# Quote — Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

> All the misery on the planet arises due to a personalized sense of me or us. That covers up the essence of who you are. When you are unaware of that inner essence, in the end, you always create misery. It's as simple as that. When you don't know who you are, you create a mind-made self as a substitute for your beautiful, divine being and cling to that fearful and needy self. Protecting and enhancing that false sense of self then becomes your primary motivating force. (Ch 5)

- Author: [Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md)
- Book: [Stillness Speaks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#Stillness_Speaks_(2003)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/all-the-misery

## More from this book

> By knowing yourself as the awareness in which phenomenal existence happens, you become free of dependency on phenomena and free of self seeking in situations, places, and conditions. In other words, what happens or doesn't happen is not that important anymore. Things lose their heaviness, their seriousness. A playfulness comes into your life. You recognize this world as a cosmic dance, the dance of form. (Ch 5)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/by-knowing-yourself.md)

> The habitual and reactive “no” strengthens the ego. “Yes” weakens it. Your form identity, the ego, cannot survive surrender. (Ch 6)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/the-habitual-and.md)

> Most people's lives are run by desire and fear. Desire is the need to add something to yourself in order to be yourself more fully. All fear is the fear of losing something, and thereby become diminished and be less. These two movements obscure the fact that being cannot be given or taken away. Being in its fullness is already within you, now. (Ch 5)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/most-peoples-lives.md)