“It begins when your parents tell you what your name is. That’s the first label you absorb; the mind says, “Oh, that’s me,” and you repeat your name. Subsequently, that name becomes like a basket in which further life experiences are collected: things that happen to you; things that people tell you about who you are. Some parents tell their children, ‘You’re not good enough; you’re stupid; you can’t do anything right.’ Other parents say different things. But there is always conditioning that is absorbed. These things are then collected and become the contents of your mind. As you grow up, a story grows out of them, a story consisting of judgments and concepts and belief systems. In other words, the self is a story line that develops in the head, very much like a fictitious creation. Yet it forms the basis of most people’s sense of who they are, and that sense, of course, is reinforced by the surrounding world.”

— Beyond Happiness And Unhappiness: An Interview With Spiritual Teacher Eckhart Tolle by Steve Donoso. Sun Magazine, July 2002

“What is the greatest obstacle to experiencing this reality?

Identification with your mind, which causes thought to become compulsive … The compulsive thinker, which means almost everyone, lives in a state of apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict, a world that reflects the ever-increasing fragmentation of the mind. Enlightenment is a state of wholeness, of being ‘at one’ and therefore at peace. At one with life in its manifested aspect, the world, as well as with your deepest self and life unmanifested — at one with Being. Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continuous conflict within and without, but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking. What an incredible liberation this is!

Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It is the screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there is you and a totally separate ‘other.’ You then forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is. By ‘forget,’ I mean that you can no longer feel this oneness as self-evident reality. You believe it to be true, but you no longer know it to be true. A belief may be comforting. Only through your own experience, however, does it become liberating.

Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things get out of balance … The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly — you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.”

— The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, p. 14-16; (2010 ed., orig. 1997)

“It’s almost as if you were possessed without knowing it, and so you take the possessing entity to be yourself. The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity — the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.”

— The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, p. 16-17; (2010 ed., orig. 1997)

“The soul is neither born, nor does it ever die; nor having once existed, does it ever cease to be. The soul is without birth, eternal, immortal, and ageless. It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.”

— Chapter 2:20

“The soul … is ever the same—now, past, future—as it has always been; ageless, unchanged, since its immemorial beginnings. The deathless soul dwelling in the destructible body is ever constant through all cycles of bodily disintegrations; it does not taste death even when the body quaffs that fatal cup of hemlock. The difference between soul and Spirit is this: The Spirit is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new omnipresent Joy; the soul is the individualized reflection of ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Joy, confined within the body of each and every being. Souls are the radiating rays of Spirit, individualized as formless, vibrationless "atoms" and "tissues" of Spirit. Hence, they are coexistent with Spirit and of the same essence, as the sun and its rays are one.”

— God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita (posthumously published in 1995), Commentary on ch. 2 verse 20; p. 211

“Inquiry is a bridge between the ego and the soul, and beyond to the Infinite. (I am using the term soul here to mean the essence, presence, or beingness that you are.)”

— The Way of Liberation, p. 26; (2012)

“This discovery I’m talking about is traditionally referred to as spiritual awakening, because one awakens from the dream of separation created by the egoic mind. We realize—often quite suddenly—that our sense of self, which has been formed and constructed out of our ideas, beliefs, and images, is not really who we are. It doesn’t define us; it has no center. The ego may exist as a series of passing thoughts, beliefs, actions, and reactions, but in and of itself it has no identity. Ultimately all of the images we have about ourselves and the world turn out to be nothing but a resistance to things as they are. What we call ego is simply the mechanism our mind uses to resist life as it is. In that way, ego isn’t a thing as much as it is a verb. It is the resistance to what is. It is the pushing away or pulling toward. This momentum, this grasping and rejecting, is what forms a sense of a self that is distinct, or separate, from the world around us.

But with the dawn of awakening, this outside world begins to collapse. Once we lose our sense of self, it’s as if we have lost the whole world as we knew it. At that moment— whether that moment is just a glimpse or something more sustained—we suddenly realize with incredible clarity that what we truly are is in no way limited to the small sense of self that we thought we were.”

— The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment, ch. 1 (2008)

“Ego is neither positive nor negative. Those are simply concepts that create more boundaries. Ego is just ego, and the disaster of it all is that you, as a spiritual seeker, have been conditioned to think of the ego as bad, as an enemy, as something to be destroyed. This simply strengthens the ego. In fact, such conclusions arise from the ego itself. Pay no attention to them. Don't go to war with yourself; simply inquire into who you are.”

