Anthony de Mello famous quotes

Step by step, let whatever happens happen. Real change will come when it is brought about, not by your ego, but by reality. Awareness releases reality to change you.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Real #Ego #Steps

There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Inspirational #Happiness #Believe

...As the great Confucius said, "The one who would be in constant happiness must frequently change." Flow. But we keep looking back, don't we? We cling to things in the past and cling to things in the present...Do you want to enjoy a symphony? Don't hold on to a few bars of the music. Don't hold on to a couple of notes. Let them pass, let them flow. The whole enjoyment of a symphony lies in your readiness to allow the notes to pass...
-- Anthony de Mello

#Couple #Lying #Past

As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. … That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Spiritual #Reality #People

Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Ignorance #Spirituality #Awareness

A writer arrived at the monastery to write a book about the Master. "People say you are a genius . Are you?" he asked. "You might say so." said the Master, none too modestly. "And what makes one a genius?" "The ability to recognize." "Recognize what?" "The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Selfish #Book #Writing

Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable in bed. It is irritating to be woken up. That's the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I'm going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, "Wake up!" My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. If you profit from it fine; if you don't, too bad! As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."
-- Anthony de Mello

#Wise #Nice #Rain

The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Selfish #Butterfly #Eagles

"Why is everyone here so happy except me?" "Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere," said the Master. "Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?" "Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside."
-- Anthony de Mello

#Spirituality #Failing #Goodness

These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Compassion #Race #Silence

Is it possible for the rose to say, "I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad?" Or is it possible for the lamp to say, "I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will withhold it from the evil people"? Or can a tree say, "I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me, but I will withhold it from the bad"? These are images of what love is about.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Love Is #Light #Smell

When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Wise #Yesterday #Today

What I really enjoy is not you; it's something that's greater than both you and me. It is something that I discovered, a kind of symphony, a kind of orchestra that plays one melody in your presence, but when you depart, the orchestra doesn't stop. When I meet someone else, it plays another melody, which is also very delightful. And when I'm alone, it continues to play.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Inspirational #Play #Symphony

I'm going to write a book someday and the title will be I'm an Ass, You're an Ass. That's the most liberating, wonderful thing in the world, when you openly admit you're an ass. It's wonderful. When people tell me, You're wrong I say, What can you expect of an ass?
-- Anthony de Mello

#Book #Writing #People

A Jesuit once wrote a note to Father Arrupe, his superior general, asking him about the relative value of communism, socialism and capitalism. Father Arrupe gave him a lovely reply. He said, "A system is about as good or as bad as the people who use it." People with golden hearts would make capitalism or communism or socialism work beautifully.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Father #Heart #People

‎"I have no fear of losing u, for you aren't an object of my property, or anyone else's. I love you as you are, without attachment, without fears, without conditions, without egoism, trying not to absorb you. I love you freely because I love your freedom, as well as mine.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Love You #Attachment #Trying

If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Feet #People #Earth

Do you want a sign that you're asleep? Here it is: you're suffering. Suffering is a sign that you're out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there's falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality, when your falsehoods clash with truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Pain #Eye #Reality

Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Happiness #Sorry #Fear

You do not have to change for God to love you.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Love You

Problems only exist in the human mind.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Learning #Knowledge #Mind

Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Self #Silence #Sound

To fight evil with activity is like fighting darkness with one's hands. So what you need is light, not fit.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Fighting #Light #Hands

If what you said was true, where was the need to shout?
-- Anthony de Mello

#Needs #Said

When you get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding... you can be yourself. Relaxed. You'll no longer be driving with your brakes on.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Being Yourself #Fear #Failure

People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Heart #Thinking #People

"What is love?"; "The total absence of fear," said the Master; "What is it we fear?"; "Love," said the Master.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Love #Absence #Masters

Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Failing

A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Reality #Mirrors #Envelopes

It is a great mystery that though the human heart longs for Truth, in which alone it finds liberation and delight, the first reaction of human beings to Truth is one of hostility and fear!
-- Anthony de Mello

#Spiritual #Heart #Delight

All conflict comes from attachment.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Relationship #Attachment #Conflict

You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Distance #Stories #Humans

If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know. An overwhelming passion for it.” “No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Passion #May #Overwhelming

Don't ask the world to change....you change first.
-- Anthony de Mello

#World #Firsts

Every word, every image used for God is a distortion more than a description.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Used #Description #Distortion

Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Enlightenment #Cooperation #Inevitable

Extend your arms in welcome to the future. The best is yet to come!
-- Anthony de Mello

#Arms #Welcome

You have within yourself the answer to every question you propose - if you only knew how to look for it. In the Land of the spirit, you cannot walk by the light of someone else's lamp. You want to borrow mine. I'd rather teach you how to make your own.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Truth #Light #Land

The genius of a composer is found in the notes of his music; but analyzing the notes will not reveal his genius. The poet's greatness is contained in his words; yet the study of his words will not disclose his inspiration. God reveals himself in creation; but scrutinize creation as minutely as you wish, you will not find God, any more than you will find the soul through careful examination of your body.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Inspiration #Greatness #Soul

If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child; they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Children #Flower #Mean

Happiness is not something you acquire; love is not something you produce; love is not something you have; love is something that has you.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Love Is #Produce

Problems exist only in the human mind.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Mind #Problem #Humans

What is a loving heart? A loving heart is sensitive to the whole of life, to all persons; a loving heart doesn't harden itself to any persons or things.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Spiritual #Heart #Sensitive

You know, all mystics - Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion - are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Life #Christian #People

The present moment is never intolerable. What's intolerable is what's going to happen in the next four hours. To have your body here at 8 pm and your mind at 10:30 pm, that's what causes us suffering.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Pms #Mind #Suffering

When you fight something, you're tied to it forever. As long as you're fighting it, you’re giving it power.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Fighting #Long #Giving

As the Japanese Zen masters say, “Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions”. Drop your theories; don't seek the truth.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Opinion #Masters #Theory

Understand the obstructions you are putting in the way of love, freedom, and happiness and they will drop. Turn on the light of awareness and the darkness will disappear. Happiness is not something you acquire; love is not something you produce; love is not something you have; love is something that has you.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Love Is #Light #Darkness

Behold God beholding you...and smiling.
-- Anthony de Mello

#God

A nice definition of an awakened person: a person who no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Nice #Spring #Definitions

Obedience keeps the rules. Love knows when to break them.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Obedience #Break

"What is the secret of your serenity?" Said the master: "Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable."
-- Anthony de Mello

#Serenity #Secret #Cooperation

You sanctify whatever you are grateful for.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Grateful

A disciple was one day recalling how Buddha , Jesus , Mohammed were branded as rebels and heretics by their contemporaries. Said the Master, Nobody can be said to have attained the pinnacle of Truth until a thousand sincere people have denounced him for blasphemy .
-- Anthony de Mello

#Jesus #People #One Day

When the eye is unobstructed, the result is sight. When the ear is unobstructed, the result is hearing. When the mind is unobstructed the result is truth. When the heart is unobstructed, the result is joy and love.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Spiritual #Heart #Eye

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Life #Children #Mean

What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Spirituality

The day you are happy for no reason whatsoever, the day you find yourself taking delight in everything and in nothing, you will know that you have found the land of unending joy called the kingdom.
-- Anthony de Mello

#Land #Joy #Finding Yourself

The way to really live is to die. The passport to living is to imagine yourself in your grave. Imagine you're lying in your coffin....Now look at your problems from that viewpoint. Changes everything, doesn't it?
-- Anthony de Mello

#Change #Lying #Viewpoints