"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
(A Return to Love: Marianne Williamson)
I have often heard this quoted as being by Nelson Mandela, but you don't have to do much searching on Google to discover that it has never been used by Mr Mandela.
"The famous passage from her book is often erroneously attributed to the inaugural address of Nelson Mandela. About the misattribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people." quoted from
In fact I have read all of Nelson Mandela's inaugural address myself and can confirm it is not there !
The passage also appears in the film "Coach Carter" It is changed slightly, perhaps to remove the Christian element.
And while we are on the subject of motivational movie speeches ..... here is another form the last "Rocky" film
"It's not about how hard you hit...... It's about how hard you can get hit......... And keep moving forward"
