Sometimes, the most challenging part of practicing mindfulness lies in full acceptance of what is.
It starts small, like letting go of a distracting thought and going back to the immediacy of your breath during meditation. But then it slowly becomes a part of your everyday life – an ability to stay grounded in the present moment, no matter how unpleasant or intolerable it can be.
What I’ve learned by observing the inner workings of my mind in challenging situations is that we move through our life in self-induced daydream, reacting not to reality but to the stories in our heads – stories that blame ourselves or others for what happened in the past or what might happen in the future, stories that feed our inner critic. This is why many of us struggle to keep mental composure and emotional equanimity when people and circumstances let us down. So what should we do?
Why Read Famous Quotes About Accepting Reality?
Being mindful of the present moment is to practice acceptance and non-resistance to what is.
Because of this aspect, some people confuse acceptance with apathy. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Unlike acceptance, apathy doesn’t distinguish between what can and can’t be done. It strips you of will-to-action; acceptance gives it back by providing clarity.
Mindfulness meditation is how you nourish your ability to accept the now and take the right action to change your situation for the better, but there are other tools that can greatly aid your practice. The following list of best acceptance quotes is one of them.
100 Powerful Quotes About Acceptance to Improve Mindfulness
- “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” — Nathaniel Branden
- “The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.” — Brian Tracy
- “Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.” — Eckhart Tolle
- “Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.” — Jessica Lange
- “As I get older, the more I stay focused on the acceptance of myself and others, and choose compassion over judgment and curiosity over fear.” — Tracee Ellis Ross
- “I think tolerance and acceptance and love is something that feeds every community.” — Lady Gaga
- “The five stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief.” — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- “Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” — Simon Sinek
- “Acceptance is the only thing you should teach. Be it Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Dalit, you must inculcate acceptance, not tolerance.” — Kamal Haasan
- “One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to the total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.” — Morris West
- “I think it’s nice to age gracefully. OK, you lose the youth, a certain stamina and dewy glow, but what you gain on the inside as a human being is wonderful: the wisdom, the acceptance and the peace of mind. It’s a fair exchange.” — Cherie Lunghi
- “Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.” — Eckhart Tolle
- “Acceptance of one’s life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices.” — Paul Tournier
- “That is the definition of faith – acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.” — Dan Brown
- “To conquer the command of the air means victory; to be beaten in the air means defeat and acceptance of whatever terms the enemy may be pleased to impose.” — Giulio Douhet
- “Leadership is particularly necessary to ensure ready acceptance of the unfamiliar and that which is contrary to tradition.” — Cyril Falls
- “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” — Melody Beattie
- “Our uniqueness, our individuality, and our life experience molds us into fascinating beings. I hope we can embrace that. I pray we may all challenge ourselves to delve into the deepest resources of our hearts to cultivate an atmosphere of understanding, acceptance, tolerance, and compassion. We are all in this life together.” — Linda Thompson
- “Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” — William James
- “Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.” — Jackie Robinson
- “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” — Michael J. Fox
- “We all learn lessons in life. Some stick, some don’t. I have always learned more from rejection and failure than from acceptance and success.” — Henry Rollins
- “Tolerance, compromise, understanding, acceptance, patience – I want those all to be very sharp tools in my shed.” — CeeLo Green
- “The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “If you are not willing to be a lone wolf, keep your truth to yourself. If you want acceptance and your truths to be spoken, it is a slippery slope.” — Pooja Bhatt
- “In society, we have to earn other things of import like trust, respect, money, education, careers, status and etc., so naturally, we find ourselves attempting to earn love, acceptance and validation along with that. Here’s the trip: we do it at the cost of other people and, more importantly, ourselves.” — Grace Gealey
