115 Detachment Quotes

Following is our list of detachment quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about practice detachment.

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Famous Detachment Quotes

Detachment is the beginning of mastery. — Sri Aurobindo

Detachment is not that you own nothing, it’s that nothing owns you. — Jay Shetty

He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment. - Meister Eckhart

He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment. — Meister Eckhart

It may be possible through detachment, to gain knowledge that is 'useful;' but only through participation is it possible to gain the knowledge that is helpful. — Harry Stack Sullivan

Love without attachment is light. — Norman O. Brown

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances. — Bodhidharma

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening. — Jocko Willink

The main motive for nonattachment is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work. — George Orwell

Acquire the art of detachment, the virtue of method, and the quality of thoroughness, but above all the grace of humility. — William Osler

Attachment is the strongest block to realization. - Neem Karoli Baba

Attachment is the strongest block to realization. — Neem Karoli Baba

Attachment is the root cause of all misery. Possessiveness is nourishment for the ego. — Osho

To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness — Erich Fromm

To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward. — Ramakrishna

You have to see this mad creature in operation before you feel a certain distaste towards it and you start separating yourself from it. In that separation is liberation. — Naval Ravikant

When it comes to attachment, the key question is not about dependency, but rather about how well we are able to balance our need for closeness and autonomy. — Amir Levine

Short Detachment Quotes

  • Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain. — William Faulkner
  • Not my circus, not my monkeys. — Polish Proverbs
  • Think of your lover and his love, think of his actions and forget him. — Moroccan Proverbs
  • Be in the world, but not of the world. — Arabic Proverbs
  • Water that you must not drink, let it run. — Mexican Proverbs
  • Bad words will fly over our heads. — Romanian Proverbs
  • You easily forget the eyes that don’t see you anymore — Greek Proverbs
  • Show him, show him again, if he doesn't learn, just leave him. — Moroccan Proverbs
  • Don't cling to things because everything is impermanent. — Mitch Albom
  • A burning passion coupled with absolute detachment is the key to all success. — Mahatma Gandhi

Detachment Image Quotes

Emotional Detachment Quotes

It's a lucky man, a very lucky man, who is committed to what he believes, who has stifled intellectual detachment and can relax in the luxury of his emotions - like a tipsy traveller resting for the night at wayside inn. — Alexander Pushkin

I personally, generally, don't really feel much emotion if there's some problem and I'm actively solving it. — Vitalik Buterin

If you’re more passionate about founding a business than the business itself, you can fall into a ten year trap. Better to stay emotionally unattached and select the best opportunity that arises. Applies to relationships too. — Naval Ravikant

This is what Zen means by being detached—not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked, and through whom the experiences of the world pass like the reflections of birds flying over water. — Alan Watts

You know, I think the people I feel saddest for are the ones who once knew what profoundness was, but who lost or became numb to the sensation of wonder, who felt their emotions floating away and just didn't care. I guess that's what's scariest: not caring about the loss. — Douglas Coupland

If you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. — Mitch Albom

He's really sort of the devil. He's completely emotionally detached. He has no empathy. You find that in psychopaths. It's about power with Voldemort. It's an aphrodisiac for him. Power makes him feel alive. — Ralph Fiennes

I've always felt you don't have to be completely detached, emotionally uninvolved to make precise observations. There's nothing wrong with feeling great empathy for your subjects. — Jane Goodall

We carry our past with us, to wit, the primitive and inferior man with his desires and emotions, and it is only with an enormous effort that we can detach ourselves from this burden. If it comes to a neurosis, we invariably have to deal with a considerably intensified shadow. — Carl Jung

Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can't make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this. If I don't get back on track somehow, I'm dead, that's the sense I get. There isn't a single strong emotion inside me. — Banana Yoshimoto

Practice Detachment Quotes

When we meditate regularly, we view our stresses and problems with a lot more clarity. With practice, we become detached observers. We start to understand that there's a lot of self-generated noise that exists entirely in our own minds. — Rangan Chatterjee

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job. — W. Somerset Maugham

If you resort to violent methods because the other side has destroyed your monastery, for example, you then have lost not only your monastery, but also your special Buddhist practices of detachment, love, and compassion. — Dalai Lama

The yoga of selfless giving is easy for anyone to practice. The key is detachment. The spirit is unattachment to results. — Frederick Lenz

Meditation is a practice of detaching and then stopping ourselves from thinking; our thoughts are interruptions in the flow of awareness. Consciousness, in its highest aspect, is perfect and formless. — Frederick Lenz

