Meister Eckhart Quotes on Work & Career (4 Quotes)

The kind of work we do does not make us holy, but we can make it holy. However 'sacred' a calling may be, as it is a calling, it has no power to sanctify but rather as we are and have the divine being within, we bless each task we do, be it eating, or sleeping, or watching, or any other.

People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works.

Even though I never did an evil deed, yet, if I have the will to do evil, I have the sin as if I had done the deed and I could, by a total will, do as great a sin as if I had killed the whole world, though I never actually did anything. Why, would the same not be possible to a good will Yes, indeed, and even much more so. Surely, I can do all things with the will. I can bear the sorrow of all men and feed all the poor and do the work of all men and whatever else you may think of. If it be not the will that fails you, but only the power, then truly, before God, you have done it all, and no man can take it from you or even hinder you for a moment for to will to do as soon as I can is the same before God as having done it.

The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great.