It would be incredibly difficult to find someone who hasn’t heard of noted spiritual leader, Eckhart Tolle. He is one of the most famous spiritual authors in the world when it comes to mental health. Ever since he published his iconic bestseller, The Power Of Now, he has quickly become the most famous spiritual author in the United States Of America.
His beliefs, teachings, and sayings enjoy a cult following, not just in the West but around the world. Eckhart Tolle has always advocated the need to be in the present and enjoy it, and that is something that always reverberates with every single person. Here is a compilation of some of Eckhart Tolle’s quotes on love, life, happiness and so much more, to help you power through life.
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Self-Development
1. “To know another human being in their essence, you don’t really need to know anything about them — their past, their history, their story.”
2. “If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn’t even know you are thinking. You would be like a dreamer who doesn’t know he is dreaming. When you know you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream.”
3. “You are not the voice in your mind, but the one who is aware of it.”
4. “The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am.”
5. “What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.”
6. “Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”
7. “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
8. “Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”
9. “You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”
10. “To end the misery that has afflicted the human condition for thousands of years, you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment. That means now.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Present Moment
11. “Let me say it again: the present moment is all you ever have.”
12. “The moment you realize you are not present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence.”
13. “Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.”
14. “The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.”
15. “Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”
16. “People don’t realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.”
17. “The past has no power over the present moment.”
18. “All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present.”
19. “To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them – while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone, there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.”
20. “Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being. Feel your presence.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Life
21. “Be true to life by being true to your inner purpose. As you become present and thereby total in what you do, your actions become charged with spiritual power.”
You are the universe expressing yourself as a human for a little while.
22. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
23. “It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.”
24. “Faith is the substance of whatever it is that we hope for. The important thing is that we teach that faith is connected to good work and responsibility.”
25. “Life is the dancer and you are the dance.”
26. “Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.”
27. “Forget about your life situation and pay attention to your life. Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now. Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real.”
28. “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”
29. “The significance is hiding in the insignificant. Appreciate everything.”
30. “In today’s rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Happiness
31. “Don’t Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness”
32. “All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of unforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.”
33. “If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.”
34. “Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.”
35. “Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.”
36. “Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.”
37. “As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action.”
38. “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is.”
39. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
40. “On a deeper level, you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a joyous energy behind what you do.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Ego
41. “There is nothing that strengthens the ego more than being right. Being right is identification with a mental position – a perspective, an opinion, a judgment, a story. For you to be right, of course, you need someone else to be wrong, as so the ego loves to make wrong in order to be right.”
42. “The ego says, ‘I shouldn’t have to suffer,’ and that thought makes you suffer so much more. It is a distortion of the truth, which is always paradoxical. The truth is that you need to say yes to suffering before you can transcend it.”
43. “In surrender, you no longer need ego defenses and false masks. You become very simple, very real. “That’s dangerous,” says the ego. “You’ll get hurt. You’ll become vulnerable.” What the ego doesn’t know, of course, is that only through the letting go of resistance, through becoming “vulnerable,” can you discover your true and essential invulnerability.”
44. “When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation or accept it. All else is madness.”
45. “The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.”
46. “The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.”
47. “A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever.”
48. “In essence, you are neither inferior nor superior to anyone. True self-esteem and true humility arise out of that realization. In the eyes of the ego, self-esteem and humility are contradictory. In truth, they are one and the same.”
49. “Suppression of the feminine principle has enabled The Ego to gain absolute supremacy in the collective human psyche.”
50. “The decision to make the present moment into your friend is the end of the ego.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Change
51. “Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?”
52. “If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.”
53. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
54. “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”
55. “Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.”
56. “You are not ‘in the now;’ you are the now. That is your essential identity-the only thing that never changes. Life is always now. Now is consciousness. And consciousness is who you are. That’s the equation.”
57. “People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt, and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.”
58. “The moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.”
59. “There’s something in everybody that longs for that awakening to be more true to yourself.”
