That's what The Beatles famously once sang back when it was easy to mock such sentiments as hippy nonsense. But the message of love has made a comeback, big time. What with the growth of spiritual teachings and self-help, love is revered as a truly powerful and transformational force.



I'm a fan of love, a big fan.

But I'm not sure if love is all you need, still.

I think self-love is just as important.

In fact, I'll go further and say that I believe that YOU are all you need.

And I have collected a few inspirational quotes to prove my point. Quotes like this one, from Galileo Galilei:

"You can't teach anybody anything, only make them realize the answers are already inside them." -- Galileo

Now Galileo Galilei lived in the sixteenth century and is known as "the Father of Modern Science" no less, but still he understood this fundamental truth of ourselves: we know all we need to know, already.

And yet that is not how many of us behave. We look for answers in books, magazines, and TV programs. We ask our friends for help. We even offer help to others. When, truly, the one person we should always be seeking guidance from is ourselves.

Okay, that's fine and dandy when it comes to helping yourself, but what about trying to help others? What about getting people to improve, to change, for their own good and yours? How can this 'self love' help there?

Well...

"Be the change you want to see in the world" -- Mahatma Gandhi

Yes, you'd like your partner to be more respectful and less selfish.

Yes, you'd like your brother to get in touch with you more often.

Yes, you'd like your friend to 'lighten up' a little, to stop taking life so seriously.

Guess what, the only person you can change is YOU!

So that means - I hate to tell you this! - that you should concentrate on being less selfish, more respectful; be better at keeping in touch; and be less serious. And if you do this, then you *will* see these changes take place in those people around you.

But you have to go first!

I know it's not fair, but it's true: you have to go first!

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." -- Anne Frank

How wonderful it is that beauty can grow anywhere - even in ugly places.

And we all have this potential for beauty, no matter how 'ugly' we sometimes feel. No matter how skilled and talented, we can all contribute and give of our best.

"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best" -- Henry Van Dyke

And, if you do as Goethe suggests below, you will see other people give of their best too.

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming." -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You are amazing, and so is everyone around you!

Yet we're all different too, with different values. And it's in these differences that life can sometimes get a little more challenging.

Still, self-improvement and self-help really is about unlocking your true potential, and then enabling others to do the same for themselves.

It really isn't about how others see you, or whether they think you lack confidence or aren't attractive; it's about what you think about yourself.

Your thoughts create your world, to misquote the Buddha.

Of course a happy, fulfilled life etc. is not just a matter of repeating these inspirational quotations parrot fashion. If only life were that easy. You have to believe, truly. And you have to stop listening to the doubts, fears, and thoughts that limit you, too.

But *I* can't tell *you*, the reader of this article, any of this.

You know it already.

This article is for my benefit. :-)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to listen to The Beatles sometime. Those hippy dudes were a lot smarter than you think.

PS And, as Groucho Marx once said, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."