Eckhart Tolle is a famous spiritual teacher best known for his bestselling book “The Power Of Now“.
Tolle teaches mindfulness and living in the now as a means to gain happiness and success because now is all that really exists.
Below are 67 of the best Eckhart Tolle quotes on the present, life and happiness.
67 Eckhart Tolle Quotes
1. “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.” – Eckhart Tolle
2. “The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.” – Eckhart Tolle
3. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle
4. “There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.” – Eckhart Tolle
5. “Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.” – Eckhart Tolle
6. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle
7. “Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.” – Eckhart Tolle
8. “People look to time in expectation that it will eventually make them happy, but you cannot find true happiness by looking toward the future.” – Eckhart Tolle
9. “If you are not living this moment, you are not really living.” – Eckhart Tolle
10. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle
11. “Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.” – Eckhart Tolle
12. “If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.” – Eckhart Tolle
13. “If there are people you haven’t forgiven, you’re not going to really awaken. You have to let go.” – Eckhart Tolle
14. “It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.” – Eckhart Tolle
15. “Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.” – Eckhart Tolle
16. “To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.” – Eckhart Tolle
17. “Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.” – Eckhart Tolle
18 .”People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgements, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.” – Eckhart Tolle
19. “Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.” – Eckhart Tolle
20. “Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.” – Eckhart Tolle
21. “You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection – you cannot cope with the future.” – Eckhart Tolle
22. “When you get into your car, shut the door and be there for just half a minute. Breathe, feel the energy inside your body, look around at the sky, the trees. The mind might tell you, ‘I don’t have time.’ But that’s the mind talking to you. Even the busiest person has time for 30 seconds of space.” – Eckhart Tolle
23. “Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.” – Eckhart Tolle
24. “You are the universe, you aren’t in the universe.” – Eckhart Tolle
25. “The more you live in the present moment, the more the fear of death disappears.” – Eckhart Tolle
26. “Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some external form.” – Eckhart Tolle
27. “So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.” – Eckhart Tolle
28. “If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.” – Eckhart Tolle
29. “Even the most seemingly unpleasant situations – if you become aligned with it, something good will emerge from that.” – Eckhart Tolle
30. “If danger arises in the present moment, there may be an emotion. There may even be pain. But that’s a challenge, not a problem. For a problem to exist, you need time and repetitive mind activity.” – Eckhart Tolle
31. “The past has no power over the present moment.” – Eckhart Tolle
32. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle
33. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle
34. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle
35. “Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”- Eckhart Tolle
36. “Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.” – Eckhart Tolle
37. “You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.” – Eckhart Tolle
38. “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” – Eckhart Tolle
39. “Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.” – Eckhart Tolle
40. “Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.” – Eckhart Tolle
41. “Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.” – Eckhart Tolle
42. “Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.” – Eckhart Tolle
43. “If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.” – Eckhart Tolle
44. “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 nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.” – Eckhart Tolle
45. “Don’t Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness.” – Eckhart Tolle
46. “Stop looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfilment, for validation, security, or love – you have a treasure within that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” – Eckhart Tolle
47. “Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there’.” – Eckhart Tolle
48. “All problems are illusions of the mind.” – Eckhart Tolle
49. “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” – Eckhart Tolle
50. “So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to dis-identify from your mind.” – Eckhart Tolle
51. “Anything you accept fully will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.” – Eckhart Tolle
52. “When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.” – Eckhart Tolle
53. “All you need to know and observe in yourself is this: Whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that’s the ego in you.” – Eckhart Tolle
54. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle
55. “Nothing that comes and goes is you.” – Eckhart Tolle
56. “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?” – Eckhart Tolle
57. “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. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.” – Eckhart Tolle
58. “Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Whatever the substance you are addicted to – alcohol, food, legal or illegal drugs, or a person – you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain.” – Eckhart Tolle
59. “When you surrender to what is and so become fully present, the past ceases to have any power. You do not need it anymore. Presence is the key. Now is the key.” – Eckhart Tolle
60. “Accept — then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” – Eckhart Tolle
61. “Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.” – Eckhart Tolle
62. “The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future, which, of course, can only be experienced as the Now.” – Eckhart Tolle
63. “To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfilment.” – Eckhart Tolle
64. “You find peace, not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” – Eckhart Tolle
65. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle
66. “If you are in the habit of creating suffering for yourself, you are probably creating suffering for others too.” – Eckhart Tolle
67. “Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.” – Eckhart Tolle
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