110+ Anthony De Mello Quotes On Death, Spiritual And Insightful

Anthony De Mello was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who wrote books on spirituality and psychology. He was born in Bombay, India in 1931, and he died in 1987. He was a prolific author, and his works include Sadhana: A Way to God, The Way to Love, and The Song of the Bird. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Anthony De Mello on love, death, spiritual.

Top 10 Anthony De Mello Quotes

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.
4. One year of life is worth more than twenty years of hibernation.
5. Extend your arms in welcome to the future. The best is yet to come!
6. "What is love?"; "The total absence of fear," said the Master; "What is it we fear?"; "Love," said the Master.
7. Because everyone is the same distance from the sun. Does it really lessen the distance if you live on top of a skyscraper?
8. When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today.
9. Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings.
10. 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 Short Quotes

• We do not have a fear of the unknown. What we fear is giving up the known.
• You're so ashamed of your past; drop it! You're so proud of your past; drop it!
• Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.
• Whatever is truly alive must die. Look at the flowers; only plastic flowers never die.
• Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.
• How sad if we pass through life and never see it with the eyes of a child.
• All that you give to others you are giving to yourself.
• You sanctify whatever you are grateful for.
• Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
• Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything.

Anthony De Mello Quotes About Love

‎"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

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

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

One day, a philosopher asked, "What is the purpose of creation?" "Lovemaking," said the Master. Later, to his disciples, he said, "Before creation, love was. After creation, love was made. When love is consummated, creation will cease to be, and love will be forever." — Anthony De Mello

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

We're crazy, We're living on crazy ideas about love, about relationships, about happiness, about joy, about everything. — Anthony De Mello

The human mind makes foolish divisions in what love sees as one. — Anthony De Mello

Obedience keeps the rules. Love knows when to break them. — Anthony De Mello

A newly married couple said, "What shall we do to make our love endure?" Said the Master, "Love other things together". — Anthony De Mello

You can will an act of service but you cannot will love. — Anthony De Mello

Anthony De Mello Quotes About Death

"My former master taught me to accept birth and death." "Then what have you come to me for?" asked the master. "To learn to accept what lies in between." — Anthony De Mello

Is there life before death? - that is the question! — Anthony De Mello

So love the thought of death, love it. — Anthony De Mello

Anthony De Mello Quotes About Spiritual

"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

You keep insisting, I feel good because the world is right! Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That's what all the mystics are saying. — Anthony De Mello

You've got to drop something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. — Anthony De Mello

The master never seemed to have his fill of gazing at his firstborn child. "What do you want him to be when he grows up?" someone asked. "Outrageously happy," said the master. — Anthony De Mello

Can one talk about the ocean to a frog in a well or about the divine to people who are restricted by their concepts? — Anthony De Mello

The spiritual quest is a journey without distance. You travel from where you are right now To where you have always been. From ignorance to recognition. — Anthony De Mello

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

What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you. — Anthony De Mello

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

Said the monk: "All these mountains and rivers and the earth and stars - where do they come from?" Said the master: "Where does your question come from?" — Anthony De Mello

Anthony De Mello Quotes About Truth

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

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

Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth. — Anthony De Mello

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

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

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

Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practice this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise. — Anthony De Mello

Sinners often speak the truth. And saints have led people astray. Examine what is said, not the one who says it. — Anthony De Mello

My commitment is not to consistency but to the Truth. — Anthony De Mello

To a visitor who asked to become his disciple the Master said, "You may live with me, but don't become my follower." "Whom, then, shall I follow?" "No one. The day you follow someone you cease to follow Truth . — Anthony De Mello

Anthony De Mello Quotes About Heart

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

If the heart is unobstructed, the result is love. — Anthony De Mello

Say goodbye to golden yesterdays: or your heart will never learn to love the present. — Anthony De Mello

The words of the scholar are to be understood. The words of the master are not to be understood. They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird. They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond all knowledge. — Anthony De Mello

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

Anthony De Mello Quotes About Beings

Take away human beings from this planet and life would go on, nature would go on in all its loveliness and violence. Where would the problem be? No problem. You created the problem. You are the problem. You identified with "me" and that is the problem. The feeling is in you, not in reality. — Anthony De Mello

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

"That of the person who sees other human beings as sinners," said the Master. — Anthony De Mello

Anthony De Mello Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What, concretely, is Enlightenment ?" "Seeing Reality as it is," said the Master. "Doesn't everyone see Reality as it is?" "Oh, no! Most people see it as they think it is." "What's the difference?" "The difference between thinking you are drowning in a stormy sea and knowing you cannot drown because there isn't any water in sight for miles around. — Anthony De Mello

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

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

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

When God means you to be a healer he sends you patients; when he makes you a teacher he sends you pupils; when he destines you to be a Master he sends you stories. — Anthony De Mello

What can I do to see Reality as it is?" The master smiled and said, "I have good news and bad news for you, my friend." "What's the bad news?" "There's nothing you can do to see it is a gift." "And what's the good news?" "There's nothing you can do to see it is a gift. — Anthony De Mello

What is my identity ?" "Nothing," said the Master. "You mean that I am an emptiness and a void?" said the incredulous disciple. "Nothing that can be labeled." said the Master. — Anthony De Mello

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

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

Religion is the finger pointing to God. People are too busy licking the finger to notice where it's pointing. — Anthony De Mello

The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-Tzu's dictum: "Those who know, do not say; Those who say, do not know." When the master entered, they asked him what the words meant. Said the master, "Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?" All of them indicated that they knew. Then he said, "Put it into words." All of them were silent. — Anthony De Mello

You are only a disciple because your eyes are closed. The day you open them you will see there is nothing you can learn from me or anyone. — Anthony De Mello

