Anthony de Mello Quotes
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The Master would frequently assert that holiness was less a matter of what one did than of what one allowed to happen.
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The Master insisted that what he taught was nothing, what he did was nothing. His disciples gradually discovered that Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything. That transformation is the consequence not of something done, but of something dropped.
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When I speak, you must not listen to the words, my dear. Listen to the Silence.
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'What is the secret of your serenity? Said the Master 'Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable.'
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To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth the Master said, '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.'
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Wisdom can be learned. But it cannot be taught.
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The feigning sleeper can delude others - he cannot delude himself. The false mystic, unfortunately, can delude both others and himself.
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A disciple said to him, 'I am ready, in the quest for God, to give up anything: wealth, friends, family, country, life itself. What else can a person give up?' The Master calmly replied, 'One's beliefs about God.'
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You can will an act of service but you cannot will love.
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The master made it his task to systematically destroy every doctrine, every belief, every concept of the divine, for these things, which were originally intended as pointers, were now taken as descriptions. He loved to quote the Eastern saying: 'When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.'
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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.
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A disciple asked, 'Who is a Master?' The Master replied, 'Anyone to whom it is given to let go of the ego. Such a person's life is then a masterpiece.'
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The Master was exceedingly gracious to university dons who visited him, but he would never reply to their questions or be drawn into their theological speculations. To his disciples, who marveled at this, he said, 'Can one talk about the ocean to a frog in a well or about the divine to people who are restricted by their concepts?'
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No one is exempt from talking nonsense. The great misfortune is to do it solemnly.
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Every word, every image used for God is a distortion more than a description.
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One always treads with a joyful step when one has dropped the burden called the ego.
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One year of life is worth more than twenty years of hibernation.
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Ideas kill people.
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Said the self-righteous preacher, 'What, in your judgment, is the greatest sin in the world?' 'That of the person who sees other human beings as sinners,' said the Master.
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A disciple, in his reverence for the Master, looked upon him as God incarnate. 'Tell me, O Master,' he said, 'why you have come into this world.' 'To teach fools like you to stop wasting their time worshiping Masters.'
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The best things in life cannot be willed into being.
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Look for competence not claims.
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Isn't there such a thing as social liberation?' 'Of course there is,' said the Master. 'How would you describe it?' 'Liberation from the need to belong to the herd.'
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Those who make no mistakes are making the biggest mistakes of all - they are attempting nothing new.