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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
Sage
Finger
Points
Idiot
Sees
Fingers
Moon
Pointers

More quotes by Anthony de Mello

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People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favour progress, provided they can have it without change.
Anthony de Mello
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A Jesuit once wrote a note to Father Arrupe, his superior general, asking him about the relative value of communism, socialism and capitalism. Father Arrupe gave him a lovely reply. He said, A system is about as good or as bad as the people who use it. People with golden hearts would make capitalism or communism or socialism work beautifully.
Anthony de Mello
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As soon as you look at the world through an ideology, you are finished. No reality fits ideology.
Anthony de Mello
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When someone offends you, you can raise your spirits to heights where offenses cannot reach.
Anthony de Mello
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If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future.
Anthony de Mello
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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.
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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Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
Anthony de Mello
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There comes a point in your life when you become stark raving insane, commit suicide or become a mystic.
Anthony de Mello
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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 .
Anthony de Mello
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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
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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
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Love springs from awareness.
Anthony de Mello
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There is yet another illusion, that it is important to be respectable, to be loved and appreciated, to be important. Many say we have a natural urge to be loved and appreciated, to belong. That’s false. Drop this illusion and you will find happiness. We have a natural urge to be free, a natural urge to love, but not to be loved.
Anthony de Mello
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You're not living until it doesn't matter a tinker's damn to you whether you live or die. At that point you live. When you're ready to lose your life, you live it.
Anthony de Mello
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Wisdom can be learned. But it cannot be taught.
Anthony de Mello
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The feigning sleeper can delude others he cannot delude himself. The false mystic, unfortunately, can delude both others and himself.
Anthony de Mello
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Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.
Anthony de Mello
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What is the work of a Master? said a solemn-faced visitor. To teach people to laugh , said the Master gravely.
Anthony de Mello
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Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed.
Anthony de Mello