101+ Eckhart Tolle Quotes That Will Change Your Life (2024)

Eckhart Tolle is a world-renowned spiritual teacher and author who has written extensively on the power of the present moment.

His teachings have touched the lives of millions of people worldwide, and his quotes are often cited as being incredibly insightful and inspiring.

This article will explore 101+ of Eckhart Tolle’s most powerful quotes that can change your life!

Who is Eckhart Tolle?

Born in Germany, Eckhart Tolle is one of the most recognized and visionary spiritual leaders globally.

Best known for his book, “The Power of Now,” Eckhart’s teachings focus on living in the present moment. Eckhart himself says that he was “awakened” at 29 years after many years of suffering from depression.

Eckhart’s message is simple yet profound: by living in the present moment, we can find true peace and happiness.

Now that we have some background, let’s dive into Eckhart Tolle’s quotes!

101+ Eckhart Tolle Quotes

Eckhart Tolle Quotes to Help You Live Life in the Present

#1. “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#2. “Accept—then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. This will miraculously transform your whole life.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#3. “The past has no power over the present moment.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#4. “The moment you realize you are not present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#5. “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.

#6. “It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle quote on the present

#7. “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#8. “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.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#9. “Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#10. “If not now, when?”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#11. “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.

#12. “The past has no power over the present moment.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#13. “People look to time expecting that it will eventually make them happy, but you cannot find true happiness by looking toward the future.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#14. “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.

#15. “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.

#16. “How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#17. “The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#18. It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.

– Eckhart Tolle.

#19. “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.

#20. “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.

#21. “In today’s rush, we all overthink, seek too much, want too much, and forget about the joy of just being.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#22. “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.

#23. “Let me say it again: the present moment is all you ever have.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#24. “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 do. That is success.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#25. “All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#26. “Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

quotes by Eckhart Tolle on staying present

#27. “To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#28. “Who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions because it’s beyond that. It is the very sense of being, or presence, that is there when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment are, at the deepest level, one.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#29. “I’m grateful for always this moment, the now, no matter what form it takes.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#30. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry, and all forms of fear are caused by too much future and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of unforgiveness are caused by too much past and not enough presence.

– Eckhart Tolle.

#31. “Doing is never enough if you neglect being.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#32. “Forget about your life situation and pay attention to your life. Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now. Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#33. “You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#34. “Where ever you are, be there totally.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#35. “Be true to life by being true to your inner purpose. As you become present and thereby total in what you do, your actions become charged with spiritual power.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#36. As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action.

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle quotes on embracing the present

Eckhart Tolle Quotes About Love

#37. “Love and joy are inseparable from your natural state of inner connectedness with Being. Glimpses of love and joy or brief moments of deep peace are possible whenever a gap occurs in the stream of thought.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#38. “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.

#39. “To love is to recognize yourself in another.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#40. “Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on love

#41. “Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#42. “All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy, and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#43. “The entire phenomenal universe exists because of the tension between the opposites. Hot and cold, growth and decay, gain and loss, success and failure, the polarities that are part of existence, and of course part of every relationship.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#44. “Love is not selective, just as the light of the sun is not selective. It does not make one person special. It is not exclusive. Exclusivity is not the love of God but the ‘love’ of ego. “

– Eckhart Tolle.

#45. “The intensity with which true love is felt can vary. There may be one person who reflects your love back to you more clearly and more intensely than others, and if that person feels the same toward you, it can be said that you are in a love relationship with him or her. The bond that connects you with that person (your love) is the same bond that connects you with the person sitting next to you on a bus or with a bird, a tree, or a flower. Only the degree of intensity with which it is felt differs.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Love Quotes

#46. “The object of love is interchangeable, as interchangeable as the object of egoic wanting. Some people go through many relationships. They fall in love and out of love many times. They love a person for a while until it doesn’t work anymore because no person can permanently cover up that pain.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#47. “A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#48. “Internal and external are ultimately one. When you no longer perceive the world as hostile, there is no more fear, and when there is no more fear, you think, speak, and act differently. Love and compassion arise, and they affect the world.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#49. “To the ego, loving and wanting are the same, whereas true love has no wanting in it, no desire to possess or for your partner to change.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#50. “To know another human being in their essence, you don’t really need to know anything about them — their past, history, or story.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes about Love

#51. “True communication is communion — the realization of oneness, which is love.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#52. “You cannot love your partner one moment and attack him or her the next. True love has no opposite.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#53. “Only beyond form, in being, are you equal, and only when you find the formless dimension in yourself can there be true love in that relationship. The presence that you are, the timeless I Am, recognizes itself in another, and the other, the child, in this case, feels loved, that is to say, recognized.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#54. Love as a continuous state is as yet very rare – as rare as conscious human beings. Brief and elusive glimpses of love, however, are possible whenever there is a gap in the stream of mind.

– Eckhart Tolle.

