Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

To discover your mission and put it into action - instead of worrying on the sidelines - is to find peace of mind and a heart full of love.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

It doesn't matter what it is you're doing, my motto is: the joy is in the doing.

The goal has its importance. But the doing is what is truly fulfilling. Every enthusiastic person has a goal that may be important, but the doing is intensely fulfilling, and it is the essence of enthusiasm.

Do you serve a purpose, or purposely serve?

If you want to be powerful in life you have to enjoy the process. You have to get pleasure out of making the thing that you're making. There has to be that kind of purpose behind it. If your purpose is simply gaining power, if that becomes your end in life then you end up sort of destroying yourself because you lose the sense of detachment that's very necessary.

You see, if you take pains and learn in order to get a reward, the work will seem hard; but when you work... if you love your work, you will find your reward in that.

I've met a few people who had to change their jobs in order to change their lives, but I've met many more people who merely had to change their motive to service in order to change their lives.

Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.

Clothe with life the weak intent, Let me be the thing I meant.

If you're doing something you love, an hour feels like five minutes. If you're doing something that doesn't resonate with your spirit, five minutes feels like an hour.

In anything we do, any endeavor, it's not what you do; it's why you do it

I learned one thing; you never do anything for fame or money. You only do things 'cause they're fun or good. If you can combine the two at the same time, you can make a contribution to the world and have a lot of happiness.

Man works for an object. Remove that object and you reduce him into inaction.

The only advice my Dad's given me is: If you ain't having fun, it ain' working, so always have fun with what you're doing. If you don't love it then there's no reason to do it. And don't do it for fame or money- do it because it's something that you feel is right.

Being a happy warrior, you also have a lot of fun in what you do because you believe in what you're doing.

The peace that comes with surrendered action turns to a sense of aliveness when you actually enjoy what you are doing.

Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it.

In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.

Good intentions are useless until they are expressed in appropriate action!

Love what you do or don't do it.

Life is greater when I'm dealing with something than when I'm just dreaming away.

You can never be happy until you understand why you're doing what you're doing.

You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish - not sit intending on a chair.

If you find that thing you love, it doesn't necessarily matter whether you do it well or not-you just need to do it.