Byron Katie Quotes

150 Sourced Quotes

When you think that someone or something other than yourself needs to change, you're mentally out of your business.

Byron Katie
Stories are the untested, uninvestigated theories that tell us what all these things mean. We don't even realize that they're just theories.

Byron Katie
Inquiry appears to be a process of thinking, but actually it's a way to undo thinking. Thoughts lose their power over us when we realize that they simply appear in the mind. They're not personal. Through The Work, instead of escaping or suppressing our
thoughts, we learn to meet them with unconditional love and understanding.

Byron Katie
Here's how a child listens: you tell him something, and he puts his own interpretation on what you said. That's what he hears. No one has ever heard you.

Byron Katie
It makes sense that no one else can cause you pain. That's your job.

Byron Katie
The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.

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
If I had a prayer, it would be this: God spare me from the desire for love, approval, and appreciation. Amen.

Byron Katie
You might believe that it's only for their own good, but how does it feel when you try to manipulate the people you love? Are you teaching them that your love is conditional? Maybe through inquiry we can find another way.

Byron Katie
You either believe what you think or you question it. There's no other choice.

Byron Katie
I could find only three kinds of business in the world—mine, yours, and God's. Whose business are you in?

Byron Katie
Do you know anyone who hasn't changed his mind? This door was a tree, then it will be firewood for someone, then it will return to air and earth. We're all like that, constantly changing. It's simply honest to report that you've changed your mind when you have. When you're afraid of what people will think if you speak honestly, that's where you become confused.

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

Byron Katie
Reality is always kinder than the story we tell about it.

Byron Katie
Forgiveness is realizing that what you thought happened, didn't.

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

Byron Katie
When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100% of the time.

Byron Katie
How do I know that I don't need what I want? I don't have it.

Byron Katie
Fear has only two causes: the thought of losing what you have or the thought of not getting what you want.

Byron Katie
My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we're living with right now.

Byron Katie
The Work is merely four questions; it's not even a thing. It has no motive, no strings. It's nothing without your answers. These four questions will join any program you've got and enhance it. Any religion you have - they'll enhance it. If you have no religion, they will bring you joy. And they'll burn up anything that isn't true for you. They'll burn through to the reality that has always been waiting.

Byron Katie
The ego is terrified of the truth. And the truth is that the ego doesn't exist.

Byron Katie
When I am perfectly clear, what is is what I want.

Byron Katie
Stress is an alarm clock that lets you know you've attached to something not true for you.

Byron Katie
Without our stories, we are not only able to act clearly and fearlessly, we are also a friend, a listener. We are people living happy lives. We are appreciation and gratitude that have become as natural as breath itself. Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there's nothing to know and that we already have everything we need, right here now.

Byron Katie
Reality doesn't wait for your opinion, vote, or permission, sweetheart. It just keeps being what it is and doing what it does.

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
It's good that it hurts. Pain is the signal that you're confused, that you're in a lie.

Byron Katie
You can't have an up without a down. You can't have a left without a right. This is duality. If you have a problem, you must already have the solution. The question is, do you really want the solution, or do you want to perpetuate the problem?

Byron Katie
I came to see that there was nothing to forgive, that I was the one who caused my own problems.

Byron Katie