“For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean.”
Discovery
One Minute Wisdom (1989)
Context: "Help us to find God."
"No one can help you there."
"Why not?"
"For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean."
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Anthony de Mello 135
Indian writer 1931–1987Related quotes
Interview in The Vegetarians by Rynn Berry (Autumn Press, 1979), p. 82.

Source: Shane J. Cronin (2022) cited in: " Interview: Tonga volcanic eruption not likely to cause global climate change, says New Zealand volcanologist http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/20220118/dc046e9e38e343a381668086f1b71d0e/c.html" in Xinhua Net, 18 January 2022.

“If you need a helping hand, you can find one at the end of your arm.”

As quoted in "A feather on the breath of God" by Nur Elmessiri in Al-Ahram Weekly Online Issue No. 385 (9 - 15 July 1998) http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/385/cu2.htm
p. 44 http://books.google.com/books?id=W6bPGIL-_-8C&pg=PA44&dq=%22On+second+thought,+maybe+the+atheist%22: Sometimes misattributed to Francis Thompson, whose quote "An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident" Peter was commenting on.
Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977)

“But sometimes the best help a person can find is helping someone else.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Patrick L. McGuire, Her Strong Enchantments Failing (p. 93; this work is an essay about Anderson's story The Queen of Air and Darkness).
Short fiction, The Book of Poul Anderson (1975)