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Marianne Williamson vs. Nelson Mandela

“Our worst 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 so brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God: Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

~Marianne Williamson

Widely mis-attributed to Nelson Mandela

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Posted by Marianne Williamson on July 21, 1996 at 09:56:08:

In Reply to: Mandela’s speech posted by Bill Cecil on July 20, 1996 at 17:57:49:

Dear Bill,

Yep, that writing is two paragraphs from my l992 book “A RETURN TO LOVE.”(In the WORK section, in a chapter called PERSONAL POWER) Seeing it printed everywhere as a Nelson Mandela quote has been a rather strange experience .. he definitely did not quote it in his inaugural, by the way. I have heard that he used the material in a lesser speech (so said his office), but I have never seen the text, so I don’t know what the context or attribution was.

Thanks for the compliment.

Please keep visiting.

My best,

Marianne

RE:
Who actually said this quote?
I've heard this quote a lot. Some people attribute it to Nelson Mandella, and others to Marienne Williamson. Who said it?

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We…

but you basically just answered it haha