If god meant you to fly, he'd have given you wings
If God Had Meant Man to Fly,
He Would Have Given Him Wings.
December, 1973 40,000 copies November, 1974 100,000 copies ©1973 by Werner Erhard
or: Up to Your Ass in Aphorisms
The truth doesn’t mean anything. It just is.
If you keep saying it the way it really is, eventually your word is law in the universe.
Man keeps looking for a truth that fits his rea] Given our reality, the truth doesn’t fit.
If you experience it, it’s the truth. The same thing believed is a lie.
In life, understanding is the booby prize.
Obviously the truth is what’s so Not so obviously, it’s also so what.
You don’t get to vote on the way it is. You already did.
When you've said all of the bad things and all of the good things you haven't been saying, you will find that what you've really been withholding is, “I love you.”
You don’t have to go looking for love when it is where you come from.
I know that you know that I love you, What I want you to know is that I know you love me.
Happiness is a function of accepting what is. Love is a function of communication. Health is a function of participation. Self Expression is a function of responsibility.
It’s much easier to ride the horse in the direction he’s going.
Life is a ripoff when you expect to get what you want. Life works when you choose what you got. Actually what you got is what you chose. To move on, choose it.
Perfection is a state in which things are the way they are and are not the way they are not.
As you can see, this universe is perfect.
Don’t lie about it.
You're god in your universe. You caused it. You pretended not to cause it so that you could play in it, and you can remember you caused it any time you want to,
If you're not all right the way you are it takes a lot of effort to get better.
Realize you're all right the way you are, and you'll get better naturally.
Don’t change beliefs. Transform the believer.
One creates from nothing.
If you try to create from something you're just changing something.
So in order to create something you first have to be able to create nothing.
To make sure a person doesn’t find out who he is, convince him that he can’t really make anything disappear.
All that’s left then is to resist, solve, fix, help or change things. That’s trying to make something out of something.
Life is a game.
In order to have a game something has to be more important than something else.
If what already is, is more important than what isn’t, the game is over.
So, life is a game in which what isn’t, is more important than what is.
Let the good times roll.
This is it. There are no hidden meanings.
All that mystical stuff is just what's so.
A master is someone who found out.
The essence of communication is intention.
If you could really accept that you weren't ok you could stop proving you were ok.
If you could stop proving that you were ok you could get that it was ok not to be ok.
If you could get that it was ok not to be ok you could get that you were ok the way you are You’re ok, get it?
The end is the end, or it isn’t. The end justifies the means, or it doesn’t.
If God told you exactly what it was you were to do, you would be happy doing it no matter what it was.
What you're doing is what God wants you to do. Be happy.
If God told you exactly what it was you were to do, you would be happy doing it no matter what it was.
What you’re doing is what God wants you to do. Be happy.
About the Orchid leaves on the cover:
In Chinese art the Orchid symbolizes Love, Beauty, Elegance, Refinement, many descendants,
and the perfect human being.