“Unmovable disinterest brings man into likeness of God.”
As quoted in Men Who Have Walked with God (1992) by Sheldon Cheney, p. 198
Context: Unmovable disinterest brings man into likeness of God.... To be full of things is to be empty of God; to be empty of things is to be full of God.
“The man who abides in the will of God wills nothing else than what God is, and what He wills.”
Meister Eckhart’s Sermons (1909)
Context: The man who abides in the will of God wills nothing else than what God is, and what He wills. If he were ill he would not wish to be well. If he really abides in God's will, all pain is to him a joy, all complication, simple: yea, even the pains of hell would be a joy to him. He is free and gone out from himself, and from all that he receives, he must be free. If my eye is to discern colour, it must itself be free from all colour. The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God's eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.
Sermon IV : True Hearing
“The aim of man is beyond the temporal — in the serene region of the everlasting Present.”
Sermon VII : Outward and Inward Morality
Meister Eckhart’s Sermons (1909)
Context: The moral task of man is a process of spiritualization. All creatures are go-betweens, and we are placed in time that by diligence in spiritual business we may grow liker and nearer to God. The aim of man is beyond the temporal — in the serene region of the everlasting Present.
Sermon III : The Angel's Greeting
Meister Eckhart’s Sermons (1909)
Context: When man humbles himself, God cannot restrain His mercy; He must come down and pour His grace into the humble man, and He gives Himself most of all, and all at once, to the least of all. It is essential to God to give, for His essence is His goodness and His goodness is His love. Love is the root of all joy and sorrow. Slavish fear of God is to be put away. The right fear is the fear of losing God. If the earth flee downward from heaven, it finds heaven beneath it; if it flee upward, it comes again to heaven. The earth cannot flee from heaven: whether it flee up or down, the heaven rains its influence upon it, and stamps its impress upon it, and makes it fruitful, whether it be willing or not. Thus doth God with men: whoever thinketh to escape Him, flies into His bosom, for every corner is open to Him. God brings forth His Son in thee, whether thou likest it or not, whether thou sleepest or wakest; God worketh His own will. That man is unaware of it, is man's fault, for his taste is so spoilt by feeding on earthly things that he cannot relish God's love. If we had love to God, we should relish God, and all His works; we should receive all things from God, and work the same works as He worketh.
“All God wants of man is a peaceful heart.”
As translated in The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose (1991) edited by Stephen Mitchell, p. 115
Variant: God wants nothing of you but the gift of a peaceful heart.
Sermon VII : Outward and Inward Morality
Meister Eckhart’s Sermons (1909)
“If a man had no more to do with God than to be thankful, that would suffice.”
However a quote very similar to this one can actually be found in his works. In Sermon XXVII (Walshe translation/in Quint Sermon XXXIV) we can read:
Middle High German: Haete der mensche niht me ze tuonne mit gote, dan daz er dankbaere ist, ez waere genuoc.
Disputed