The poor think they will be happy when they become rich. The rich think they will be happy when they are rid of their ulcers. — Anthony De Mello

Are you your clothes? Are you your name? Are you your profession? Stop identifying with them. They come and go — Anthony De Mello

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

The only way someone can be of help to you is in challenging your ideas. If you're ready to listen and if you're ready to be challenged, there's one thing that you can do, but no one can help you. What is this most important thing of all? It's called self-observation. — Anthony De Mello

People kill for money or for power. But the most ruthless murderers are those who kill for their ideas. — Anthony De Mello

Pleasant experiences make life delightful. Painful experiences lead to growth. — Anthony De Mello

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

If I haven't received any grace today, then I was not at home. This is because God is sending deliveries constantly. — Anthony De Mello

The feigning sleeper can delude others he cannot delude himself. The false mystic, unfortunately, can delude both others and himself. — Anthony De Mello

Nothing has changed but my attitude, therefore, everything has changed. — Anthony De Mello

Those who make no mistakes are making the biggest mistakes of all - they are attempting nothing new. — Anthony De Mello

You are so proud of your intelligence," said the master. "You are like a like a condemned man, proud of the vastness of his prison cell. — Anthony De Mello

Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. — Anthony De Mello

To a woman who complained about her destiny the Master said, "It is you who make your destiny." "But surely I am not responsible for being born a woman?" "Being born a woman isn't destiny. That is fate. Destiny is how you accept your womanhood and what you make of it." — Anthony De Mello

People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favour progress, provided they can have it without change. — Anthony De Mello

Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it. — Anthony De Mello

Look for competence not claims. — Anthony De Mello

Ordinarily, everything we do is in our self-interest. Everything. — Anthony De Mello

The Master made it his task to destroy systematically every doctrine, every belief, every concept of the divine, for these things, which were originally intended as pointers, were now being taken as descriptions. He loved to quote the Eastern saying "When the sage points to the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger. — Anthony De Mello

There comes a point in your life when you become stark raving insane, commit suicide or become a mystic. — Anthony De Mello

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

This is what Wisdom means: To be changed without the slightest effort on your part, to be transformed, believe it or not, merely by waking to the reality that is not words , that lies beyond the reach of words. If you are fortunate enough to be Awakened thus, you will know why the finest language is the one that is not spoken, the finest action is the one that is not done and the finest change is the one that is not willed. — Anthony De Mello

My life is like shattered glass." said the visitor. "My soul is tainted with evil. Is there any hope for me? "Yes," said the Master. "There is something whereby each broken thing is bound again and every stain made clean." "What?" "Forgiveness" "Whom do I forgive?" "Everyone: Life, God, your neighbor especially yourself." "How is that done?" "By understanding that no one is to blame," said the Master. "NO ONE. — Anthony De Mello

There were rules in the monastery, but the Master always warned against the tyranny of the law. 'Obedience keeps the rules,' he would say. 'Love knows when to break them.' — Anthony De Mello

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

The devil has a Ph.D. in perfect logic. — Anthony De Mello

No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong. — Anthony De Mello

Problems only exist in the human mind. — Anthony De Mello

"I seek the meaning of existence," said the stranger. "You are of course assuming," said the Master, "that existence has a meaning." "Doesn't it?" "When you experience existence as it is - not as you think it is you will discover that your question has no meaning," said the Master. — Anthony De Mello

Doesn't everyone see Reality as it is? — Anthony De Mello

If you make me your authority, you harm yourself because you will not see things for yourself, and you harm me too because you refuse to see me as I am. — Anthony De Mello

All I did was sit on the riverbank handing out river water. After I'm gone, I trust you will notice the river. — Anthony De Mello

The seeker says, "I do not know." That takes honesty. The master says, "I do not know." That takes a mystic's mind that knows things through non-knowing. The disciple says, "I know." That takes ignorance, in the form of borrowed knowledge. — Anthony De Mello

There is no explanation you can give that will explain away all the sufferings and evil and torture and destruction and hunger in the world! You'll never explain it. Because life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense of it. For that you've got to wake up and then you'll suddenly realize that reality is not the problem, you are the problem. — Anthony De Mello

You see persons and things not as they are but as you are. — Anthony De Mello

Tell me," said the atheist , "Is there a God really?" Said the master, "If you want me to be perfectly honest with you, I will not answer." Later the disciples demanded to know why he had not answered. "Because the question is unanswerable," said the Master. "So you are an atheist?" "Certainly not. The atheist makes the mistake of denying that of which nothing may be said... and the theist makes the mistake of affirming it. — Anthony De Mello

Everybody was talking about the religious man who committed suicide. While no one in the monastery approved of the man's action, some say they admired his faith. Faith?" said the Master. He had the courage of his convictions, didn't he?" That was fanaticism, not faith. Faith demands a greater courage still: to reexamine one's convictions and reject them if they do not fit the facts. — Anthony De Mello

All conflict comes from attachment. — Anthony De Mello

My experience is that it's precisely the ones who don't know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about what they are going to do with another life. — Anthony De Mello

Life Lessons by Anthony De Mello

1. Anthony De Mello encourages us to be open to new experiences and to let go of our preconceived notions and attachments to the past. He teaches us to be mindful of our thoughts and feelings and to be aware of the present moment.
2. He encourages us to be compassionate and understanding of ourselves and others, and to recognize the interconnectedness of all life. He also teaches us to be humble and to recognize our own limitations.
3. Finally, he encourages us to be grateful for the life we have and to live it fully, without fear or judgment. He encourages us to be open to learning and growing, and to recognize the beauty and joy in life.