Dalai Lama

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
– Dalai Lama

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt
them.
– Dalai Lama

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
– Dalai Lama

The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance,
humility, and forgiveness.
– Dalai Lama

If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is
no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in
worrying whatsoever.
– Dalai Lama

When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
– Dalai Lama

Human potential is the same for all. Your feeling, “I am of no value”, is wrong. Absolutely
wrong. You are deceiving yourself. We all have the power of thought – so what are you
lacking? If you have willpower then you can change anything. It is usually said that you are
your own master.
– Dalai Lama

If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your
own gun.
– Dalai Lama

Silence is sometimes the best answer.
– Dalai Lama

There is a saying in Tibetan, “Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.” No matter
what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real
disaster.
– Dalai Lama

I believe each human being has the potential to change, to transform one’s own attitude, no
matter how difficult the situation.
– Dalai Lama

Because we all share this planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with
each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity.
– Dalai Lama

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
– Dalai Lama

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.
– Dalai Lama

A truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave
negatively or hurt you.
– Dalai Lama

In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.
– Dalai Lama

If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you
have no compassion for yourself then you are not able of developing compassion for others.
– Dalai Lama

Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.
– Dalai Lama

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways – either by losing hope and
falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.
– Dalai Lama

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence.
Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.
– Dalai Lama

A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.
– Dalai Lama

It is time to fill the world with strong and powerful deeds. It is common knowledge that no
great captain in the world has ever destroyed all of his enemies and lived with a sense of
satisfaction. If one enemy is killed, two more will appear. It is important we cultivate love and
compassion to all the sentient beings which is the way to bring peace to all.
– Dalai Lama

Hard times build determination and inner strength. Through them we can also come to
appreciate the uselessness of anger. Instead of getting angry, nurture a deep caring and
respect for troublemakers because by creating such trying circumstances they provide us
with invaluable opportunities to practice tolerance and patience.
– Dalai Lama

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the
past.
– Dalai Lama

As people alive today, we must consider future generations: A clean environment is a human
right like any other. It is therefore part of our responsibility toward others to ensure that the
world we pass on is as healthy, if not healthier, than we found it.
– Dalai Lama

True spirituality is a mental attitude you can practice at any time.
– Dalai Lama

We have bigger houses but smaller families; We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgements; more experts but more problems;
more medicines, but less healthiness. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
but we have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever,
but we have less communication. We have become long on quantity
but short on quality. These are times of fast foods, but slow digestion;
tall man, but short character; steep profits, but shallow relationships.
It is a time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room.
– Dalai Lama

To reduce hatred and other destructive emotions, we must develop their opposites –
compassion and kindness.
– Dalai Lama

We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful
and afraid, or we can let them soften us, and make us kinder. We always have the choice.
– Dalai Lama

Follow the three Rs: 1. Respect for self 2. Respect for others 3. Responsibility for all your
actions.
– Dalai Lama

Whether you believe in God or not does not matter much, whether you believe in Buddha or
not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation or not does
not matter so much. You must lead a good life.
– Dalai Lama

Through violence, you may “solve” one problem, but you sow the seeds for another.
– Dalai Lama

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected
as if he reveals the secret of some hidden treasure.
– Dalai Lama

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.
– Dalai Lama

In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.
– Dalai Lama

We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.
– Dalai Lama

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
– Dalai Lama

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
– Dalai Lama

To conquer oneself is a greater victory than to conquer thousands in a battle.
– Dalai Lama

Anger or hatred is like a fisherman’s hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are
not caught by it.
– Dalai Lama

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
– Dalai Lama

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From
this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will
come.
– Dalai Lama

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice
compassion.
– Dalai Lama

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on
your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.
– Dalai Lama

The way to change others’ minds is with affection, and not anger.
– Dalai Lama

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
– Dalai Lama

If you can cultivate the right attitude, your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because
their presence provides you with the opportunity to enhance and develop tolerance,
patience and understanding.
– Dalai Lama

This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own
mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.
– Dalai Lama

A spoon cannot taste of the food it carries. Likewise, a foolish man cannot understand the
wise man’s wisdom even if he associates with a sage.
– Dalai Lama