— The Impact of Awakening, p. 9; (2002 2nd ed.; orig. 2000)

“The fall guy of spirituality is the ego. Since there is really no one to blame for everything that happens in our lives, we manufacture this idea called the ego to take the blame. This causes a great deal of confusion because the ego doesn't really exist. It is simply an idea, a label for a movement to which we have attached our sense of self … The ego that exists, if there is any ego at all, is the thought that ego is there. But there is no evidence whatsoever for this ego’s existence. Everything is just arriving spontaneously, and if there is any ego at all, it is just this particular movement of mind that says, ‘it’s mine.’”

— Emptiness Dancing, pgs. 73-74; (2004)

“Ego is the movement of the mind toward objects of perception in the form of grasping, and away from objects in the form of aversion. This fundamentally is all the ego is. This movement of grasping and aversion gives rise to a sense of a separate "me," and in turn the sense of "me" strengthens itself this way. It is this continuous loop of causation that tricks consciousness into a trance of identification. Identification with what? Identification with the continuous loop of suffering. After all, who is suffering? The "me" is suffering. And who is this me? It is nothing more than a sense of self caused by identification with grasping and aversion. You see, it's all a creation of the mind, an endless movie, a terrible dream. Don't try to change the dream, because trying to change is just another movement in the dream. Look at the dream. Be aware of the dream. That awareness is It. Become more interested in the awareness of the dream than in the dream itself. What is that awareness? Who is that awareness? Don't go spouting out an answer, just be the answer. Be It.”

— Selling Water By the River, first published in Inner Directions Journal, Fall/Winter 1999

"Now I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat, Chit, Ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know if what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hold on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked."

—The Power of Myth, p. 120; (1991)

“Follow your bliss.”

— tons of places, including p. 148 of The Power of Myth. See here.

“The reflection of Cosmic Consciousness in the individual … entity is jiivatma … The Supreme Consciousness, Paramatman is one, but it appears to be many because of its reflection … By the reflections of the moon in several buckets of water, it appears that there are many moons, but actually there is only one — only its reflection is many.”

“When the mind is suspended, then there is no longer any difference between the unit soul, the jivatman, and the Cosmic Soul, the Paramatman.”

— Both quotes from Ananda Sutram commentary p. 98

“God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.”

— The Book of Wisdom/Wisdom of Solomon 2:23

“Do not be satisfied with fragmentary happiness, which is invariably interrupted by shocks and blows of fate; but become complete, and having attained to perfection, be your Self.”

— Words of Sri Anandamayi Ma, translated and compiled by Atmananda, chapter 22; (Orig. published 1961; Centenary edition 1995)

“Wake up, wake up! Your house is on fire from all directions. Don’t sleep! Wake up! What is waking up? Establishment firmly into the Self, by the Self, with the Self, for the Self.”

— Wake Up and Roar, p. 195; (2007 ed., orig. 1992)

“So what is freedom? This sense of inward authentic, deep sense of unshakeable freedom - not from something - what is that freedom? Can we together enquire into this, not accept what the speaker is saying, because we went into that. If you accept what the speaker is saying then you are back again to the old pattern of following an authority. The speaker then becomes your guru, and the speaker abhors all gurus.”

Public Talk in Bombay (Mumbai), India - February 12, 19844, Love, Freedom, Goodness, Beauty are One

“Truth is a pathless land.”

— He said this in many many places. For example here and here

“Religions are different roads converging on the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads as long as we reach the same goal? In reality, there are as many religions as there are individuals.”

— Hind Swaraj, or India Home Rule, p. 35-6; (1946)

“What works lives. What doesn't work dies.”

— Sadhguru Spot: From Magic to Mysticism (about the 5:20 mark of the video, which is from 2019)

"You have to ask yourself the question, Who am I? This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem, and you will solve all other problems.”

— from Paul Brunton’s A Search in Secret India, p. 157; (1934)

“Adopt [the ego] as a pet and melt it with compassion.”

— Discovery of the Presence of God: Devotional Nonduality, p. 141; (2007)

“Trying to ‘overcome’ the ego without really understanding it brings up guilt, self-condemnation, and other negative feelings, which is one of the main reasons why many people are reluctant to become involved in spiritual work. Because of this, people are afraid to be honest with themselves and tend to project the downside of the ego onto others or even onto God. Jealousy, retaliation, vengeance, partiality, etc., are all attributes of the ego and not of God.

