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

Anthony de Mello

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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

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Extend your arms in welcome to the future. The best is yet to come!
Anthony de Mello
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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
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Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything.
Anthony de Mello
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I wish to become a teacher of the Truth.
Anthony de Mello
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One year of life is worth more than twenty years of hibernation.
Anthony de Mello
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Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling.
Anthony de Mello
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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
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You sanctify whatever you are grateful for.
Anthony de Mello
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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.
Anthony de Mello
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The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-Tzu's dictum: Those who know, do not say Those who say, do not know. When the master entered, they asked him what the words meant. Said the master, Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose? All of them indicated that they knew. Then he said, Put it into words. All of them were silent
Anthony de Mello
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the greatest learning of the ages lies in accepting life exactly as it comes to us.
Anthony de Mello
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There were rules in the monastery, but the Master always warned against the tyranny of the law. 'Obedience keeps the rules,' he would say. 'Love knows when to break them.'
Anthony de Mello
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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
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Has it ever occurred to you that you can only love when you are alone?
Anthony de Mello
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The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg the saint in a selfish human being.
Anthony de Mello
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To those who seek to protect their ego true Peace brings only disturbance.
Anthony de Mello
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Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed.
Anthony de Mello
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the tragedy of an attachment is that if its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained, it does not cause happiness – it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness, and it is always accompanied, of course, by the anxiety that you may lose the object of your attachment.
Anthony de Mello
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We're crazy, We're living on crazy ideas about love, about relationships, about happiness, about joy, about everything.
Anthony de Mello
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To fight evil with activity is like fighting darkness with one's hands. So what you need is light, not fit.
Anthony de Mello