Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

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169 Quotes to Find Wisdom and Guidance for a Happier Life

“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos — the trees, the clouds, everything.”

“The wave does not need to die to become water. She is already water.”

“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong…. Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”

“Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing.”

“If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is nothing that can justify your desire.”

“Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.”

“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.”

“It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.”

“When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.”

“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it.”

“Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.”

“In true love, you attain freedom.”

“Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others is possible.”

“The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth.”

“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.”

“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.”

“Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.”

“At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.”

“If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.”

“Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.”

“Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.”

“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.”

“Breathing in, there is only the present moment.
Breathing out, it is a wonderful moment.”

“Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.”

“In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.”

“I am determined to practice deep listening. I am determined to practice loving speech.”

“Being vegetarian here also means that we do not consume dairy and egg products, because they are products of the meat industry. If we stop consuming, they will stop producing. Only collective awakening can create enough determination for action.”

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”

“You are not an observer, you are a participant.”

“Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion.”

“Anxiety, the illness of our time, comes primarily from our inability to dwell in the present moment.”

“When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?”

“It is possible to live twenty-four hours a day in a state of love. Every movement, every glance, every thought, and every word can be infused with love.”

“The fact is that when you make the other suffer, he will try to find relief by making you suffer more. The result is an escalation of suffering on both sides.”

“Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge.”

“Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.”

“I have lost my smile,
but don't worry.
The dandelion has it.”

“Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.”

“A human being is like a television set with millions of channels…. We cannot let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to recover our own sovereignty.”

“May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.”

“If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.”

“We will not just say, "I love him very much," but instead, "I will do something so that he will suffer less." The mind of compassion is truly present when it is effective in removing another person's suffering.”

“An oak tree is an oak tree. That is all it has to do. If an oak tree is less than an oak tree, then we are all in trouble.”

“Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race.”

“When our beliefs are based on our own direct experience of reality and not on notions offered by others, no one can remove these beliefs from us.”

“Happiness does not come from consumption of things.”

“The Three Kinds of Pride are: (1) thinking I am better than the other(s); (2) thinking I am worse than the other(s); and (3) thinking I am just as good as the other(s).”

“Sometimes it is better not to talk about art by using the word "art". If we just act with awareness and integrity, our art will flower, and we don't have to talk about it at all.”

“People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore.”