Thought creates the ideal as well as the problem. The ideal is a self-projection, and your working towards that self-projection is what you call action. —Krishnamurti

Truth cannot be given to you by somebody. You have to discover it, and to discover, there must be a state of mind in which there is direct perception. —Krishnamurti

Only when you are capable of looking at ‘what is’ is there clarity. —Krishnamurti

Integration is not on one or two levels of our existence; it is the coming together of the whole. —Krishnamurti

Thought makes for repetition, and repetition makes relationship stale. —Krishnamurti

My ego, the ‘me’ being more important than you, we and they, my group against your group – this is the factor of separation, created by thought. —Krishnamurti

A mind that is attentive can concentrate without exclusion, but a mind that has acquired concentration through effort, training and discipline, such a mind can never be attentive. —Krishnamurti

A feeling is new, but you absorb it into the old by giving it a name. —Krishnamurti

It is because you want greater sensation that you follow and so create a leader, a guru; and for this new gratification you will sacrifice, put up with discomfort, insults and discouragements. —Krishnamurti

From fear there is substitution, sublimation or discipline, which are all forms of repression. —Krishnamurti

Art has its own place, obviously, but only when you deny art, the beauty that man has put together, can you go beyond that. Then you will know for yourself the beauty that cannot be put into words. And when there is that beauty, there is no need to seek anymore. —Krishnamurti

Your prejudice translates the knowledge you gather from books; no book can point out to you that you are prejudiced, nor can it teach you how to love. —Krishnamurti

A fact is not pleasant or unpleasant. —Krishnamurti

Look at your own life and you will see that our living is always on the border of sorrow. —Krishnamurti

If you do not live it, truth becomes a poison. —Krishnamurti

If self-inquiry brings about suffering, it is no longer self-learning. —Krishnamurti

The psychological structure of society is preventing you from listening and seeing. —Krishnamurti

Newspapers, magazines and books, through our addiction to reading, leave their dulling imprint; for reading is a marvellous escape, like drink or ceremony. —Krishnamurti

To possess is to be made dull, whether the possession is virtue or coins. —Krishnamurti

Understanding comes only when we, you and I, meet on the same level at the same time. —Krishnamurti

I have my prejudices about myself, my conclusions about myself, imaginations about myself, fancies about myself, images about myself; so I actually never see myself. —Krishnamurti

If there is a centre in consciousness, there must be a diameter, a boundary. From that centre, in that boundary, one can play any number of games, which are all within that area. —Krishnamurti

Conclusion is the past; conclusion is the observer. —Krishnamurti

Love is a quality of the mind in which there is no separation. —Krishnamurti

How insensitive we are, how lacking in swift and adequate response, how little free to observe! —Krishnamurti

Live a personal life of inner awareness, which is possible only through love and understanding. —Krishnamurti

There is an art of listening. To really listen, one should abandon or put aside all prejudices. —Krishnamurti

A feeling is a thought when named. —Krishnamurti

One is so frightened to strip oneself of everything. —Krishnamurti

Truth can be understood instantaneously. It is not a matter of time, it is not a matter of growth. —Krishnamurti

I use words which are simple, not technical, because I do not think that any technical type of expression is going to help us solve our difficult problems. —Krishnamurti

The mind can meet the new only when it is not burdened with memory. —Krishnamurti

Be extremely careful what you say consciously or unconsciously, what you feel and what you do. Every word has a verbal and a nervous reaction, which sets a wave going. —Krishnamurti

Giving more and more significance to the values of the senses brings about confusion, and being in confusion, we try to escape from it. —Krishnamurti

You read knowledge-giving books, but you don’t relate what you read to your action in daily life. —Krishnamurti

An incomplete experience leaves a scar or a residue, whereas a completed experience does not leave any residue. This residue is memory. Similarly, suppression of any feeling leaves a residue. —Krishnamurti

Psychologically, you have to give an end to every one of your feelings. Otherwise, you carry it over, and it becomes a burden. —Krishnamurti

Unless consciousness is highly sensitive, it is not consciousness. The very nature of it, the essence of it, is the highest form of sensitivity. That sensitivity is destroyed by all the problems, this constant movement, struggle, contradiction and confusion, which is our present consciousness.

True revolution can take place only when you, the individual, become aware in your relationship to another. —Krishnamurti

We can have understanding of ‘what is’ when we recognise it without condemnation, without justification, without identification. —Krishnamurti

Is it possible to be aware of everything as it is? Starting from there, surely there can be understanding. —Krishnamurti

To understand today, your attachment to yesterday must cease, as yesterday prevents you from experiencing anew. —Krishnamurti

I live a life of torture, misery and confusion. That is the basic thing in my life. Can that end? Can that whole process end? Only then can I answer other questions that have tremendous significance. —Krishnamurti

Follow not my words but the thought which is active in you. —Krishnamurti

I see the futility of smoking; not intellectually but actually, and I drop it, without motive, without saying, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ – just let go. If I can see something in a flash and drop it, I will know what to do. —Krishnamurti

As the system becomes important, man, you and I, lose significance, and the controllers of the system – religious or social, of the left or the right – assume authority and power. —Krishnamurti

When you do not understand fully ‘the now’, how can you know about tomorrow? When you do not know anything about living, how can you understand death? —Krishnamurti

Start the new year with a 365-day email journey offering an excerpt from Krishnamurti delivered to your inbox each day. Organised in ‘flows’ that unfold related themes in series, the carefully chosen material is sourced from the entirety of Krishnamurti’s works. Sign up at sub.kfoundation.org/365

To find a solution for suffering, you have to start anew, independent of others’ experience. —Krishnamurti

Respectability is a cloak for the hypocrite; we commit every possible crime in thought, but outwardly we are irreproachable. —Krishnamurti