- “I found that laughter was a form of acceptance, and I really enjoyed that and I just – I crave it.” — Gabriel Iglesias
- “Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they’re alive and human.” — Albert Ellis
- “I’m not wise, but the beginning of wisdom is there; it’s like relaxing into – and an acceptance of – things.” — Tina Turner
- “The acceptance of certain realities doesn’t preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs.” — Rem Koolhaas
- “Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.” — Malcolm Muggeridge
- “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” — Michael J. Fox
- “I surround people in unconditional acceptance and love to such a degree that everything that is unloving about them rises to the surface.” — Iyanla Vanzant
- “No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.” — Fernando Pessoa
- “Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” — George Orwell
- “Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.” — Miyamoto Musashi
- “Control is not real, and I’m really understanding that every day. It’s about the acceptance of relinquishing control that makes it powerful for you.” — SZA
- “‘Age’ is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.” — Martha Graham
- “The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.” — Ralph Marston
- “I’m firmly convinced that true beauty only springs from the acceptance of oneself, from an awareness of who we really are.” — Peter Lindbergh
- “I believe it’s our responsibility to show our communities the value of all people, to celebrate different, and to take a stand for acceptance and inclusion.” — Julie Foudy
- “Just knowing you don’t have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn – and those are all good things.” — Dick Van Dyke
- “Perhaps one reason we are fascinated by cats is because such a small animal can contain so much independence, dignity, and freedom of spirit. Unlike the dog, the cat’s personality is never bet on a human’s. He demands acceptance on his own terms.” — Lloyd Alexander
- “‘Star Trek’ is about acceptance, and the strength of the Starship Enterprise is that it embraces diversity in all its forms.” — George Takei
- “Meekness implies a spirit of gratitude as opposed to an attitude of self-sufficiency, an acknowledgement of a greater power beyond oneself, a recognition of God, and an acceptance of his commandments.” — Gordon B. Hinckley
- “I don’t care who you are. When you sit down to write the first page of your screenplay, in your head, you’re also writing your Oscar acceptance speech.” — Nora Ephron
- “Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.” — Brene Brown
- “Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own.” — Jean Toomer
- “In America, educators punish those who actually think for themselves. There is only acceptance for popular opinion.” — Bryant H. McGill
- “The acceptance that all that is solid has melted into the air, that reality and morality are not givens but imperfect human constructs, is the point from which fiction begins.” — Salman Rushdie
- “Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance.” — Wietse Venema
- “I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not and I think talking so openly about my story gave me acceptance that it’s ok to be me.” — Katie Piper
- “In opposition to this detachment, he finds an image of man which contains within itself man’s dreams, man’s illness, man’s redemption from the misery of poverty – poverty which can no longer be for him a sign of the acceptance of life.” — Salvatore Quasimodo
- “I believe it’s our responsibility to show our communities the value of all people, to celebrate different, and to take a stand for acceptance and inclusion.” — Julie Foudy
- “I feel blessed and humbled that people have loved my music. Nothing would be possible without their acceptance.” — A. R. Rahman
- “The first thing a kindness deserves is acceptance, the second, transmission.” — George MacDonald
- “Acceptance is very important in this sport.” — Hardik Pandya
- “Conversion for me was not a Damascus Road experience. I slowly moved into an intellectual acceptance of what my intuition had always known.” — Madeleine L’Engle
- “I think until you reach your mid-30s, there’s either a real acceptance of where you are or a resignation of where you are.” — Shaun Evans
- “What I’ve observed and what I’ve imagined – and definitely what I’m hoping – happens as you get older is that there’s a mellowing, an acceptance that comes with time. I guess that I’ll find out.” — Anne Hathaway
- “The act of apology is something that most societies take very seriously indeed. It is an admission of wrong done to the victims and an acceptance of blame.” — Margaret MacMillan
- “Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” — William James
- “In a culture obsessed with happiness, Americans may not be allowing for acceptance that it’s OK to sometimes not be perky.” — Mary Pilon