Wishes and fears are illusions, Dil Bahadur, not realities. You must practice detachment. — Isabel Allende

Detach yourself from all that makes your mind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace. If you want peace, deserve it. By being a slave to your desires and fears, you disturb peace. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Attachment And Detachment Quotes

Gentleness is the ability to bear reproaches and slights with moderation, and not to embark on revenge quickly, and not to be easily provoked to anger, but be free from bitterness and contentiousness, having tranquility and stability in the spirit. — Aristotle

Unless, of course, you insist on identifying yourself with the people and things you love; and thereby seriously disturb yourself. — Albert Ellis

Christianity is Christ because there isn't anything else. There is no atonement that somehow can be detached from who the Lord Jesus is. There is no grace that can be attached to you transferred from Him. All there is, is Christ and your soul. — Sinclair B. Ferguson

There are three conditions which often look alike Yet differ completely, flourish in the same hedgerow: Attachment to self and to things and to persons, detachment From self and from things and from persons; and, growing between them, indifference, ... . — T. S. Eliot

For the Christian mystics, detachment meant to leave attachment so that God could enter you and take over completely and you could climb the ladder to their heaven. Kind of crazy, but what the hell? — Gerald Stern

If the Buddhist's job is to be detached, I think that the artist's job is to be both detached and attached. — Gerald Stern

Attachment to the Divine leads to detachment from the mind. This leads to the realization that the nature of the Seer and the Divine are the same. — A. G. Mohan

Identification prevents and perverts the flow of thought-feeling. — Jiddu Krishnamurti

Attachment is a manufacturer of illusion and whoever wants reality ought to be detached. — Simone Weil

The perfection of yoga is to become detached. And the perfection of detachment is to become completely attached, attached to God. — Radhanath Swami

Art Of Detachment Quotes

The true work of art is born from the 'artist': a mysterious, enigmatic, and mystical creation. It detaches itself from him, it acquires an autonomous life, becomes a personality, an independent subject, animated with a spiritual breath, the living subject of a real existence of being. — Wassily Kandinsky

What art makes us see, and therefore gives to us in the form of 'seeing', 'perceiving' and 'feeling' (which is not the form of knowing,) is the ideology from which it is born, in which it bathes, from which it detaches itself as art, and which it alludes. — Louis Althusser

As soon as you master the art of observing an idea and letting it go, your mind will quickly run out of topics to bring up. It can keep going only when you cling to an idea. — Mo Gawdat

The true contemplative is one who has discovered the art of finding leisure even in the midst of his work, by working with such a spirit of detachment and recollection that even his work is a prayer — Thomas Merton

When the object is perceived as particular and unique and not merely the member of a family, when it appears independent of any general notion and detached from the sanity of a cause, isolated and inexplicable in the light of ignorance, then and only then may it be a source of enchantment. — Samuel Beckett

When a general, unable to estimate the enemy's strength, allows an inferior force to engage a larger one, or hurls a weak detachment against a powerful one, and neglects to place picked soldiers in the front rank, the result must be rout. — Sun Tzu

I remain detached and distant, but it is under my eyes and my orders that the work of art must create itself. Then, when the creation starts, I stand there, present at the ceremony, immaculate, calm, relaxed... ready to welcome the work of art that is coming into existence in the tangible world. — Yves Klein

There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause. — Mao Zedong

The literary critic, or the critic of any other specific form of artistic expression, may detach himself from the world for as long as the work of art he is contemplating appears to do the same. — Clive James

People talk about this often in the art world. The press releases have reached a level of absurdity and creativity - creative absurdity - that has completely detached from its intended object. It's left reality behind long ago. It's like something out of William Burroughs. — David Salle

Spiritual Detachment Quotes

Confusion is a gift from God. Those times when you feel most desperate for a solution, sit. Wait. The information will become clear. The confusion is there to guide you. Seek detachment and become the producer of your life. — RZA

The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we might prefer to people. Wherever things have become more important than people, we are in trouble. That is the crux of the whole matter. — Thomas Merton

The real meaning of detached love is to let others exist without forcing our will upon them. That is spiritual love. — Harold Klemp

Ultimately spiritual awareness unfolds when you're flexible, when you're spontaneous, when you're detached, when you're easy on yourself and easy on others. — Deepak Chopra

Detachment does not mean non-involvement. You can be deeply involved but not entangled. — Jaggi Vasudev

A lot of times in spiritual communities, detachment is considered to be an expression of being spiritually evolved when often, we have want and fear around being in relationship with each other. — Tara Brach

