QuoteProject
The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great.
Meister Eckhart
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The significance of your external actions is directly tied to the depth of your inner development.

This quote by Meister Eckhart emphasizes the importance of internal growth and self-awareness in determining the impact of one's actions in the world. It suggests that when a person invests in their inner life—such as their thoughts, feelings, and spiritual understanding—their outward actions will naturally reflect that depth and carry more weight, leading to meaningful contributions to society.

Themes

GrowthInner WorkActionsMeaningImpact

In practice

Example use cases

In a self-improvement workshop, one might say, 'Remember, the outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great.'

More from Meister Eckhart

Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.
Meister EckhartRead
...Where and when God finds you ready, he must act and overflow into you, just as when the air is clear and pure, the sun must overflow into it and cannot refrain from doing that.
Meister EckhartRead
What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.
Meister EckhartRead
In this breaking-through, I receive that God and I are one. Then I am what I was, and then I neither diminish nor increase, for I am then an immovable cause that moves all things.
Meister EckhartRead
Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God.
Meister EckhartRead
If you love yourself, you love everybody else as you do yourself. As long as you love another person less than you love yourself, you will not really succeed in loving yourself but if you love all alike, including yourself, you will love them as one person and that person is both God and man.
Meister EckhartRead

Similar quotes

The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them fully developed in someone else.
Alain De BottonRead
If we are silent when we should speak, we are not living the Discipline of silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark.
Richard J. FosterRead
I might believe I had unusual talent if I did not know what good music was; I might enjoy half an hour's practice a day if I were busy and happy the rest of the time. You do not know what life means when all the difficulties are removed! I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. It is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning.
Jane AddamsRead
The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments.
Abraham Joshua HeschelRead
And for all these people alike, the key to healing turned out to be the same. Each had a hurt he had to forgive.
Corrie Ten BoomRead
Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.