- “Acceptance is being able to feel beautiful in whatever you feel comfortable in.” — Barbie Ferreira
- “For me, art really starts with acceptance, self trust. Wherever you come to with art, it’s perfect. You don’t have to come with anything. What you bring to something is the art. That’s where it’s found. It’s found within you.” — Jeff Koons
- “We are mindful of desire when we experience it with an embodied awareness, recognizing the sensations and thoughts of wanting as arising and passing phenomena. While this isn’t easy, as we cultivate the clear seeing and compassion of Radical Acceptance, we discover we can open fully to this natural force, and remain free in its midst.” — Tara Brach
- “Truth never pleads or compromises or wavers. It invites and awaits your acceptance.” — Vernon Howard
- “You’re going to have more rejection than acceptance.” — Barry Mann
- “Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.” — Anatole France
- “At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance.” — Paul Tournier
- “I never finished the ‘Large Glass’ because, after working on it for eight years, I probably got interested in something else; also, I was tired. It may be that, subconsciously, I never intended to finish it because the word ‘finish’ implies an acceptance of traditional methods and all the paraphernalia that accompany them.” — Marcel Duchamp
- “Peace is a gift that is embodied through the Holy Spirit through the acceptance of Christ.” — Monica Johnson
- “Of course, technology is not an exogenous force over which humans have no control. We are not constrained by a binary choice between acceptance and rejection. Rather, the decisions we make every day as citizens, consumers, and investors guide technological progress.” — Klaus Schwab
- “At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance.” — Paul Tournier
- “Body love is more than acceptance of self or the acceptance of the body. Body love is about self-worth in general.” — Mary Lambert
- “There is a growing acceptance and interest in publicly funded school choice as a catalyst for education reform in general and a way to empower parents to be education reformers.” — John T. Walton
- “There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance.” — Cesar Chavez
- “My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.” — Michael J. Fox
- “Television is so influential that when an audience sees you day-in and day-out there’s a certain acceptance that sets in; you’re no longer a threatening personality. They become more willing to accept whatever you present.” — Doc Severinsen
- “My first book, ‘Radical Acceptance’, grew out of the suffering of feeling personally deficient and unworthy. Because most of us are so quick to turn against ourselves, the teachings and practices of radical acceptance continue as a strong current in ‘True Refuge’: nurturing a forgiving, understanding heart is a basic step on the path.” — Tara Brach
- “I’m hopeful for a world with more love, acceptance, and compassion for others.” — Lily Aldridge
- “The principal barrier to a general acceptance of the monist position is that it is counterintuitive.” — Michael Shermer
- “‘Acceptance’ is always a good word.” — Max Greenfield
- “I raised my kids kind of old-fashioned – if you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say it at all. I teach love, acceptance, and tolerance… I sometimes think that this generation is lacking in decency.” — Kris Jenner
- “I think everyone practices their Oscars acceptance speech with a shampoo bottle, and I’ve done my fair share of them. It’s really surreal to be able to do it in real life.” — Graham Moore
- “I used to love people for what they could be. I thought love was how hard you tried and how much you sacrificed and suffered. That is not love. Acceptance is.” — Michael Learned
- “Any natural, normal human being, when faced with any kind of loss, will go from shock all the way through acceptance.” — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- “Social acceptance, ‘being liked,’ has so much power because it holds the feelings of loneliness at bay.” — Rollo May
- “Profitability, growth, and safeguards against existential risks are crucial to strengthening a company’s long-term prospects. But if these three factors constitute a company’s ‘hard power,’ firms also need ‘soft power’: public trust and acceptance, won by fulfilling a company’s social responsibility.” — Klaus Schwab
- “If I have one wish for my birthday, it is that 35 is the end of desperation and the beginning of acceptance. Part of that is believing that if I’m meant to give birth, I will.” — Jessi Klein
- “If you do something with acceptance and kindness, you can create a true friendship.” — Dustin Lance Black
- “Wonder Woman is a fighter, better than most, but it’s what she fights for that is important. It’s her vision of a future of peace and acceptance that makes her the right ambassador for everyone.” — Gal Gadot
