in National Life (1928)

Source: The Secret Oral Teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist Sects (1964)

Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy (2010)