Wait on God and He will work, but don't wait in spiritual sulks because you cannot see an inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our spiritual hysterics to wait on God? To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we are told. — Oswald Chambers

Only the idea of death makes a warrior sufficiently detached so that he is capable of abandoning himself to anything. He knows his death is stalking him and won't give him time to cling to anything so he tries, without craving, all of everything. — Carlos Castaneda

People Writing About Detachment

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Read quotes by Moroccan Proverbs

Moroccan Proverbs
quotes on wisdom, culture and intrigue

111 1
Read quotes by Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo
quotes on education, freedom and yoga

237 2794
Read quotes by Jay Shetty

Jay Shetty
quotes on life, love and happiness

167 1
Read quotes by Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart
quotes on god, death and christmas

235 2553
Read quotes by Harry Stack Sullivan

Harry Stack Sullivan
quotes on love, life and friendship

18 313
Read quotes by Norman O. Brown

Norman O. Brown
quotes on life, education and culture

25 306

More Detachment Quotes

It became easy for me to detach myself from the course of life, so that while my hands and mind were engaged in the common affairs of every day, my spirit maintained its attitude of communion with God. — John G. Lake

The tendency of liberals is to create bodies of men and women-of all classes-detached from tradition, alienated from religion, and susceptible to mass suggestion-mob rule. And a mob will be no less a mob if it is well fed, well clothed, well housed, and well disciplined. — T. S. Eliot

In imitating the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythic hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time. — Mircea Eliade

The less you want something, the less you’re thinking about it, the less you’re obsessing over it, the more you’re going to do it in a natural way. — Naval Ravikant

Perhaps there is no more dangerous place for a Christian to be than in safety and comfort, detached from the suffering of others. — Shane Claiborne

Release and detach from every person, every circumstance, every condition, and every situation that no longer serves a divine purpose in your life. All things have a season, and all seasons must come to an end. Choose a new season, filled with purposeful thoughts and activities. — Iyanla Vanzant

You should live in the world but remain untouched by it. You should remain in the world, but the world should not remain in you. — Osho [Chandra Mohan Jain]

In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty...in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe. — Deepak Chopra

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It's very real. It's very strong. — Bono

Life is a tide; float on it. Go down with it and go up with it, but be detached. Then it is not difficult. — Prem Rawat

Human tendency to conform, especially when in large groups, is terrifying. Propaganda machines leverage this throughout human history. The way out is to think freely, detached from the divisive narratives of the day that masquerade as universal truths. This often feels lonely. — Lex Fridman

Regard as free not those whose status makes them outwardly free, but those who are free in their character and conduct. For we should not call men truly free when they are wicked and dissolute, since they are slaves to worldly passions. Freedom and happiness of soul consist in genuine purity and detachment from transitory things. — Anthony the Great

Strive to achieve your goals knowing that the results are impossible to predict. When something unexpected happens, the detachment concept tells us to accept the new direction and try again. — Mo Gawdat

Woman's soul is present and lives more intensely in all parts of the body, and it is inwardly affected by that which happens to the body; whereas, with men, the body has more pronoucedly the character of an instrument which serves them in their work and which is accompanied by a certain detachment. — Edith Stein

Live today. Remove all blame from your vocabulary. Catch yourself when you find yourself using your past history as a reason for your failure to act today, and instead say, 'I am free now to detach myself from what used to be.' — Wayne Dyer

Your numbness is something perhaps you cannot help. It is what the world has done to you. But your coldness. That is what you do to the world. — Lorrie Moore

To observe the physical world, you need to observe from a vantage point outside it. — Mo Gawdat

Detach yourself from day-to-day price action. As an investor, your primary focus should always be the business. — Naved Abdali

He'd been numb a long time, years. All his nights down Ninsei, his nights with Linda, numb in bed and numb at the cold sweating center of every drug deal. But now he'd found this warm thing, this chip of murder. Meat, some part of him said. It's the meat talking, ignore it. — William Gibson

To love God as He ought to be loved, we must be detached from all temporal love. We must love nothing but Him, or if we love anything else, we must love it only for His sake. — Peter Claver

You must feel an affinity for what you are photographing. You must be part of it, and yet remain sufficiently detached to see it objectively. Like watching from the audience a play you already know by heart. — George Rodger

Hitler overestimated the importance of [technology]. As a result, he would count on a mere handful of assault-gun detachment or the new Tiger tanks to restore situations where only large bodies of troops could have any prospect of success. — Erich von Manstein

My specialty is detached malevolence. — Alice Roosevelt Longworth

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