Attachment Quotes

In the end, The treasure of life is missed by those who hold on and gained by those who let go

And then came human beings; humans wanted to cling but there was nothing to cling to.

Most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities.

You fill yourself with the sharp pain of love, rather than its fulfillment.

. . . you did not seem to me over-fond of money. And this is the way in general with those who have not made it themselves, while those who have are twice as fond of it as anyone else. For just as poets are fond of their own poems, and fathers of their own children, so money-makers become devoted to money, not only because, like other people, they find it useful, but because it's their own creation.

The ego's form of happiness can't exist without unhappiness. The ego will be happy when something good happens but unhappy when it ends.

In this flowing stream, then, on which there is no abiding, what is there of the things which hurry by on which a man would set a high price? It would be just as if a man should fall in love with one of the sparrows which fly by, but it has already passed out of sight.

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.

The eye goes blind when it only wants to see why.

I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don't just want to possess it, it will find you. But if you're in love with the thing, it may run like hell away from you.

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, 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.

Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away.

It is maybe not the best choice to have a favorite anything.

Attachment constrains our vision so that we are not able to see things from a wider perspective.

If you possess something but you can't give it away, then you don't possess it... it possesses you.

Love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart; and remember that the true hope of the Noldor lieth in the West, and cometh from the Sea.

The cords of passion and desire weave a binding net around you. Worldly confrontation makes you stiff and inflexible. The trap of duality is tenacious. Bound, rigid, and trapped, you cannot experience liberation.

The transept belfry and the two towers were to him three great cages, the birds in which, taught by him, would sing for him alone. Yet it was these same bells which had made him deaf; but mothers are often fondest of the child who has made them suffer most.

Whatever posessions and objects of its desires the lower self may obtain, it hangs on to them, refusing to let them go out of greed for more, or out of fear of poverty and need.

The greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing.

If I am identified with my relationship, with my house, or with my money, I am doomed to suffer.

Thirst after body is the great bane of human life.

Whatever the ego seeks and gets attached to are substitutes for the Being that it cannot feel.

But the place which you have selected for your camp, though never so rough and grim, begins at once to have its attractions, and becomes a very centre of civilization to you: "Home is home, be it never so homely."

Nothing troubles you for which you do not yearn.

"I am the awareness that is aware that there is attachment." That's the beginning of the transformation of consciousness.

Anecdote: A house that is rooted to one spot but can travel as quickly as you change your mind and is complete in itself is surely the most desirable of houses. Our modern house with its cumbersome walls and its foundations planted deep in the ground is nothing better than a prison and more and more prison like does it become the longer we live there, and wear fetters of a association and sentiment.

To feel that life is meaningless unless “I” can be permanent is like having fallen desperately in love with an inch.

It is unpleasant to miss even the most trifling thing to which we have been accustomed.

We get caught. How? Not by what we give but by what we expect. We get misery in return for our love: not from the fact that we love but from the fact that we want love in return. There is no misery where there is no want. Desire, want, is the father of all misery. Desires are bound by the laws of success and failure. Desires must bring misery.

The people one loves should take all their things with them when they die.

Thinking of objects, attachment to them is formed in a man. From attachment longing, and from longing anger grows.

If you attach yourself to gross energies - loving this person, hating that clan, rejecting one experience or habitually indulging in another - then you will lead a series of heavy, attached lives. This can go on for a very long and tedious time.

The anitya doctrine is, again, not quite the simple assertion that the world is impermanent, but rather that the more one grasps at the world, the more it changes.

What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love.

Many people don't realise until they are on their deathbed and everything external falls away that no thing ever had anything to do with who they are.

From attachment comes longing, and longing breeds anger. From anger comes delusion, and from delusion, confused memory. From confused memory comes the ruin of discrimination; and from the ruin of discrimination, a man perishes.

This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, to love that well which thou must leave ere long

You all know the saying which is very true: What you resist persists. And I'm sure many of you have already found that out in your life. And then suddenly when you let go of resistance you let go of an attachment to something: I need this to happen in order to be happy; I don't want what is, I want something else. To be okay with what is, which is the simplicity of this moment, is the beginning of true change.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

In countries where there is no marriage, there is no duty between husband and wife; when marriage comes, husband and wife live together on account of attachment; and that kind of living together becomes settled after generations; and when it becomes so settled, it becomes a duty.

Praise leads to weakness. Getting it causes fear, losing it causes fear.

The reason for great distress is the body. Without it, what distress could there be?

Why are the people starving?-Because their grain is being eaten up by the taxesThat's why they're starvingWhy are people rebellious?-Because those above them meddle in their livesThat's why they're rebelliousWhy do people regard death so lightly?-Because they are so involved with their own livingThat's why they regard death so lightlyIn the end,The treasure of life is missed by those who hold onand gained by those who let go

Possessions are usually diminished by possession.

The makers of fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of authors for their own poems, or of parents for their children, besides that natural love of it for the sake of use and profit.

Favor and disgrace are like fear. Favor is in a higher place, and disgrace in a lower place. When you win them you are like being in fear, and when you lose them you are also like being in fear. So favor and disgrace are like fear.

When the only bond between close friends is attachment, then even a minor issue may cause one's projections to change. As soon as our projections change, the attachment disappears, because that attachment was based solely on projection and expectation. It is possible to have compassion without attachment, and similarly, to have anger without hatred.

How do you let go of attachment to things? Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.

The more objects you set your heart upon, the more thorns there are to tear your peace of mind to shreds.

As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave.

Just as the dog loves to chew bones, the human mind loves its problems.

We are to enjoy what we have while we have it, but we are never to get to the point where we think we could not love without it.

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work build up in him a sense of being really at home on earth which is just what we want.

The compassion we feel normally is biased and mixed with attachment. Genuine compassion flows towards all living beings, particularly your enemies. If I try to develop compassion towards my enemy, it may not benefit him directly, he may not even be aware of it. But it will immediately benefit me by calming my mind. On the other hand, if I dwell on how awful everything is, I immediately lose my peace of mind.

Every love outside of HIS love, is pain.

The secret self knows the anguish of our attachments and assures us that letting go of what we think we must have to be happy is the same as letting go of our unhappiness.

Hatred, jealousy and excessive attachment cause suffering and agitation. I feel compassion can help us overcome these disturbances and let us return to a calm state of mind. Compassion is not just being kind to your friend. That involves attachment because it is based on expectation. Compassion is when you do something good without any expectations - based on realizing that "the other person is also just like me".

When you drop your expectations that a person, a situation, a place, or an object should fulfill you, it's easier to be present in this moment because you're no longer looking to the next one. Most people want to get what they want, whereas the secret is to want what you get at this moment.

Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.