60. “When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation or accept it. All else is madness.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Thoughts
61. “But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others. If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane.”
62. “If you are in a state of intense presence you are free of thought, yet highly alert. If your conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in, the mental noise returns, stillness is lost, you’re back in time.”
63. “Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don’t realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.”
64. “If you identify with a mental position, then if you are wrong, your mind-based sense of self is seriously threatened with annihilation. So you as the ego cannot afford to be wrong. To be wrong is to die. Wars have been fought over this, and countless relationships have broken down.”
65. “Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.”
Stress is caused by being ‘HERE’ but wanting to be ‘THERE’
66. “When your sense of self is no longer tied to thought, is no longer conceptual, there is a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving, that was not there when you were trapped in mental concepts. You are that depth.”
67. “Acceptance is the embracing of what happens. Acceptance is a way of getting in touch with the deeper, timeless dimension of aware presence, simply through accepting that this is what is happening or this is what I am feeling or thinking.”
68. “The feeling will get you closer to the truth of who you are than thinking. I cannot tell you anything that deep within you don’t already know. When you have reached a certain stage of inner connectedness, you recognize the truth when you hear it. If you haven’t reached that stage yet, the practice of body awareness will bring about the deepening that is necessary.”
69. “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is.”
70. “Be aware of your breathing. Notice how this takes attention away from your thinking and creates space.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Consciousness
71. “You are not ‘in the now;’ you are the now. That is your essential identity-the only thing that never changes. Life is always now. Now is consciousness. And consciousness is who you are. That’s the equation.”
72. “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”
73. “If you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for life.”
74. “The key is to be in a state of permanent connectedness with your inner body – to feel it at all times. This will rapidly deepen and transform your life. The more consciousness you direct into the inner body, the higher its vibrational frequency becomes.”
Resistance is futile
The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life. The pain that you create now is always some form of non-acceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is
75. “I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don’t know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten.”
76. “But there’s a shift happening in humanity, a shift in consciousness, happening now because it has to happen now.”
77. “The Truth is inseparable from who you are. Yes, you are the Truth. If you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time.”
78. “If your mind carries a heavy burden of the past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through a lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.”
79. “The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp. When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are.”
80. “Whenever you step out of the noise of thinking, that is meditation, and a different state of consciousness arises.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Acceptance
81. “When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life.”
82. “All you really need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself.”
83. “Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.”
84. “Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being. Let it teach you integrity — which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real. Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.”
85. “Whatever you accept completely will take you to peace, including the acceptance that you cannot accept, that you are in resistance.”
86. “The moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.”
87. “Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality, it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.”
88. “The mental suffering you create is always some form of non-acceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. The intensity of the suffering depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment.”
89. “If you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others.”
90. “Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly.”
Eckhart Tolle’s Quotes On Mindfulness
91. “In today’s rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.”
92. “All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.”
Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.
93. “The past cannot survive in your presence. It can only survive in your absence.”
94. “If you walk into a forest – you hear all kinds of subtle sounds – but underneath there is an all-pervasive silence.”
95. “We have forgotten what rocks and plants still know – we have forgotten how to be – to be still – to be ourselves – to be where life is here and now.”
96. “Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.”
97. “The foundation of greatness is honoring the small things of the present moment, instead of pursuing the idea of greatness.”
98. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
99. “Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.”
100. “Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.”
Eckhart Tolle’s sayings will always make you feel like you have got a lifeboat when you feel like you are drowning in the sea of life. His teachings don’t just make you feel motivated and better, it gives you inner strength as well. And that is the one thing you need to power through life.
You May Also Like:
- Brené Brown’s Powerful Quotes on Accepting Yourself Whole-Heartedly
- 17 Hauntingly Beautiful Keanu Reeves Quotes About Life
- Some Motivational Quotes By The Legend Bruce Lee
- Eye-Opening Insightful Osho Quotes That Will Grow Your Wisdom
- Add To Your Wisdom With These Quotes By Sadhguru
Leave a Reply