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We do not have a fear of the unknown. What we fear is giving up the known.

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
Unknown
Known
Fear
Giving

More quotes by Anthony de Mello

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A thought is a screen, not a mirror that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality.
Anthony de Mello
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Are you your clothes? Are you your name? Are you your profession? Stop identifying with them. They come and go
Anthony de Mello
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Why is everyone here so happy except me? Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere, said the Master. Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere? Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
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Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.
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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You can read books without ever stepping into a library and practice spirituality without ever going to a temple.
Anthony de Mello
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When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today.
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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Nobody is afraid of the unknown, what you really fear is the loss of the known.
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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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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May the peace of God disturb you always.
Anthony de Mello
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There's only one reason why you're not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it's because you're thinking or focusing on what you don't have....But, right now you have everything you need to be in bliss.
Anthony de Mello
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Behold God beholding you...and smiling.
Anthony de Mello
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People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.
Anthony de Mello
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You sanctify whatever you are grateful for.
Anthony de Mello
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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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You only change what you understand. What you do not understand and are not aware of, you repress. You dont change. But when you understand it, it changes.
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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All that you give to others you are giving to yourself.
Anthony de Mello