Byron Kathleen Mitchell, better known as Byron Katie, is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as “The Work of Byron Katie” or simply as “The Work.” Profoundly inspirational Byron Katie quotes will encourage growth in life, make you wiser and broaden your perspective.
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Famous Byron Katie Quotes
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. Byron Katie
It’s not your job to like me it’s mine. Byron Katie
Low self esteem is not possible when you understand the nature of everything. Depression is not possible. The universe is absolutely friendly. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
Some children are afraid to die because their parents are afraid to die. My own children have come to understand that it’s totally okay with me if they die. They don’t have to live for my sake. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
Spare yourself from seeking love, approval, or appreciation from anyone. And watch what happens in reality, just for fun. Byron Katie
I am a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality. Byron Katie
It’s a wonderful world when you have what you want at all times. Byron Katie
Don’t believe every thing you think. Byron Katie
My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we’re living with right now. Byron Katie
All I have is all I need and all I need is all I have in this moment. Byron Katie
For me, if somebody tells me to go away, that is an opportunity for me to give the person a better life, to realize where not to be, and to see what could be even better than being with that person I love. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
The world is nothing but my perception of it. I see only through myself. I hear only through the filter of my story. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
Mind is infinitely creative. And when it’s not stuck, that’s where the joy comes from. Something happens, and the way we think about it, understand it, see it, is actually hilarious, whereas before it used to depress us. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
People don’t need sudden revelations. They get what they need when they need it, thought by thought by thought. It’s a constant thing when the mind starts to wake up to itself. Byron Katie
Nothing comes ahead of its time, and nothing ever happened that didn’t need to happen. Byron Katie
Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror. Byron Katie
Peace doesn’t require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there. Byron Katie
Every mind deserves to be free. When the mind is free, that’s the end of suffering. Byron Katie
Seeking love keeps you from the awareness that you already have it that you are it. Byron Katie
Peace doesn’t require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there. Byron Katie
The miracle of love comes to you in the presence of the uninterpreted moment. If you are mentally somewhere else, you miss real life. Byron Katie
Asking the questions that’s what changes lives. Every cell in your body is awake with inquiry. And you cannot believe the old thoughts again. Byron Katie
Don’t be careful. You could hurt yourself. Byron Katie
When the creative mind is unleashed and understands its true nature, it’s unlimited. There’s nothing you cannot do. Byron Katie
When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless. Byron Katie
Gratitude is what we are without a story. Byron Katie
You are your only hope, because we’re not changing until you do. Our job is to keep coming at you, as hard as we can, with everything that angers, upsets, or repulses you, until you understand. We love you that much, whether we’re aware of it or not. The whole world is about you. Byron Katie
Inviting people to inquiry is much more powerful to me than describing my experience. When people hear me tell the story, they often say, Oh my goodness, I get it. I get it! But it’s not enough. Byron Katie
You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer. Byron Katie
The Work always leaves you with less of a story. Who would you be without your story? You never know until you inquire. There is no story that is you or that leads to you. Every story leads away from you. Turn it around; undo it. You are what exists before all stories. You are what remains when the story is understood. Byron Katie
Being present means living without control and always having your needs met. Byron Katie
A mind that doesn’t question its judgements, makes the world very small and dangerous. Byron Katie
We don’t attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to tbe true in the moment. Byron Katie
I am never unhappy, you can achieve that as well. Byron Katie
It is easy to be swept away by some overwhelming feeling, so it’s helpful to remember that any stressful feeling is like a compassionate alarm clock that says, You’re caught in the dream. Depression, pain, and fear are gifts that say, Sweetheart, take a look at your thinking right now. You’re living in a story that isn’t true for you. Byron Katie
Pay close attention to the particular thoughts you use to deprive yourself of happiness. Byron Katie
In my experience, we don’t make thoughts appear, they just appear. One day, I noticed that their appearance just wasn’t personal. Noticing that really makes it simpler to inquire. Byron Katie
It’s our nature to be free, and until we’re stuck in a stressful belief system, we’re pretty happy. Byron Katie
I love what I think, and I’m never tempted to believe it. Byron Katie
When you discover that all happiness is inside you, the wanting and needing are over, and life gets very exciting. Byron Katie
Isn’t it marvelous to discover that you’re the one you’ve been waiting for? That you are your own freedom? Byron Katie
Everyone has equal wisdom. It is absolutely equally distributed. No one is wiser than anyone else. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
Until you can see everything in the world as your friend, your work is not done. Byron Katie
We’re all looking for love, in our confusion, until we find our way back to the realization that love is what we already are. Byron Katie
If people are living their lives for security and comfort and pleasure, then mind’s every waking moment will be plotting those things. That’s how it stays identified as a body, as a you. Byron Katie
