Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.
Meister EckhartRead
A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the complexity of human identity and the importance of self-discovery.
Meister Eckhart's quote reflects on the idea that individuals often have multiple layers of identity, akin to various 'skins' that protect their innermost selves. It suggests that despite the wealth of knowledge we possess about the world, true understanding comes from introspection and grappling with our own depths, urging us to strip away the external layers to engage with our core self.
Themes
Self-DiscoveryIdentityIntrospectionPhilosophyKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth.
More from Meister Eckhart
All quotes →...Where and when God finds you ready, he must act and overflow into you, just as when the air is clear and pure, the sun must overflow into it and cannot refrain from doing that.
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What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.
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In this breaking-through, I receive that God and I are one. Then I am what I was, and then I neither diminish nor increase, for I am then an immovable cause that moves all things.
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Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God.
Meister EckhartRead
If you love yourself, you love everybody else as you do yourself. As long as you love another person less than you love yourself, you will not really succeed in loving yourself but if you love all alike, including yourself, you will love them as one person and that person is both God and man.
Meister EckhartRead
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