Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

Buddhism is really, one of its main practices is understanding and experiencing compassion, and how that ultimately is a road to happiness.

The two wings of mindfulness and kindness will begin to open the heart to more connection with our world.

I pray for a more friendly, more caring, and more understanding human family on this planet. To all who dislike suffering, who cherish lasting happiness, this is my heartfelt appeal.

The one philosophy or religion I find I am most close to is the Buddhist one. I think it is the one that respects others and the one that doesn't say that this is the only way. I think happiness is the moment when - if you've forgotten those little things - they suddenly come back into focus for you.

When you suffer, you can look deeply at your situation and find the many blessings that are already surrounding you. It is wonderful to sit with a pen and paper and write down all the conditions for happiness that are already there, already available to you right in this moment.

Open your heart. Don't be spiteful.

The Noble Eight-Fold Path is the path of living in awareness. Mindfulness is the foundation. By practicing mindfulness, you can develop concentration, which enables you to attain understanding. Thanks to right concentration, you realize right awareness, thoughts, speech, action, livelihood and effort. The understanding which develops can liberate you from every shackle of suffering and give birth to true peace and joy.

The more you nurture a feeling of loving kindness, the happier and calmer you will be.

The cause of happiness and the solution to our problems do not lie in knowledge of material things. Happiness and suffering are states of mind, and so their main causes cannot be found outside the mind. If we want to be truly happy and free from suffering, we must learn how to control our mind.

Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.

O, ah! The awareness of emptiness brings forth a heart of compassion!

I request you to try to be warm-hearted. I ask this of you because these mental attitudes actually bring us happiness.

Just as compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, loving-kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness.

Happiness is not the acquisition of anything; it's the understanding of something.

What is love?/ One name for it is knowledge.

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.

The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person’s suffering and bring that person joy.

So many people want me to hate him and destroy him, but I don't want to. I want him to be happy. He's not a bad person.

The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."

In awareness there is no becoming, there is no end to be gained. There is silent observation without choice and condemnation, from which there comes understanding.

Be a good human being, a warm-hearted affectionate person. That is my fundamental belief. Having a sense of caring, a feeling of compassion will bring happiness of peace of mind to oneself and automatically create a positive atmosphere.

Compassion is a spiritual technology.

Theres a very fine line between not listening and not caring. I like to think I walk that line everyday of my life.

"Existence is sorrow." Understand, and go beyond sorrow. This is the way of brightness.

True compassion is not about giving or taking. True compassion is doing just what is needed.