58 Anthony De Mello Quotes From The Author Of 'Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality'

Anthony De Mello was a renowned psychotherapist and Priest.

He hosted numerous spiritual retreats and has written extensively about awareness and happiness, which gave him an upper hand in understanding and interpreting the human brain better.

Any study of his words will uncover plenty of insightful Anthony De Mello quotes about love and death, politics, peace, and forgiveness. His quotes very beautifully draw a relation between various human feelings and portray them magnificently on a piece of paper and right into the reader's heart. Anthony De Mello quotes can not only cause you to question your conscience but also give your mind immense peace. They can swirl up all your memories and remind you of your beautiful life experiences.

We have gathered the best quotes from De Mello, including 'The Way To Love' Anthony De Mello quotes, Anthony De Mello quotes on forgiveness, and Anthony De Mello quotes about politics. If you like these quotes, you might also like these Jonathan Swift quotes and John Trudell quotes.

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Here are some famous Anthony De Mello quotes on love and death, wisdom, and fear, among other topics, captured through the history of literature.

1. "If you find me charming, it means that right now you’re in a good mood, nothing more."

- Anthony De Mello.

2. "Here’s the problem: You are holding on to a false belief that without a change in this particular person, or achieving a particular result, or acquiring a particular thing, you will not be happy."

- Anthony De Mello.

3. "We do not have a fear of the unknown. What we fear is giving up the known"

- Anthony De Mello.

4. "Love is not something you have; love is something that has you."

- Anthony De Mello.

5. "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.

6. "'What is love?'; 'The total absence of fear,' said the master; 'What is it we fear?'; 'Love,' said the master."

- Anthony De Mello.

7. "The thing that is blind is not love but attachment. An attachment is the state of clinging that comes from the false belief that something or someone is necessary for your happiness."

- Anthony De Mello.

8. "The trouble with your ideals is that if you live up to all of them, you become impossible to live with."

- Anthony De Mello.

9. "When I speak, you must not listen to the words, my dear. Listen to the Silence."

- Anthony De Mello.

10. "You do not have to change for god to love you"

- Anthony De Mello.

11. "Like the little girl who says to a little boy, 'Are you a Presbyterian?' And he says, 'No, we belong to another abomination!'"

- Anthony De Mello.

12. "Obedience keeps the rules. Love knows when to break them."

- Anthony De Mello.

Anthony De Mello quotes on peace and prospect can highlight the importance and need for people to have a clear vision in life

13. "One always treads with a joyful step when one has dropped the burden called the ego."

- Anthony De Mello.

14. "The day you follow someone you cease to follow Truth."

- Anthony De Mello.

15. "There's only one reason for the absence of happiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, that it never occurs to you to question them."

- Anthony De Mello.

16. "Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one’s awareness of one’s ignorance."

- Anthony De Mello.

17. "You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story."

- Anthony De Mello.

18. "The final barrier to our attaining God was the word and concept ‘God’."

- Anthony De Mello.

19. "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.

20. "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.

21. "The one who would be constant in happiness must frequently change."

- Anthony De Mello.

22. "Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable."

- Anthony De Mello.

Being a psychotherapist, Anthony De Mello had a very good grasp of how the human brain reacts to this world.

23. "We see a person and things not as they are, but as we are."

- Anthony De Mello.

24. "Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one’s awareness of one’s ignorance."

- Anthony De Mello.

25. "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.

26. "You don’t have to add anything in order to be happy; you’ve got to drop something."

- Anthony De Mello.

27. "What’s the earthly use of putting people on the moon when we cannot live on the earth?"

- Anthony De Mello.

28. "The rose does not preen herself to catch my eye. She blooms because she blooms. A saint is a saint until he knows he is one."

- Anthony De Mello.

29. "Spiritual life is about unlearning almost everything you’ve been taught."

- Anthony De Mello.

30. "You can never be free as long as you have an ego to defend."

- Anthony De Mello.

31. "Don’t try to make them happy, you’ll only get in trouble. Don’t try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it irritates the pig."

- Anthony De Mello.

32. "If what you seek is truth, there is one thing you must have above all else. An overwhelming passion for it. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong."

- Anthony De Mello.

Anthony De Mello believed in living life to the fullest before it ends.

33. "So you must 'receive' your demons because when you fight them, you empower them."

- Anthony De Mello.

34. "The one who would be constant in happiness must frequently change."

- Anthony De Mello.

35. "It isn't falling in that causes you to drown, it's staying in."

- Anthony De Mello.

36. "The end of the world for a caterpillar is a butterfly."

- Anthony De Mello.

37. "All I did was sit on the riverbank handing out river water. After I am gone, I trust you'll notice the river."

- Anthony De Mello.

38. "Is there life before death? — that is the question!"

- Anthony De Mello.

De Mello's quotes leave an impact on the reader every now and then.

39. "True tolerance only arises from a keen awareness of the abysmal ignorance of everyone as far as truth is concerned."

- Anthony De Mello.

40. "Look for competence, not claims."

- Anthony De Mello.

41. "Pleasant experiences make life delightful. Painful experiences lead to growth."

- Anthony De Mello.

42."One year of life is worth more than twenty years of hibernation."

- Anthony De Mello.

43. "Don't ask the world to change... you change first."

- Anthony De Mello.

44. "Spirituality means waking up."

- Anthony De Mello.

45. "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 actuality that is not words, that lies beyond the reach of words."

- Anthony De Mello.

46. "Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience."

- Anthony De Mello.

47. "You’re never so centered on yourself as when you’re depressed."

- Anthony De Mello.

48. "To those who seek to protect their ego, true peace brings only disturbance."

- Anthony De Mello.

49. "There’s only one reason why you’re not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it’s because you’re focused on what you don’t have."

- Anthony De Mello.

This mixed bag of Anthony's quote will leave you with his most looked for words of wisdom.

50. "As one man said, 'I got a pretty good education. It took me years to get over it.' That's what spirituality is all about, you know – unlearning. Unlearning all the rubbish they taught you."

- Anthony De Mello.

51. "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 earth."

- Anthony De Mello.

52. "That transformation is the consequence not of something done, but of something dropped."

- Anthony De Mello.

53. "The greatest learning of the ages lies in accepting life exactly as it comes to us."

- Anthony De Mello.

54. "Suppose somebody showed how we could truly love one another and be at peace. What could be more practical than that?"

- Anthony De Mello.

55. "This is a journey without distance. Stop traveling; you arrive."

- Anthony De Mello.

56. "When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today."

- Anthony De Mello.

57. "A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality."

- Anthony De Mello.

58. "Every word, every image used for God is a distortion more than a description."

- Anthony De Mello.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 58 Anthony De Mello quotes, then why not take a look at these John Steinbeck quotes or John Milton quotes too?