Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“Talismans are reminders of what is felt but not seen, what is so, but not immediately obvious.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“Remember if logic were all there really was to the world, then surely all men would ride sidesaddle.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The body is like the earth ... as vulnerable to overbuilding, being carved into parcels, cut off, overmined, and shorn of its…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I have to go to the woods, and I have to meet the wolf, or else my life will never begin.

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“This wolf-woman Self must have freedom to move, to speak, to be angry, and to create.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

It is worse to stay where one does not belong at all than to wander about lost for a while and looking…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

When seeking guidance, don't ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessing, cajole them, but do not…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

If women were in charge of everything, there would be women tyrants. If black people were in charge, there would be black…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

When women are relegated to moods, mannerisms, and contours that conform to a single ideal of beauty and behavior, they are captured…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“I hope you will go out and let stories, that is life, happen to you, and that you will work with these…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“Whether you are possessed of a simple heart or the ambitions of an Amazon, whether you are trying to make it to…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“We know the soul-spirit can be injured, even maimed, but it is very nearly impossible to kill. You can dent the soul…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“We dismantle the predator by countering its diatribes with our own nurturant truths. Predator: You never finish anything you start. Yourself: I…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Freud's translator accidentally omitted 'fashion' in the psychoanalytic list of primary instinctual drives; along with the drive to sexuality there is the…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“Stories set the inner life into motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life is frightened, wedged, or cornered. Story…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

In mythos and fairy tales, deities and other great spirits test the hearts of humans by showing up in various forms that…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“Having a lover/friend who regards you as a living growing criatura, being, just as much as the tree from the ground, or…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“And then there are the cravings.. Oh, la! A woman may crave to be near water, or be belly down, her face…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“If a woman desires, however, to retain all her instincts and abilities to move freely within her psyche, she can reveal her…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

It makes utter sense to stay healthy and strong, to be as nourishing to the body as possible. Yet I would have…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“(Young girls) are taught to not see, and instead to "make pretty" all manner of grotesqueries whether they are lovely or not.…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“Some psychological thinkers, including Freud and Bettelheim, have interpreted episodes such as those found in the Bluebeard tale as psychological punishments for…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Stories are medicine. They have such power; they do not require that we do, be, act anything - we need only listen.

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“Many of us have lived desert lives: very small on the surface, and enormous under the ground.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

When you feel bad, find a person to talk to and cry with, to tell of your anger and other helpless feelings.

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“The only trust required is to know that when there is one ending there will be another beginning.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Artfulness is not simple entertainment, especially during upheaval, unleashing creative life is sacred duty.

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The predation of wolves and women by those who misunderstand them is strikingly similar.

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The most important thing is to hold on, hold out, for your creative life, for your solitude, for your time to be…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Tears are a river that takes you somewhereTears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, carrying it downriver to someplace…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“However, the miracle we are seeking takes time: time to find it, time to bring it to life.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“There is something waiting for us at the edge of the woods, and it is our fate to meet it.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“We can see that for the deep work to continue, trying to prove one's worth to the chorus of jealous hags is…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

All that you are seeking is also seeking you. If you lie still, sit still, it will find you. It has been…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear. The one who says, 'Nothing good came of this' is…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Since time out of mind, a considered act of heroism has been the cure for stultifying ambivalence.

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Story is far older than the art of science and psychology, and will always be the elder in the equation no matter…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Though her soul requires seeing, the culture around her requires sightlessness. Though her soul wishes to speak its truth, she is pressured…

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes