Anthony de Mello quotes

Anthony de Mello

"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
Work Politics Learning Religion
"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 People Thinking Will
"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
Alone Truth Heart Great
"Problems only exist in the human mind."
Anthony de Mello
Mind Problems Human Only
"Live your life as you see fit. That's not selfish. Selfish is to demand that others live their lives as you see fit."
Anthony de Mello
Selfish Live Your Life Demand
"Live your life as you see fit. That's not selfish. Selfish is to demand that others live their lives as you see fit."
Anthony de Mello
Selfish Live Your Life Demand
"Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance."
Anthony de Mello
Ignorance Spirituality Awareness
"If you look carefully you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is attachment. What is an attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy."
Anthony de Mello
Emotional Attachment Names
"I was neurotic for years. I was anxious and depressed and selfish. Everyone kept telling me to change. I resented them and I agreed with them, and I wanted to change, but simply couldn't, no matter how hard I tried. Then one day someone said to me, Don't change. I love you just as you are. Those words were music to my ears: Don't change, Don't change. Don't change . . . I love you as you are. I relaxed. I came alive. And suddenly I changed!"
Anthony de Mello
Change Selfish Love You
"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
Spiritual Feet People
""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
Spiritual Beauty Everywhere Failing
"You can never be free as long as you have an ego to defend."
Anthony de Mello
Long Ego
"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 Happy
"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
"We do not have a fear of the unknown. What we fear is giving up the known."
Anthony de Mello
Giving Up Giving Fear Of The Unknown
"Both what you run from- and what you yearn for - are within you."
Anthony de Mello
Running Within You
"Another illusion is that external events have the power to hurt you, that other people have the power to hurt you. They don't. It's you who give this power to them."
Anthony de Mello
Spiritual Hurt People
"What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you."
Anthony de Mello
Spiritual Enlightenment Spirituality
"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
"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
Happiness Couple Lying
"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 Evil People
"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
"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
"Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don't believe them. Don't believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. "Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation, my success." This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That's all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don't really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful."
Anthony de Mello
Life Success Spiritual
""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
"The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils." Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king."
Anthony de Mello
Kings Bread Philosopher
"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
"‎"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
"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 Learning
"Let’s suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or you? What’s causing the negative feeling? The rain or your reaction? When you bump your knee against a table, the table’s fine. It’s busy being what it was made to be – a table. The pain is in your knee, not in the table. The mystics keep trying to tell us that reality is all right. Reality is not problematic. Problems exist only in the human mind. We might add: in the stupid, sleeping human mind."
Anthony de Mello
Pain Stupid Rain
"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
"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
"The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being."
Anthony de Mello
Selfish Butterfly Eggs
"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 Looks
"Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth."
Anthony de Mello
Eye Objectivity Giving
"No person on earth has the power to make you unhappy. There is no event on earth that has the power to disturb you or hurt you. No event, condition, situation, or person. Nobody told you this; they told you the opposite. That's why you're in the mess you're in right now. That is why you're asleep. They never told you this. But it's self-evident."
Anthony de Mello
Hurt Self Opposites
"You are never in love with anyone. You're only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person."
Anthony de Mello
Love You Ideas Hopeful
"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
Inspirational Courage Spring
"Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable."
Anthony de Mello
Enlightenment Cooperation Inevitable
"The three most difficult things for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the excluded; third, admitting that you are wrong."
Anthony de Mello
Love Hate Achievement
"Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings."
Anthony de Mello
Ambition Greed Life Is
"You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something."
Anthony de Mello
Order Add
"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. But life has no meaning; it cannot have meaning because meaning is a formula; meaning is something that makes sense to the mind. Every time you make sense out of reality, you bump into something that destroys the sense you made . Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning."
Anthony de Mello
Spiritual Reality People
"Understand your darkness and it will vanish; then you will know what light is. Understand your nightmare for what it is and it will stop; then you will wake up to reality. Understand your false beliefs and they will drop; then you will know the taste of happiness."
Anthony de Mello
Reality Light Darkness
"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
"You see persons and things not as they are but as you are."
Anthony de Mello
Persons
"As you identify less and less with the “me”, you will be more at ease with everybody and with everything. Do you know why? Because you are no longer afraid of being hurt or not liked. You no longer desire to impress anyone. Can you imagine the relief when you don't have to impress anybody anymore? Oh, what a relief. Happiness at last!"
Anthony de Mello
Spiritual Hurt Desire
"There's only one reason why you're not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it's because you're thinking or focusing on what you don't have....But, right now you have everything you need to be in bliss."
Anthony de Mello
Life Thinking Needs
"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
Inspirational Pain Eye

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