# Anthony De Mello - Quotes: 43 - Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello ## Books - [One Minute Wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom.md) — 38 quotes - [The Way to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/the-way-to-love.md) — 5 quotes ## Recently added quotes > Mostly the discontent that you feel comes from not having enough of something — you are dissatisfied because you think you do not have enough money or power or success or fame or virtue or love or holiness. This is not the discontent that leads to the joy of the kingdom. Its source is greed and ambition and its fruit is restlessness and frustration. The day you are discontented not because you want more of something but without knowing what it is you want; when you are sick at heart of everything you are pursuing so far and you are sick of the pursuing itself, then your heart will attain a great clarity, an insight that will cause you mysteriously to delight in everything and in nothing. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/the-way-to-love/mostly-the-discontent.md) > If you search within your heart, you will find something there that will make it possible for you to understand: a spark of disenchantment and discontent, which if fanned into flame will become a raging forest fire that will burn up the whole of the illusory world you are living in, thereby unveiling to your wondering eyes the kingdom that you have always lived in unsuspectingly. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/the-way-to-love/if-you-search.md) > 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. So they are spared the guilt and anxiety that so torment human beings and they are full of the sheer joy of living, taking delight not so much in persons or things as in life itself. As long as your happiness is caused or sustained by something or someone outside of you, you are still in the land of the dead. 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/the-way-to-love/if-you-want.md) > It is the desire for "the more" that prevents clear thinking, whereas if we are discontent, not because we want something, but without knowing what we want; if we are dissatisfied with our jobs, with making money, with seeking position and power, with tradition, with what we have and with what we might have; if we are dissatisfied, not with anything in particular but with everything, then I think we shall find that our discontent brings clarity. When we don't accept or follow, but question, investigate, penetrate, there is an insight out of which comes creativity, joy. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/the-way-to-love/it-is-the.md) > To find the kingdom is the easiest thing in the world but also the most difficult. Easy because it is all around you and within you, and all you have to do is reach out and take possession of it. Difficult because if you wish to possess the kingdom you may possess nothing else. That is, you must drop all inward leaning on any person or thing, withdrawing from them forever the power to thrill you, or excite you, or to give you a feeling of security or well-being. For this, you first need to see with unflinching clarity this simple and shattering truth: Contrary to what your culture and religion have taught you, nothing, but absolutely nothing can make you happy. The moment you see that, you will stop moving from one job to another, one friend to another, one place, one spiritual technique, one guru to another. None of these things can give you a single minute of happiness. They can only offer you a temporary thrill, a pleasure that initially grows in intesity, then turns into pain if you lose them and into boredom if you keep them. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/the-way-to-love/to-find-the.md) > The Master insisted that what he taught was nothing, what he did was nothing. > > His disciples gradually discovered that Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything. > > That transformation is the consequence not of something done, but of something dropped. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/the-master-insisted.md) > The Master would insist that the final barrier to our attaining God was the word and concept "God." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/the-master-would-insist.md) > 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." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/there-were-rules.md) > A good teacher offers practice, a bad one offers theories. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/a-good-teacher.md) > "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." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/why-is-everyone.md) > 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 practise this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/any-time-you.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/people-who-want.md)