Quote

When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.

Anthony de Mello

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Anthony de Mello
Age: 55 †
Born: 1931
Born: September 4
Died: 1987
Died: June 2
Philosopher
Priest
Psychologist
Theologian
Writer
Bombay
Finger
Points
Idiot
Sees
Fingers
Moon
Pointers
Sage

More quotes by Anthony de Mello

Image
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.
Anthony de Mello
Image
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
Image
We live in a flash of light evening comes and it is night forever. It's only a flash and we waste it. We waste it with our anxiety, our worries, our concerns, our burdens.
Anthony de Mello
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I leave you free to be yourself: to think your thoughts, indulge your tastes, follow your inclinations, behave in ways that you decide are to your liking.
Anthony de Mello
Image
Has it ever occurred to you that you can only love when you are alone?
Anthony de Mello
Image
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
Image
May the peace of God disturb you always.
Anthony de Mello
Image
There comes a point in your life when you become stark raving insane, commit suicide or become a mystic.
Anthony de Mello
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Most people don't live aware lives. They live mechanical lives, mechanical thoughts - generally somebody else's - mechanical emotions, mechanical actions, mechanical reactions.
Anthony de Mello
Image
No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.
Anthony de Mello
Image
A good teacher offers practice, a bad one offers theories.
Anthony de Mello
Image
The present moment is never intolerable. What's intolerable is what's going to happen in the next four hours. To have your body here at 8 pm and your mind at 10:30 pm, that's what causes us suffering.
Anthony de Mello
Image
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