Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

To be compassionate is not a joke. It's not that simple. One has to discover a certain bigness in oneself. That bigness should be centered on oneself, not in terms of money, not in terms of power you wield, not in terms of any status that you can command in the society, but it should be centered on oneself.

The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.

It's often difficult for us to act compassionately, but sacred art eases the difficulty by ennobling us.

If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.

Love and compassion don't at all have to make us weak, or lead us to losing discernment and vision. We just have to learn how to find them. And see, in truth, what they bring us.

Compassion is the key to living outside the confines of your lower self.

Yoga is about compassion and generosity towards others. It means being mindful of the world around us.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

My strength needs no victims. My strength is my compassion.

There is a simple way to become buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else.

Cultivating a generous spirit starts with mindfulness. Mindfulness, simply stated, means paying attention to what is actually happening; it's about what is really going on.

You cease to move into yourself, away from others. You give up your antagonism. You begin to move toward others in love. God moved toward you in gracious, outgoing love, and you move toward others in that same outgoing love.

You should think about the world and feel about your heart.

I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

The one characteristic of authentic power that most people overlook is humbleness. It is important for many reasons. A humble person walks in a friendly world. He or she sees friends everywhere he or she looks, wherever he or she goes, whomever he or she meets. His or her perception goes beyond the shell of appearance and into essence.

Consciously be sensitive to others, and try to elevate their level of consciousness. Don't do this by being preachy and telling them that they 'should' do this or that. Do it by raising your own level of energy and recognizing what's best in others.

If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world.

I think the associations people have with kindness are often things like meekness and sweetness and maybe sickly sweetness; whereas I do think of kindness as a force, as a power.

The Dalai Lama. He is a very wise man of great inner peace who believes that happiness is the purpose of our lives. Through his teachings and leadership, he continues to make this world a better place in which to live.

I'm doing my best to be mindful about how I'm living: to be kind and patient, and not to impose a bad mood on somebody else. Being mindful is as good a way to be spiritual as anything else.

The gods do not need sacrifices, so what might one do to please them? Acquire wisdom, it seems to me, and do all the good in one's power to those humans who deserve it.

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

We need the compassion and the courage to change the conditions that support our suffering. Those conditions are things like ignorance, bitterness, negligence, clinging, and holding on.

Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.

I feel a lot more secure about the directions I take, than I might have, had I not practiced Buddhism.