Byron Katie quotes

“A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but our attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.”

“All I have is all I need and all I need is all I have in this moment.”

“All the advice you ever gave your partner is for you to hear.”

“An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.”

“As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.”

“Being present means living without control and always having your needs met.”

“Don't be careful. You could hurt yourself.”

“Don't believe every thing you think.”

“Everyone is a mirror image of yourself—your own thinking coming back at you.”

“How do you react when you think you need people's love? Do you become a slave for their approval? Do you live an inauthentic life because you can't bear the thought that they might disapprove of you? Do you try to figure out how they would like you to be, and then try to become that, like a chameleon? In fact, you never really get their love. You turn into someone you aren't, and then when they say "I love you," you can't believe it, because they're loving a facade. They're loving someone who doesn't even exist, the person you're pretending to be. It's difficult to seek other people's love. It's deadly. In seeking it, you lose what is genuine. This is the prison we create for ourselves as we seek what we already have.”

“Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be caused by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That's not a possibility. It's only when I believe a stressful thought that I get hurt. And I'm the one who's hurting me by believing what I think. This is very good news, because it means that I don't have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I'm the one who can stop hurting me. It's within my power. We either believe what we think or we question it: there's no other choice. ”

“I am a lover of what is, not because I'm a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality.”

“I love what I think, and I'm never tempted to believe it.”

“I've always been just me, but I was the last to know that it was all right.”

“If you put your hand into a fire, does anyone have to tell you to move it? Do you have to decide? No: When your hand starts to burn, it moves. You don’t have to direct it; the hand moves itself. In the same way, once you understand, through inquiry, that an untrue thought causes suffering, you move away from it.”

“In reality, the pain we feel about a past event is created in the present.”

“Isn’t it marvelous to discover that you’re the one you’ve been waiting for? That you are your own freedom?”

“It's not your job to like me - it's mine.”

“Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.”

“Life is so simple: We walk; we sit; we lie horizontal. That's about it. Everything else is a story about what's going on while we're doing it.”

“Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.”

“My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we’re living with right now.”

“Nothing comes ahead of its time, and nothing ever happened that didn't need to happen.”

“Our parents, our children, our spouses, and our friends will continue to press every button we have, until we realize what it is that we don't want to know about ourselves, yet. They will point us to our freedom every time.”

“Peace doesn't require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there.”

“Placing the blame or judgment on someone else leaves you powerless to change your experience; taking responsibility for your beliefs and judgments gives you the power to change them.”

“Romantic love is the story of how you need another person to complete you. It’s an absolutely insane story. My experience is that I need no one to complete me. As soon as I realize that, everyone completes me.”

“Seeking love keeps you from the awareness that you already have it—that you are it.”

“Self-realization is the sweetest thing. It shows us how we are fully responsible for ourselves, and that is where we find our freedom.”

“Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to change the world so that they can be happy. This hasn’t ever worked, because it approaches the problem backward. What The Work gives us is a way to change the projector—mind—rather than the projected. It’s like when there’s a piece of lint on a projector’s lens. We think there’s a flaw on the screen, and we try to change this person and that person, whomever the flaw appears on next. But it’s futile to try to change the projected images. Once we realize where the lint is, we can clear the lens itself. This is the end of suffering, and the beginning of a little joy in paradise.”

“That’s what inquiry is for, to break through stressful mythology. ”

“The miracle of love comes to you in the presence of the uninterpreted moment. If you are mentally somewhere else, you miss real life.”

“The only way I can be angry at you is when I have thought, said, or done something that is unkind in my own opinion.”

“The teacher you need is the person you're living with.”

“The world is your perception of it. Inside and outside always match - they're reflections of each other. The world is a mirror image of your mind.”

“There is nothing that isn't true if you believe it; and nothing is true, believe it or not.”

“Thinking that people are supposed to do or be anything other than what they are is like saying that the tree over there should be the sky. I investigated that and found freedom.”

“This is true freedom: a mind that is no longer deceived by itself.”

“Whatever it takes for you to find your freedom, that's what you've lived.”

“When I am perfectly clear, what is is what I want.”

“When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your work is done.”

“When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.”

“When you argue with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time.”

“Whenever you mentally oppose what is, you’re going to experience sadness and apparent separation. There’s no sadness without a story. What is is. You are it.”

“You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer”

“You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.”

“You’re just suffering from the belief that there’s something missing from your life. In reality, you always have what you need.”