The ego is not ‘evil’ but is primarily a self-interested animal. Unless the ‘animal self’ is understood and accepted, its influence cannot be diminished. Like a pet, the inner animal can be comical and entertaining, and we can enjoy it without guilt and look forward to getting it trained and properly house broken.”

— I: Reality and Subjectivity, ch. 6 p. 113; (2003)

“In the surrendered state, we are independent of the outer world as a source of satisfaction because the source of happiness has been found within us. Happiness is shared with others so that, in relationships, the surrendered person is supportive, sympathetic, encouraging, patient, and tolerant. There is an effortless appreciation of the worth and values of others and a consideration for their feelings. Power struggles, being “right,” and proving our point have been relinquished. There is an automatic nonjudgmental attitude and the supporting of others to grow, learn, experience, and fulfill their own potentialities. There is an easy-going, nurturing acceptance of others. We feel relaxed, vibrant, and full of energy. Life events flow automatically and effortlessly. We no longer respond from a motive of sacrifice or “giving up” something for others; instead, we see ourselves as being of loving service to others and the world. Life events are seen as opportunities rather than challenges. The personality is gentle and open with a willingness to let go and surrender nonstop because of the unfolding and ongoing inner process of continuous revelation.

As the process unfolds, we feel an inner transformation. This leads to a consistent feeling of gratitude, pleasure, and certainty about our goals. There is a living in the present rather than a preoccupation with the past or the future. There is a trusting defenselessness because the power that was projected onto the world has been re-owned. There is an inner feeling of strength and invulnerability leading to an inner serenity.”

— Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender, pgs. 253-254; (2012)

“The surrender experiment is a challenge I gave myself to try to allow life to unfold around me without struggling with it. We are all intelligent enough to realize that we are not in control of 99.9 percent of what goes on around us. Our hearts beat, our food digests, and our cells divide — all without any intervention of our own. Likewise, the planets stay in orbit, and the entire rest of the universe unfolds on its own. We are not controlling any of this, yet it has been unfolding in perfect harmony for billions of years. If the forces of creation can create and maintain the entire universe, every moment, are not the moments unfolding in front of me part of this same universal perfection?

When I was in my early twenties, I took one look at this and realized that all the moments of creation are part of the same interrelated perfection. They have nothing to do with me; they belong to the forces that created them. All that is happening each moment is that I’m seeing the result of 13.8 billion years of forces that interacted together to create exactly what is in front of me. That being the case, I decided to experiment with surrendering to that perfection instead of listening to what my preference-driven mind had to say about it. Specifically, when something appears in front of me, I try to honor and respect the enormity of its origins, rather than immediately judging whether I like it or not. That is the surrender experiment, and my new book is about what ended up happening as I aligned myself with life instead of struggling to align life to me.”

— The Surrender Experiment: How One Yogi Found “Life’s Perfection” by Jennifer D’Angelo Friedman; Yoga Journal, June 4, 2015

“There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind - you are the one who hears it.”

— The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, pg. 22; (2007)

“I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

— Galatians 2:20

“When you are without thoughts,
when you are without needs, without wants,
without desires,
then you are God.
You are the Universe.
You are Divine Love.
You are Beautiful.”

— Silence of the Heart, p. 165; (1992)

“God is always exactly one thought away — and the minute we quiet that thought, here we are again.”

— Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita, p. 262; (2004)

“When I woke up to reality in 1986, I realized that all my suffering had come from arguing with what is. I had been deeply depressed for many years, and I had blamed the world for all my problems. Now I saw that my depression had nothing to do with the world around me; it was caused by what I believed about the world. I realized that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that.”
— pg. 3

“Once we deeply question a thought, it loses its power to make us suffer, and eventually it ceases even to arise. “I don’t let go of my thoughts,” Katie says. “I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.”
— introduction p. xx

“People think that enlightenment must be some kind of mystical, transcendent experience. But it’s not. It’s as close as your most troubling thought. When you believe a thought that argues with reality, you’re confused. When you question the thought and see that it’s not true, you’re enlightened to it, you’re liberated from it. You’re as free as the Buddha in that moment. And then the next stressful thought comes along, and you either believe it or question it. It’s your next opportunity to get enlightened. Life is as simple as that.”
— pg. 163

All quotes from A Mind at Home with Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around by Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell; (2017)

“The wind of divine grace is always blowing. You just need to spread your sail.”

— The Wisdom of Swami Vivekananda compiled by Sachin Sinhal, pg. 30; (2008/9)

A variation of this quotation is attributed all over the internet to either Ramakrishna or Rabindranath Tagore, but I can find no evidence anywhere of either of them saying or writing these words.