Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

Without being peace, we cannot do anything for peace. If we cannot smile, we cannot help other people to smile. If we are not peaceful, then we cannot contribute to the peace movement.

True ahimsa should wear a smile even on a deathbed brought about by an assailant. It is only with that ahimsa that we can befriend our opponents and win their love.

Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile.

Every time one person becomes peaceful in their own life, it changes the world.

In the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change.

Instead of hating, I have chosen to forgive and spend all of my positive energy on changing the world.

We can change the world, but not improve it, if we do not have peace.

Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.

To permit ourselves to be provoked into violence would mean defeating ourselves; our real power is in our solidarity and our capacity to endure suffering rather than to give up the fight for the right to organize; no one can weave wool with machine guns; that cheerfulness was better for morale than bitterness and that therefore we would smile as we passed the machine guns and the police on the way from the hall to the picket lines around the mills.

Actions always speak louder than words, especially when they're peaceful actions.

The biggest weapon is to stay peaceful

Keep violence in the mind Where it belongs (Barefoot in the Head)

I'm on my way to happiness, where I can find some peace and rest.

A sense of contentment makes us kindly and benevolent to others; we are not chafed and galled by cares which are tyrannical because original. We are fulfilling our proper destiny, and those around us feel the sunshine of our own hearts.

Peace beings with me. The more peaceful I am inside, the more peace I have to share with others.

When you are happy, the people around you are happy, too, and it inspires them to change their own world.

Ahimsa and love are one and the same thing.

You can't take a crash course in serenity.

I'm glad folks think I look different, I'm living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I'm thrilled that perhaps it shows.

An affectionate disposition not only makes the mind more peaceful and calm, but it affects our body in a positive way too.

Smile, breathe, go slowly.

nonviolence first changes the individual.

On my knees, I beg of you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the path of peace. Those who resort to violence always claim that only violence brings about change. You must know there is a political, peaceful way to justice.

Gandhi said the end is inherent in the means, which means you cannot create any more peace than you yourself have attained. An angry generation will not bring peace.

My focus is first of all, to remove every thought of violence from my own consciousness.