- “Given a fair wind, we will negotiate our way into the Common Market, head held high, not crawling in. Negotiations? Yes. Unconditional acceptance of whatever terms are offered us? No.” — Harold Wilson
- “If you do something with acceptance and kindness, you can create a true friendship.” — Dustin Lance Black
- “Why do people need awards? Don’t you know your value and your worth? I don’t need anybody’s award or acceptance.” — Janet Hubert
- “When you invoke the agent of change called acceptance, you must accept all that you are, all that you’ve been, and all that you will be in the future.” — Debbie Ford
- “When it’s open and honest, that’s when the real nature of who you are as a vocalist or as a performer, all of that stuff can finally start to become what it’s supposed to be. Like a settling into yourself. It’s not even a musical thing, it’s a whole mindset, a whole acceptance of who you were supposed to be. Life sounds good.” — Alison Krauss
- “Certainly tolerance and acceptance were at the forefront of my music.” — Bruce Springsteen
- “My first letter of acceptance, to UMass – Amherst, came with an offer of a fellowship and a note from John Edgar Wideman.” — Alexander Chee
- “Every one of us have been disappointed before and have had to go through the grieving process of anger and, you know, disappointment and then acceptance and forgiveness.” — Mathew Knowles
- “Using no control and using humor will build a relationship and make a dent to where the client puts the counselor in their quality world and then begins to relate and seek out the counselor. Effective therapy begins with the acceptance of the therapist into the client’s quality world.” — William Glasser
- “I love yoga because it allows me to slow down and experience how good it feels to be in relationship to my body. It teaches me patience, acceptance, and how to receive.” — Mandy Ingber
- “The thing that is most conducive of that better life for all is love, acceptance, understanding and being yourself.” — Jessica Origliasso
- “The essential problems remain the same… The kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else. They want acceptance for both.” — E. L. Konigsburg
- “We must teach compassion and tolerance and encourage kindness, selflessness, and loving acceptance of all who are created in the image of God.” — Ephraim Mirvis
- “Getting older is a struggle. I always feel that just under the surface of acceptance and enjoyment of the ageing process is a terrible hysteria just waiting to burst out.” — Michael Sheen
- “It is on the acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature, in its ultimate Essence, that mainly rests the belief or unbelief in the existence around us of other conscious beings besides the Spirits of the Dead.” — Helena Blavatsky
- “Human material seems to have one major defect: it does not like to be considered merely as human material. It finds it hard to endure the feeling that it must resign itself to passive acceptance of changes introduced from above.” — Czeslaw Milosz
- “With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have at the same time laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God.” — Charles Simeon
- “A lot of poets too live on the margins of social acceptance, they certainly aren’t in it for the money. William Blake – only his first book was legitimately published.” — Jim Jarmusch
- “Sometimes, people only change what they look like for the acceptance of other people, and that’s where you start going wrong.” — Lamman Rucker
Jon Kabat-Zinn Video About Mindful Acceptance
Final Thoughts on Good Quotes About Accepting Things
Have trust in your mindfulness practice and let it help you accept the things you can’t change and find the strength to change the things you can.
Practice meditation, focus on the present moment, and observe your mind’s tendency to weave stories that make you feel angry, sad, or helpless. Remember that no matter what obstacles life might put in your path, your ability to stay present can equip you with the kind of thinking needed to find right solutions and overcome challenges. Complement this list of best quotes about acceptance with How to Control What You Can and Accept What You Can’t by Sarah Knight.
And for more inspirational quotes to improve mindfulness, be sure to check out these articles:
100 trust quotes to improve mindfulness
100 patience quotes to improve your meditation practice
100 non-judgment quotes to improve mindfulness
100 letting go quotes to get unstuck and move on
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I’m a freelance writer and mindfulness advocate behind this blog. I started my meditation practice in 2014, and in 2017 I launched this website to share what I learn with others. Here are the three things you can do here:
1. Schedule a free consult if you want to learn Buddhist meditation.
2. Download free mindfulness resources for stress relief
3. Hire me as a freelance writer for your blog. I can write about wellness and digital marketing (learned about it while running this website).
