Quotes from Meister Eckhart

I am what I wanted and I want what I am.

If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly.

I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart.

All God wants of man is a peaceful heart.

God is not good, or else he could do better.

Nobody at any time is cut off from God.

For the person who has learned to let go and let be, nothing can ever get in the way again.

A just person is one who is conformed and transformed into justice.

I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth.

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

Do not cling to the symbols, but get to the inner truth!

Even stones have a love, a love that seeks the ground.

Where intuition finds, love follows, and memory and all the soul as well.

There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence.

When the Soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it.

God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are a created being made and let God be God in you.

A pure heart is one that is unencumbered, unworried, uncommitted and which does not want its own way about anything but which, rather, is submerged in the loving will of God.

The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it is to come out, for if you want the kernel you must break the shell.

What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.

Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow-for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort.

Wisdom consists in doing the next think you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.

When a man sees the one in all things, he is above mere understanding.

Man goes far away or near but God never goes far-off; he is always standing close at hand, and even if he cannot stay within he goes no further than the door.

In silence man can most readily preserve his integrity.