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You can will an act of service but you cannot will love.

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
Service
Cannot
Love

More quotes by Anthony de Mello

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You keep insisting, I feel good because the world is right! Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That's what all the mystics are saying.
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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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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If you don't look at things through your concepts, you'll never be bored. Every single thing is unique.
Anthony de Mello
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You're so ashamed of your past drop it! You're so proud of your past drop it!
Anthony de Mello
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Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything.
Anthony de Mello
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It is a great mystery that though the human heart longs for Truth, in which alone it finds liberation and delight, the first reaction of human beings to Truth is one of hostility and fear!
Anthony de Mello
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Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth.
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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Both what you run from- and what you yearn for - are within you.
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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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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These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.
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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The poor think they will be happy when they become rich. The rich think they will be happy when they are rid of their ulcers.
Anthony de Mello
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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
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As the Japanese Zen masters say, “Don't seek the truth just drop your opinions”. Drop your theories don't seek the truth.
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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It's only when you become love - in other words, when you have dropped your illusions and attachments - that you will know. As you identify less and less with the me, you will be more at ease with everybody and with everything.
Anthony de Mello