"...find out for yourself whether you can live, not theoretically but actually, without comparison, measure, never using the words 'better' or 'more.' See what happens."

The Awakening of Intelligence, "Freedom"


"So, is it possible to live without comparison of any kind, never translating yourself in terms of comparison with another or with some idea or with some hero or with some example? Because when you are comparing, when you are measuring yourself with 'what should be' or 'what has been,' you are not seeing what is."

The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti,Vol.17 p.182


"Now to live without measurement, to be totally, completely, free of all measurement, is part of meditation. Not that 'I am practicing this, I will achieve something in a years time.' That is measurement which is the very nature of one’s egotistic activity. Meditation is the ending of measurement, the ending of comparison completely."

Unkown source


"One is everlastingly comparing oneself with another, with what one is, with what one should be, with someone who is more fortunate. This comparison really kills. Comparison is degrading, it perverts one's outlook. And on comparison one is brought up. All our education is based on it and so is our culture. So there is everlasting struggle to be something other than what one is.

The understanding of what one is uncovers creativeness, but comparison breeds competitiveness, ruthlessness, ambition, which we think brings about progress. Progress has only led so far to more ruthless wars and misery than the world has ever known. To bring up children without comparison is true education."

J. Krishnamurti, Krishnamurti, A Biography


"The immature mind compares itself with what is and what should be, but it is only the immature mind that compares. The mature mind has no comparison, the mature mind has no measure.

I don' t know if you have ever looked into yourself and watched how you compare yourself with another, saying, 'He is so beautiful, so intelligent, so clever, so prominent; and I am nobody, I would like to be like him.' Or, 'She is so beautiful, has a good figure, has a nice mind, intelligent, bright, better.' We think and function in this comparative, measuring world.

And if you have ever questioned and observed maybe you have said, 'No more comparison, no more comparison with anybody, not with the most beautiful actress.' You know that beauty is not in the actress, beauty is something total, not in the face, in the figure, in the smile, but where there is a quality of total comprehension, the totality of one's being; when that is what looks, there is beauty.

Do watch it in yourself, please, try it, or rather do it - when you use the word 'try,' you know how such a mind is the most deplorable, foolish mind; when it says, 'I am doing my best, I am trying,' this indicates a mind that is essentially bourgeois, capable of measuring, which is doing better every day;

so, find out for yourself whether you can live, not theoretically but actually, without comparison, measure, never using the words 'better' or 'more.' See what happens. It is only such a mature mind that is not wasting energy, only such a mind can live a very simple life, I mean a life of real simplicity, not the so-called simplicity of the man who has one meal, or one loin-cloth - that's exhibitionism - but the mind that has no measure and is therefore not wasting energy."

The Awakening of Intelligence, "Freedom"


"Why do we compare ourselves with the ideal? And does comparison bring understanding? Is the ideal different from ourselves? Is it not a self-projection, a homemade thing, and does it not therefore prevent the understanding of ourselves as we are? Is not comparison an evasion of the understanding of ourselves? There are so many ways of escaping from ourselves, and comparison is one of them. Surely, without the understanding of oneself, the search for so-called reality is an escape from oneself. Without self-knowledge, the god that you seek is the god of illusion; and illusion inevitably brings conflict and sorrow. Without self-knowledge, there can be no right thinking; and then all knowledge is ignorance which can only lead to confusion and destruction. Self-knowledge is not an ultimate end; it is the only opening wedge to the inexhaustible."

Commentaries on Living, First Series, p.47


"Man is not a measure of himself."

Unknown source