Anthony de Mello Quotes

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

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

It is a sobering thought that the finest act of love you can perform is not an act of service but an act of contemplation, of seeing.

Life is a banquet. And the tragedy is that most people are starving to death.

Repentance brings an intense desire for God, deep gratitude, and a growth in self-awareness that increases our freedom to love.

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

Neurotičar je osoba koja brine zbog nečega što se nije dogodilo u prošlosti. On nije kao mi, normalni ljudi, koji brinemo zbog nečega što se neće dogoditi u budućnosti.

How does one cope with evil? Not by fighting it but by understanding it. In understanding, it disappears. How does one cope with darkness? Not with one's fist. You don't chase darkness out of the room with a broom, you turn on a light. The more you fight darkness, the more real it becomes to you, and the more you exhaust yourself. But when you turn on the light of awareness, it melts.

Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed: after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed.” But there’s a difference: I don’t identify with it anymore.

I feel good because the world is right." Wrong! The world is right because I feel good.

In order to be genuinely happy there is one and only one thing you need to do: get deprogrammed, get rid of those attachments.

See how you attempt to bring about change — both in yourself and in others — through the use of punishment and reward, through discipline and control, through sermonizing and guilt, through greed and pride, ambition and vanity, rather than through loving acceptance and patience, painstaking understanding and vigilant awareness.

When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets, and is out of his mind. His skill has not changed, but the prize divides him. He cares! He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power.

Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self.

Because agreement and disagreement have to do with words and concepts and theories. They don’t have anything to do with truth. Truth is never expressed in words. Truth is sighted suddenly, as a result of a certain attitude.