#55. “Real love doesn’t make you suffer. How could it? It doesn’t suddenly turn into hate, nor does real joy turn into pain.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#56. “If you are in the habit of creating suffering for yourself, you are probably creating suffering for others.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Love Quotes by Eckhart Tolle

#57. “The longing for love in every child is the longing to be recognized, not on the level of form, but on the level of Being.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#58. “What is commonly called ‘falling in love’ is in most cases an intensification of egoic wanting and needing. You become addicted to another person, or rather to your image of that person. It has nothing to do with true love, which contains no wanting whatsoever.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Related: 120+ Best Quotes For Overthinkers

Eckhart Tolle Quotes to Help You Find Happiness

#59. Joy does not come from what you do. It flows into what you do and thus into this world from deep within you

– Eckhart Tolle

#60. “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your 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

#61. “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

#62. “… there are two ways of being unhappy. Not getting what you want is one. Getting what you want is the other.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#63. “Don’t Seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it because seeking is the antithesis of happiness.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#64. “Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#65. “Even the most seemingly unpleasant situations – if you become aligned with it, something good will emerge from that.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#66. “Above all, the only thing you have to heal is the present thought. Get that right, and the whole picture will change into one of harmony and joy.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#67. “All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace, arise from beyond the mind.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#68. “The moment that judgment stops by accepting what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#69. “Acknowledging the good you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on happiness

#70. “Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#71. “If there isn’t an emanation of love and joy, complete presence and openness toward all beings, then it is not enlightenment.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#72. “The joy of being, which is the only true happiness, cannot come to you through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event—through anything that happens. That joy cannot come to you. It emanates from the formless dimension within you, from consciousness itself, and thus is one with who you are.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Related: 101+ Best Strong Woman Walk Away Quotes

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on Life and Death

#73. “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.

#74. “Fear seems to have many causes. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of being hurt, and so on, but ultimately all fear is the ego’s fear of death, of annihilation. To the ego, death is always just around the corner. In this mind-identified state, fear of death affects every aspect of your life.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#75. “The more you live in the present moment, the more the fear of death disappears.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on Death

#76. “If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years, you become conditioned without knowing it.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#77.  “It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#78. “Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#79. Instead of asking, “what do I want from life?” The more powerful question is, “what does life want from me?”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#80. “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.

#81. “Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#82. “Living up to an image of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#83. “Faith is the substance of whatever it is that we hope for. The important thing is that we teach that faith is connected to goof works and responsibility.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#84. “What a caterpillar calls the end of the world, we call a butterfly.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes about death

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on Ego

#85. “When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings or other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#86. “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.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#87. “The ego says, ‘I shouldn’t have to suffer,’ and that thought makes you suffer so much more. It is a distortion of the truth, which is always paradoxical. The truth is that you need to say yes to suffering before you can transcend it.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#88. “The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind pattern. Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#89. “To me, the ego is the habitual and compulsive thought processes that continuously go through everybody’s mind. External things like possessions or memories or failures or successes or achievements. Your personal history.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on ego

#90. “In essence, you are neither inferior nor superior to anyone. True self-esteem and true humility arise out of that realization. In the eyes of the ego, self-esteem and humility are contradictory. In truth, they are one and the same.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#91. “In surrender, you no longer need ego defenses and false masks. You become very simple, very real.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#92. “The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, your work, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#93. “Because of its phantom nature, and despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and insecure, and it sees itself as constantly under threat. This, by the way, is the case even if the ego is outwardly very confident.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle ego quotes

Eckhart Tolle on the State of Consciousness

#94. “Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#95. “The joy of being, which is the only true happiness, cannot come to you through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event—through anything that happens. That joy cannot come to you—ever. It emanates from the formless dimension within you, from consciousness itself, and thus is one with who you are.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#96. “Become conscious of being conscious.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on the State of Conciousness

#97. “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 you have, but you cannot lose something you are.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#98. “Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality, it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#99. “That is the real spiritual awakening when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#100. “Being spiritual has nothing to do with what you believe and everything to do with your state of consciousness.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Related: 101+ Best Effort In Relationship Quotes

#101. “Some people awaken spiritually without ever coming into contact with any meditation technique or any spiritual teaching. They may awaken simply because they can’t stand the suffering anymore.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#102. “The power is in you. The answer is in you. And you are the answer to all your searches: You are the goal. You are the answer. It’s never outside.”

– Eckhart Tolle

#103. “All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no mind, from inner stillness.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on artists

Other Eckhart Tolle Quotes

#104. “This, too, will pass.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#105. “All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and the future as a substitute for the joy of Being.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#106. “The significance is hiding in the insignificant. Appreciate everything.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#107. “Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#108 “Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle Quotes on self

#109. “The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#110. “If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#111. “If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#112. “So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

#113. “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. You are not the voice in your mind but the one who is aware of it.”

– Eckhart Tolle.

Eckhart Tolle quote about the self

Final Thoughts

There you go.

101+ Eckhart Tolle quotes that will change your life.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. I would love to hear your thoughts on Eckhart Tolle’s quotes in the comments section below.

Also, if you know of any other Eckhart Tolle quotes that should be on this list, please let me know, and I will add them.

Until next time, stay blessed and keep smiling.

About The Author

Bijan Kholghi is a certified life coach with the Milton Erickson Institute Heidelberg (Germany). He helps clients and couples reach breakthroughs in their lives by changing subconscious patterns. His solution-oriented approach is based on Systemic- and Hypnotherapy.

Bijan