With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a
better world.
– Dalai Lama

All suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their
own happiness or satisfaction.
– Dalai Lama

We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the
perfect body or even the perfect mate. Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind,
which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.
– Dalai Lama

I defeat my enemys when I make them my friends.
– Dalai Lama

You must not hate those who do wrong or harmful things; but with compassion, you must do
what you can to stop them – for they are harming themselves, as well as those who suffer
from their actions.
– Dalai Lama

Our business is to be happy.
– Dalai Lama

We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity.
That the happiness of one person or nation is the happiness of humanity.
– Dalai Lama

The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.
– Dalai Lama

Look at children. Of course they may quarrel, but generally speaking they do not harbor ill
feelings as much or as long as adults do. Most adults have the advantage of education over
children, but what is the use of an education if they show a big smile while hiding negative
feelings deep inside?
– Dalai Lama

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
– Dalai Lama

Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it
a second time.
– Dalai Lama

Irrespective of whether we are believers or agnostics, whether we believe in God or karma,
moral ethics is a code which everyone is able to pursue.
– Dalai Lama

Let us try to recognize the precious nature of each day.
– Dalai Lama

Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make
money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the
future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present
or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.
– Dalai Lama

The deep root of failure in our lives is to think, “Oh how useless and powerless I am.” It is
essential to think strongly and forcefully, “I can do it,” without boasting or fretting.
– Dalai Lama

We are but visitors on this planet. We are here for ninety or one hundred years at the very
most. During that period, we must try to do something good, something useful with our lives.
If you contribute to other people’s happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of
life.
– Dalai Lama

Love is the absence of judgment.
– Dalai Lama

I will not propose to you that my way is best. The decision is up to you. If you find some
point which may be suitable to you, then you can carry out experiments for yourself. If you
find that it is of no use, then you can discard it.
– Dalai Lama

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your
need for each other.
– Dalai Lama

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new
day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend or a meaningful
day.
– Dalai Lama

Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
– Dalai Lama

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
– Dalai Lama

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
– Dalai Lama

Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility
and happiness we all seek.
– Dalai Lama

Instead of wondering why this is happening to you, consider why this is happening to you.
– Dalai Lama

The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the
outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.
– Dalai Lama

Sleep is the best meditation.
– Dalai Lama

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both
for oneself and others.
– Dalai Lama

The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be.
– Dalai Lama

Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents, and
then later on in our life when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are again
dependent on the kindness of others. Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so
dependent on other’s kindness, how can it be in the middle that we would neglect kindness
towards others?
– Dalai Lama

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.
– Dalai Lama

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.
– Dalai Lama

There is only one important point you must keep in your mind and let it be your guide. No
matter what people call you, you are just who you are. Keep to this truth. You must ask
yourself how is it you want to live your life. We live and we die, this is the truth that we can
only face alone. No one can help us, not even the Buddha. So consider carefully, what
prevents you from living the way you want to live your life?
– Dalai Lama

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.
– Dalai Lama

True change is within; leave the outside as it is.
– Dalai Lama

It is positive to want to go first, provided the intention is to pave the way for others, make
their path more easy, help them, or show the way. Competition is negative when we wish to
defeat others, to bring them down in order to lift ourselves up.
– Dalai Lama

Anger is the ultimate destroyer of your own peace of mind.
– Dalai Lama

Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means
solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge;
and through humane ways.
– Dalai Lama

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
– Dalai Lama

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.
– Dalai Lama

A truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave
negatively or hurt you.
– Dalai Lama

Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where mother Earth
no longer accepts our presence with silence.
– Dalai Lama

The essence of any religion is good heart. Sometimes I call love and compassion a universal
religion. This is my religion.
– Dalai Lama

It is not enough to be compassionate, we must act.
– Dalai Lama

The foundation of the Buddha’s teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the
teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number one enemy of compassion.
– Dalai Lama

I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and
long-term happiness to our lives. I’m not talking about the short-term gratification of pleasures
like sex, drugs or gambling, though I’m not knocking them, but something that will bring true
and lasting happiness. The kind that sticks.
– Dalai Lama

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
– Dalai Lama