Buddhist Quotes

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

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

The Buddhist version of poverty is a situation where you have nothing to contribute.

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.]

We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.

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

note the similarities with buddhism a buddhist who has achieved nirvana is not sad primarily because it does not know the concept of sad [...]

To be a good Zen Buddhist it is not enough to follow the teaching of its founder; we have to experience the Buddha's experience.

What the warrior renounces is anything in his experience that is a barrier between himself and others. In other words, renunciation is making yourself more available, more gentle and open to others.

Today, due to the massive Chinese population transfer, the nation of Tibet truly faces the threat of extinction, along with its unique cultural heritage of Buddhist spirituality.

We all have to live together, so we might as well live together happily.

True change is within; leave the outside as it is.

If only I could throw away the urge to trace my patterns in your heart, I could really see you.

I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the 'monkey mind' -- the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl.

People who are advanced meditators don't worry about liberation and self-realization; they instead are interested in the welfare of others and aiding others in their liberation.

The pathway to enlightenment is beautiful. There are a lot of wonderful things that happen along the way. Win or lose, you just keep going, and it happens eventually.

The good renounce everything. The pure don't babble about sensual desires. Whether touched by pleasure or pain, the wise show no change of temper.

The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness.

All living beings have Buddha nature and can become Buddhas.

There is a way to be purified, to overcome sorrows and grief, to release suffering, to secure the right path to realize nirvana. This is to be mindful.

The worlds originate so that truth may come and dwell therein.

The mind is pure and luminous by nature. It is defiled only by adventitious thoughts and emotions

We will develop love, we will practice it, we will make it both a way and a basis.

To support mother and father, to cherish wife and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupation - this is the greatest blessing.

For innumerable reasons, Mahamati, the Bodhisattva, whose nature is compassion, is not to eat any meat.

From craving is born grief, from craving is born fear. For one freed from craving there's no grief- so how fear?

There are these two kinds of gifts: a gift of material things & a gift of the Dhamma. Of the two, this is supreme: a gift of the Dhamma.

Overcome the angry by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth.

If a man who enjoys a lesser happiness beholds a greater one, let him leave aside the lesser to gain the greater.

Better than a meaningless story of a thousand words is a single word of deep meaning which, when heard, produces peace.

Love is a gift of one's inner most soul to another so both can be whole.

Do not give up your authority and follow blindly the will of others. This way will lead to only delusion.

Of what I know, I have told you only a little. Why have I not told you the rest? Because it would not lead you to Nirvana.

Born out of concern for all beings.

If there is only empty space, with no suns nor planets in it, then space loses its substantiality.

Not by mere eloquence, nor by handsome appearance, does a man become good-natured, should he be jealous, selfish and deceitful.

Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world: As star at dawn, a bubble in a stream A flash of lightning in a summer cloud A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream

Meat-eating is condemned by the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Sravakas; if one devours meat out of shamelessness he will always be devoid of sense.

Therefore, do not eat meat which will cause terror among people, because it hinders the truth of emancipation; not to eat meat? this is the mark of the wise.

Much though he recites the sacred texts, but acts not accordingly, that heedless man is like a cowherd who only counts the cows of others - he does not partake of the blessings of the holy life.

Hunger (for things) is the supreme disease.

As an irrigator guides water to his fields, as an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives.

Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever's not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet.

Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher.

One is not called noble who harms living beings. By not harming living beings one is called noble.

Rising early and scorning laziness, remaining calm in time of strife, faultless in conduct and clever in actions. One like this will be praised.

There have been many Buddhas before me and will be many Buddhas in the future.

Whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings...that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

I realize that many elements of the Buddhist teaching can be found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam. I think if Buddhism can help, it is the concrete methods of practice.

When she was younger, my mother was quite committed to Roman Catholicism. But she got disillusioned with it and moved closer to something like Buddhist beliefs near the end of her life.