65 Eckhart Tolle Quotes to Help You Embrace the Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle quotes can run the gamut from profound to, frankly, magnetic poetry. (Remember that, millennials?) The Oprah Winfrey-loved self-help author and spiritual teacher praises the power of being present and embracing stillness and encourages his readers and followers to eschew material motivations in favor of enlightenment.

While his teachings may not be for everyone, as one of the most popular New Age, spirituality and self-help authors in the world, he certainly has some appeal. Get a feel for his vibe with some of his best quotes below and start manifesting your own inner peace.

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65 Eckhart Tolle Quotes

1. "You are here to enable the divine purpose of the Universe to unfold, that is how important you are."

2. "Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be."

3. "Love is recognizing oneness in others."

4. "Nothing real can be threatened."

5. "Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose."

6. "When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself."

7. "When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world."

8. "If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small."

9. "You are awareness, disguised as a person."

10. "What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something that already is?"

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11. "What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly." 

12. "Resistance causes us to dwell in our mind, acceptance allows us to dwell in the joy of now."

13. "The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be."

14. "The present moment is the only thing that's real, everything else is just in our head."

15. "You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don't have a life. You are life."

16. "As far as your life situation is concerned, there may be things to be attained or acquired. That's the world of form, of gain and loss. Yet on a deeper level you are already complete, and when you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do." 

17. "Being free of psychological time, you no longer pursue your goals with grim determination, driven by fear, anger, discontent, or the need to become someone. Nor will you remain inactive through fear of failure, which to the ego is loss of self." 

18. "When your deeper sense of self is derived from Being, when you are free of 'becoming' as a psychological need, neither your happiness nor your sense of self depends on the outcome, and so there is freedom from fear." 

19. "The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that." 

20. "Where there is anger there is always pain underneath."

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21. "There's never a time when our life is anything except the present moment."

22. "Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don't see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being."

23. "The quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes, and the more deadened you become to reality."

24. "Treat the present moment like you purposely created it exactly like it is."

25. "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."

26. "You are not in the universe, you are the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately, you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle."

27. "That in you which recognizes madness as madness (even if it is your own) is sanity, is the arising awareness, is the end of insanity."

28. "Stop looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love. You have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer."

29. "Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth."

30. "Don't demand that situations, conditions, places, or people should make you happy, and then suffer when they don’t live up to your expectations."

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31 "The foundation of greatness is honoring the small things of the present moment, instead of pursuing the idea of greatness."

32. "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."

33. "Practice presence. Embrace the place where life happens."

34. "The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually don't use it at all. It uses you."

35. "Negativity is totally unnatural. No other life form on the planet knows negativity, only humans, just as no other life form violates and poisons the Earth that sustains it."

36. "Everything is honored, but nothing matters."

37. "Nonresistance, nonjudgement and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living."

38. "Whatever you do takes time, and yet it is always now."

39. "When you let go of the belief that you should or need to know who you are, what happens to confusion? Suddenly it is gone. When you fully accept that you don't know, you actually enter a state of peace and clarity that is closer to who you truly are than thought could ever be. Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself."

40. "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."

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41. "Die to the past every moment. You don't need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present."

42. "It is precisely through the onset of old age, through loss or personal tragedy, that the spiritual dimension would traditionally come into people's lives. This is to say, their inner purpose would emerge only as their outer purpose collapsed and the shell of the ego would begin to crack open. The emphasis shifts from doing to Being, and our civilization, which is lost in doing, knows nothing of Being."

43. "Each person's life—each lifeform, in fact—represents a world, a unique way in which the universe experiences itself."

44. "'Fulfill me, make me happy, make me feel safe, tell me who I am.' The world cannot give you those things, and when you no longer have such expectations, all self-created suffering comes to an end."

45. "All the things that truly matter—beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace—arise from beyond the mind."

46. "A significant portion of the earth's population will soon recognize, if they haven't already done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die."

47. "Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance."

48. "Nothing has ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now. If the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?"

49. "True Power is within, and it is available now."

50. "The present moment is all you will ever have."

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51. "Love makes the world less worldly, less dense, more transparent to the divine dimension, the light of consciousness itself."

52. "There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness. That realization is true forgiveness."

53. "Don't seek permanency where it cannot be found: in the world of form, of gain and loss, birth and death."

54. "Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them."

55. "Being an outsider to some extent, someone who does not fit in with others or is rejected by them for whatever reason, makes life difficult, but it also places you at an advantage as far as enlightenment is concerned. It takes you out of unconsciousness almost by force."

56. "In essence, you are neither inferior nor superior to anyone. True self-esteem and true humility arise out of that realization."

57. "Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought."

58. "How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them."

59. "Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world."

60. "The stronger the ego, the more it's rooted in time. You depend on past events for identity and future for fulfillment."

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61. "Suffering needs time. It cannot survive in the now."

62. "If there isn't an emanation of love and joy, complete presence and openness toward all beings, then it is not enlightenment."

63. "Emotions arise in the place where your mind and body meet."

64. "The secret to life is to die before you die and find that there is no death."

65. "Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal."

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