I am a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality. We can know that reality is good just as it is, because when we argue with it, we experience tension and frustration. We don’t feel natural or balanced. When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless. Byron Katie
Being present means living without control and always having your needs met. Byron Katie
There is nothing that isn’t true if you believe it; and nothing is true, believe it or not. Byron Katie
Mind is everything. There’s nothing that it’s not. Byron Katie
Nothing comes ahead of its time, and nothing has ever happened that didn’t need to happen. Byron Katie
If we are in silence in absolute silence with no thoughts for 10 minutes, it’s only a thought that tells us we were silent for 10 minutes. Our only proof is a thought. Byron Katie
You’re just suffering from the belief that there’s something missing from your life. In reality, you always have what you need. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
Sadness is always a sign that you’re believing a stressful thought that isn’t true for you. It’s a constriction, and it feels bad. Conventional wisdom says differently, but the truth is that sadness isn’t rational, it isn’t a natural response, and it can’t ever help you. It just indicates the loss of reality, the loss of the awareness of love. Sadness is the war with what is. It’s a tantrum. You can experience it only when you’re arguing with God. When the mind is clear, there isn’t any sadness. There can’t be. Byron Katie
The world you live in is 100 percent your own responsibility. If you don’t like your world, it doesn’t work to say, Well, it’s my mother’s fault. She taught me how to think. Byron Katie
The reason I love rules and plans and religions is that people feel safe in them for a while. And, personally, I don’t have any rules. I don’t need them. There’s a sense of order that goes on all the time as things move and change, and I am that harmony, and so are you. Not knowing is the only way to understand. Meanings, rules, the whole world of right and wrong, are secondary at best. I understand how some people think they need to live by rules. It’s very frightening for them to watch the world unfolding in apparent chaos and not realize that the chaos itself is God in his infinite intelligence. Byron Katie
This is the time. This is the place. This is the vastness. Right here is paradise. Always. Always. Byron Katie
Everyone is a mirror image of yourself your own thinking coming back at you. Byron Katie
When you’re comfortable and secure, it’s not enough. The mind doesn’t stop there because it has to continue to focus itself as this body, so it moves to pleasure. And pleasure really is a non-existent thing. When we’re experiencing pleasure, we’re trying to hold onto it as it leaves, so it really isn’t pleasure. Pleasure is pain because we’re grasping. Byron Katie
If you think he’s supposed to be different from what he is, you don’t love him. In that moment you love who he’s going to be when you’re through manipulating him. He is a throwaway until he matches your image of him. Byron Katie
Your most intimate relationship is the one you have with your thoughts. Byron Katie
You’re either attaching to your thoughts or inquiring. There’s no other choice. Byron Katie
Realizing that people should lie when they do makes me a little more open minded, a little more tolerant, when my child or my partner lies. Byron Katie
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. Byron Katie
Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there’s nothing to know. Byron Katie
Because if it hurts, it’s your thinking that’s hurting you. Byron Katie
There’s no one who can teach you except yourself. Each of us needs to look at what our belief system really consists of. Look at the concepts that come across your mind and just notice what you believe. Byron Katie
God’s will and your will are the same, whether you notice it or not. There’s no mistake in the universe. It’s not possible to have the concept mistake unless you’re comparing what is with what isn’t. Without the story in your mind, it’s all perfect. No mistake. Byron Katie
Who would you be without your story? Byron Katie
The teacher you need is the person you’re living with. Byron Katie
If your beliefs are stressful and you question them, you come to see that they aren’t true whereas prior to questioning, you absolutely believe them. How can you live in joy when you’re believing thoughts that bring on sadness, frustration, anger, alienation, and loneliness? Byron Katie
No one will ever understand you. Realizing this is freedom. No one will ever understand you not once, not ever. Even at our most understanding, we can only understand our story of who you are. There’s no understanding here except your own. Byron Katie
To understand our own thinking is to understand all thinking. Byron Katie
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. There’s a natural balance in things. If you go too far to one extreme, life kindly brings you back toward the center. What goes up must come down, and what comes down must go up. Up and down are different aspects of the same thing. So are inside and outside. Most people think that the world is outside them. They live life backward, running after security and approval, as if by making enough money or getting enough praise they could be happy once and for all. But nothing outside us can give us what we’re really looking for. I do my work and don’t even need to step back from it, because it never belonged to me in the first place. Nothing belongs to me. Everything comes and goes. Serenity is an open door. Byron Katie
The moment it begins to question itself, the mind becomes so clear that it starts working with itself rather than with the body’s identification. Byron Katie
My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we’re living with now. Byron Katie
I can find only three kinds of business in the Universe mine, yours, and God’s. Byron Katie
Inquiry doesn’t have a motive. It doesn’t teach a philosophy. It’s just investigation. Byron Katie
To me, health is a balanced mind. A balanced mind knows how to get enough rest, how to eat properly, how to exercise. I have come out as just a balanced human being, and I don’t know anything finer than that. Byron Katie
We all do emotional gymnastics to be seen as wonderful or funny just to get what we already have. And because we’re doing the gymnastics, we don’t see that we already have it. Byron Katie
If you argue against reality you will suffer. Byron Katie
