“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”

— Eckhart Tolle

Variant: The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but you thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking.
Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

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Eckhart Tolle251

German writer 1948

Ralph Smart

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

“Remember that your thoughts are the primary cause of everything.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

“Overthinking is the biggest cause of unhappiness.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

“To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever-increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline — training — is about.”

James Clavell book Shōgun

Source: Shōgun (1975), Ch. 5

“The Chinese used the intervals between things as the primary means of getting 'in touch' with situations.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1980s, Laws of Media: The New Science (with Eric McLuhan) (1988), p. 77

“Never make a permanent decision about a temporary situation.”

T.D. Jakes (1957) American bishop

“Only those are happy who never think or, rather, who only think about life's bare necessities, and to think about such things means not to think at all. True thinking resembles a demon who muddies the spring of life or a sickness which corrupts its roots. To think all the time, to raise questions, to doubt your own destiny, to feel the weariness of living, to be worn out to the point of exhaustion by thoughts and life, to leave behind you, as symbols of your life's drama, a trail of smoke and blood — all this means you are so unhappy that reflection and thinking appear as a curse causing a violent revulsion in you.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

“You think that your attention is in the present moment when it's actually taken up completely by time. You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now. What you refer to as your "life" should more accurately be called your "life situation."”

Eckhart Tolle book The Power of Now

It is psychological time: past and future. Certain things in the past didn't go the way you wanted them to go. You are still resisting what happened in the past, and now you are resisting what is. Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness. p. 43
The Power of Now (1997)

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”

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Eckhart Tolle251

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