“Throughout history humans have inflicted countless violent, cruel, and hurtful acts on each other, and continue to do so. Are they all to be condemned; are they all guilty? Or are those acts simply expressions of unconsciousness, an evolutionary stage that we are now growing out of?
Jesus’ words, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do,” also apply to yourself.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“All artists, whether they know it or not create from a place of inner stillness, a place of no mind.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Whenever any kind of deep loss occurs in your life — such as loss of possessions, your home, a close relationship; or loss of your reputation, job, or physical abilities — something inside you dies. You feel diminished in your sense of who you are. There may also be a certain disorientation. “Without this...who am I?” When a form that you had unconsciously identified with as part of yourself leaves you or dissolves, that can be extremely painful. It leaves a hole, so to speak, in the fabric of your existence. When this happens, don't deny or ignore the pain or the sadness that you feel. Accept that it is there. Beware of your mind's tendency to construct a story around that loss in which you are assigned the role of victim. Fear, anger, resentment, or self-pity are the emotions that go with that role. Then become aware of what lies behind those emotions as well as behind the mind-made story: that hole, that empty space. Can you face and accept that strange sense of emptiness? If you do, you may find that it is no longer a fearful place. You may be surprised to find peace emanating from it. Whenever death occurs, whenever a life form dissolves, God, the formless and unmanifested, shines through the opening left by the dissolving form. That is why the most sacred thing in life is death. That is why the peace of God can come to you through the contemplation and acceptance of death.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Jesus’ words, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do,” also apply to yourself.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“There is something that matters more than any of those things and that is finding the essence of who you are beyond that short-lived entity, that short-lived personalized sense of self. You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Surrender comes when you no longer ask, “Why is this happening to me?”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life. Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this? Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your level of consciousness, you would think and act exactly as she does. With this realization comes forgiveness, compassion, peace. The ego doesn't like to hear this, because if it cannot be reactive and righteous anymore, it will lose strength.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Whenever you are immersed in compulsive thinking, you are avoiding what is. You don't want to be where you are. Here, Now.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“A moment of danger can bring about a temporary cessation of the stream of thinking and thus give you a taste of what it means to be present, alert, aware.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“You discover that a “bored person” is not who you are. Boredom is simply a conditioned energy movement within you. Neither are you an angry, sad, or fearful person. Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not “yours,” not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“To know another human being in their essence, you don't really need to know anything about them — their past, their history, their story.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Built into the very structure of the egoic self is a need to oppose, resist, and exclude to maintain the sense of separateness on which its continued survival depends. So there is “me” against the “other,” “us” against “them.” The ego needs to be in conflict with something or someone. That explains why you are looking for peace and joy and love but cannot tolerate them for very long. You say you want happiness but are addicted to your unhappiness. Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“The truth is: you don't have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or a blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy. Can you sense deep within that you already know that? Can you sense that you already are That?”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Become at ease with the state of “not knowing.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“What it doesn't say — but only points to — is more important than what it says.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“What will be left of all the fearing and wanting associated with your problematic life situation that every day takes up most of your attention? A dash — one or two inches long, between the date of birth and date of death on your gravestone. To the egoic self, this is a depressing thought. To you, it is liberating.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“The playfulness and joy of a dog, its unconditional love and readiness to celebrate life at any moment often contrast sharply with the inner state of the dog's owner — depressed, anxious, burdened by problems, lost in thought, not present in the only place and only time there is: Here and Now. One wonders: living with this person, how does the dog manage to remain so sane, so joyous?”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Jesus’ words, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do,” also apply to yourself.”
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not “yours,” not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“El amor no desea ni teme nada.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“Si puedes aprender a aceptar, e incluso a dar la bienvenida a los finales de tu vida, tal vez descubras que el sentimiento de vacío, que inicialmente te pareció incómodo, se convierte en una sensación de espacio interno que es profundamente apacible.”
― Eckhart Tolle, quote from Stillness Speaks
“She had no idea who the dagos were. Her racist vocabulary obviously needed work. What would a racist call werewolves? Wargs? She kind of liked that one, but suspected that racist bastards didn’t read Tolkien.”
― Patricia Briggs, quote from Fair Game
“An old hen is worth 40 chickens. ~ Hebe Jones”
― Julia Stuart, quote from The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise
“For remember, that it is altogether your world now. You and all the rest. We have delivered you from evil, but the evil that is inside men is at the last a matter for men to control. The responsibility and the hope and the promise are in your hands-your hands and the hands of all men on this earth. The future can not blame the present, just as the present can not blame the past. The hope is always here, always alive, but only your fierce caring can fan it into a fire to warm the world.
For Drake is no longer in his hammock, children, nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and it is up to you. Now especially since man has the strength to destroy the world, it is the responsibility of man to keep it alive, in all its beauty and marvelous joy.
And the world will still be imperfect, because men are imperfect. Good men will still be killed by bad, or sometimes by other good men, and there will still be pain and disease and famine, anger and hate. But if you work and care and are watchful, as we have tried to be for you, then in the long run the worse will never, ever, triumph over the better. And the gifts put into some men, that shine as bright as Eirias the sword, shall light the dark corners of life for all the rest, in so brave a world.”
― Susan Cooper, quote from Silver on the Tree
“Snow in April is abominable," said Anne. "Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.”
― L.M. Montgomery, quote from Anne of Ingleside
“Darkness as well as light. Or do I mean darkness, another kind of light? Lucifer would say so, and I have a weakness for fallen angels.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from Art and Lies
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.