Buddhist Quotes

If a man can control his body and mind and thereby refrains from eating animal flesh and wearing animal products, I say he will really be liberated.

Happiness follows sorrow, sorrow follows happiness, but when one no longer discriminates happiness and sorrow, a good deal and a bad deed, one is able to realize freedom.

The mentor can be identified by four things: by restraining you from wrongdoing, guiding you towards good actions, telling you what you ought to know, and showing you the path to heaven.

All beings tremble before violence. All love life. All fear death. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?

Things are not what they appear to be: nor are they otherwise.

When one is overcome by this wretched, clinging desire in the world, one's sorrows increase like grass growing up after a lot of rain.

Meat is not agreeable to the wise: it has a nauseating odor, it causes a bad reputation, it is food for the carnivorous; I say this, Mahamati, it is not to be eaten.

He who harms living beings is, for that reason, not an ariya (a Noble One); he who does not harm any living being is called an ariya.

Cambodia wanted no part of SEATO. We would look after ourselves as neutrals and Buddhists.

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

Don't call for a revolution, but look at yourself honestly and create an evolution.

It is ignorance that smothers, and it is carelessness that makes it invisible. The hunger of craving pollutes the world, and the pain of suffering causes the greatest fear.

Ye must leave righteous ways behind, not to speak of unrighteous ways.

The beginning of mindful eating is the realization that eating meat is not about the meat-eater; it is about the animals who are tormented and killed.

I think Gore does have to worry. He is tied to Bill Clinton. We know that there were telephone calls that he made from his office. We know that there were visits to the Buddhist temple.

The minute you say "I can't", it is another wrong affirmation to your subconscious that you choose to lose.

The creatures that inhabit this earth-be they human beings or animals-are here to contribute, each in its own particular way, to the beauty and prosperity of the world.

As an elephant in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse.

What you are today is the choice you made yesterday.

When I hear real faithful people - whether it's a real Christian, or a real Buddhist, or a real Muslim - I hear them use the language I use for a friend. So my metaphor for God is friend.

Without that poise and balance and gentle humor and caring sense, nothing happens at all. It's just egotism and vanity and jealousy and possessiveness.

Dispassion is the best of mental states. . . .

A fool acquires knowledge only to his own disadvantage. It destroys what good he has, and turns his brains.

One is not a great one because one defeats or harms other living beings. One is so called because one refrains from defeating or harming other living beings.

Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.

There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance.

If we destroy something around us we destroy ourselves. If we cheat another, we cheat ourselves.

Don't give way to heedlessness or to intimacy with sensual delight - for a heedful person, absorbed in jhana, attains an abundance of ease.

The man who foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my most ungrudging love; and the more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me.

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon

One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand on the battlefield.

No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.

Let us live in joy, never falling sick like those who hate us. Let us live in freedom, without hatred even among those who hate.

See the truth, and you will see me.

Yoga has brought me closer to myself. It's helped me realize the interconnectedness of the mind, body and spirit, in the Buddhist sense of the word.

Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind.

The recollected go forth to lives of renunciation. They take no pleasure in a fixed abode. Like wild swans abandoning a pool, they leave one resting place after another.

Like fresh milk a bad deed does not turn at once. It follows a fool scorching him like a smouldering fire.

Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

A noble person is mindful and thankful for the favors he receives from others.

You must take action yourself, for Buddhas only teach the way.

Inflowing thoughts come to an end in those who are ever alert of mind, training themselves night and day, and ever intent on nirvana

To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.

I know what I gave them; I don't know what they received.

Health, contentment, and trust are your greatest possessions. And freedom your greatest joy.

When I'm riding my bicycle I feel like a Buddhist who is happy just to enjoy his mundane existence

So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person. [True Love. A Practice for Awakening the Heart.]

Irrigators channel waters; fletchers straighten arrows; carpenters bend wood; the wise master themselves.

As a single drop of water fills a bucket, so do small deeds of evil; as a single drop of water fills a bucket, so do small deeds of good.