Quote

I'm going to write a book someday and the title will be I'm an Ass, You're an Ass. That's the most liberating, wonderful thing in the world, when you openly admit you're an ass. It's wonderful. When people tell me, You're wrong I say, What can you expect of an ass?

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
Going
Expect
World
Wonderful
Openly
People
Wrong
Liberating
Write
Title
Tell
Ass
Book
Titles
Writing
Someday
Thing
Admit

More quotes by Anthony de Mello

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Think of a flabby person covered with layers of fat. That is what your mind can become - flabby, covered with layers of fat till it becomes too dull and lazy to think, to observe, to explore, to discover ... not wanting to be disturbed or questioned into wakefulness.
Anthony de Mello
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There's nothing you can do to see — it is a gift.
Anthony de Mello
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This is what is ultimate in our human knowledge of God, to know that we do not know.
Anthony de Mello
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The Master made it his task to destroy systematically every doctrine, every belief, every concept of the divine, for these things, which were originally intended as pointers, were now being taken as descriptions. He loved to quote the Eastern saying When the sage points to the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.
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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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 day you are happy for no reason whatsoever, the day you find yourself taking delight in everything and in nothing, you will know that you have found the land of unending joy called the kingdom.
Anthony de Mello
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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
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Can one be fully human without experiencing tragedy? The only tragedy there is in the world is ignorance all evil comes from that.
Anthony de Mello
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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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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
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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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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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When I speak, you must not listen to the words, my dear. Listen to the Silence.
Anthony de Mello
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The only way to change is by changing your understanding.
Anthony de Mello
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Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.
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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The spiritual quest is a journey without distance. You travel from where you are right now To where you have always been. From ignorance to recognition.
Anthony de Mello
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So love the thought of death, love it.
Anthony de Mello
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Both what you run from- and what you yearn for - are within you.
Anthony de Mello