Quotes from Jiddu Krishnamurti

You may be ignorant of all the books in the world, and I hope you are, of all the latest theories, but that is not ignorance.

Mere isolation in an enclosing idea is not a release from conflict.

Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody, that is the beauty of it.

Being discontented, we either seek a different job or merely succumb to environment...instead of causing us to question life, the whole process of existence.

Contentment is not happiness. Contentment is stagnation and decay, whereas happiness is life and growth.

When the mind goes beyond the thought of 'the me,' the experiencer, the observer, the thinker, then there is a possibility of a happiness that is incorruptible.

The real student is studying, learning, inquiring, exploring, not just until he is twenty or twenty-five, but throughout life.

You may be reborn a thousand times, but you can never know the real, for only that which dies, that which comes to an end, can renew itself.

From innumerable complexities we must grow to simplicity; we must become simple in our inward life and in our outward needs.

Energy functioning in a pattern becomes matter. That is all life is... Matter and energy are interrelated.

[on the secret to a happy, content life] Do you want to know what my secret is? I don't mind what happens.

The fact is there is nothing that you can trust; and that is a terrible fact, whether you like it or not. Psychologically there is nothing in the world, that you can put your faith, your trust, or your belief in. Neither your gods, nor your science can save you, can bring you psychological certainty; and you have to accept that you can trust in absolutely nothing.

Any acceptance of authority is the very denial of truth.

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man

The flowering of love is meditation.

If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset.

If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay

Tradition, long conditioned thinking, can bring about a fixation, a concept that one readily accepts, perhaps not with a great deal of thought.

All tradition is merely the past.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely -- the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears- when you give your whole attention to it.

Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.