However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you
if you do not act on upon them?
– Buddha
To be idle is a short road to death and to be dilligent is a way of life. Foolish people are idle,
wise people are dilligent.
– Buddha
Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to others.
– Buddha
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else;
you are the one who gets burned.
– Buddha
Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the
striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of
these.
– Buddha
Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the
water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed.
– Buddha
If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.
– Buddha
A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which
renew humanity.
– Buddha
He is able who thinks he is able.
– Buddha
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle. And the life of the candle will not
be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
– Buddha
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
– Buddha
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about
the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
– Buddha
Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart give yourself to it.
– Buddha
An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound
your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.
– Buddha
A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker.
A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.
– Buddha
In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How
deeply did you let go?
– Buddha
There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.
– Buddha
Pain is certain, suffering is optional.
– Buddha
There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: Not going all the way, and
not starting.
– Buddha
All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed, can wrong-doing remain?
– Buddha
Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.
– Buddha
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins – not through
strength, but through persistence.
– Buddha
Doubt everything. Find your own light.
– Buddha
Greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind; hate is an imperfection that defiles the mind;
delusion is an imperfection that defiles the mind.
– Buddha
Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.
– Buddha
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless
it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
– Buddha
This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of
beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is a flash of lightning in the sky.
Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.
– Buddha
If you light a lamp for someone else it will also brighten your path.
– Buddha
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and
fearless then he is in truth called wise.
– Buddha
The teacher comes to point the way and the student ends up worshipping the pointer.
– Buddha
Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells
you merely out of respect for the teacher. But 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.
– Buddha
A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one
another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of
harmony with one another it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden.
– Buddha
Nothing is forever. Except change.
– Buddha
Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace.
– Buddha
You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
– Buddha
You will not be punished for your anger.
You will be punished by your anger.
– Buddha
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.
– Buddha
Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.
– Buddha
It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see once own faults. One shows the
faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a
cunning gambler conceals his dice.
– Buddha
Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.
– Buddha
There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison
that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and
hurts; it is a sword that kills.
– Buddha
What we think, we become.
– Buddha
The tongue like a sharp knife. It kills without drawing blood.
– Buddha
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you,
depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.
– Buddha
Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
– Buddha
Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.
– Buddha
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It
cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
– Buddha
Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except your self.
– Buddha
Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.
– Buddha
There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.
– Buddha
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil
thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him,
like a shadow that never leaves him.
– Buddha
If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
– Buddha
If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his
solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool.
– Buddha
As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, the wise are not moved by praise or blame.
– Buddha
To force oneself to believe and to accept a thing without understanding is political, and not
spiritual or intellectual.
– Buddha
Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
– Buddha
If we fail to look after others when they need help, who will look after us?
– Buddha
The greatest prayer is patience.
– Buddha
Kindness should become the natural way of life, not the exception.
– Buddha
To insist on a spiritual practice that served you in the past is to carry the raft on your back
after you have crossed the river.
– Buddha
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that
falls on them unless they act.
– Buddha
It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.
– Buddha
Believe not because some old manuscripts are produced, believe not because it is your
national belief, believe not because you have been made to believe from your childhood, but
reason truth out, and after you have analyzed it, then if you find it will do good to one and
all, believe it, live up to it and help others live up to it.
– Buddha
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
– Buddha
Rage is a powerful energy that with diligent practice can be transformed into fierce
compassion. However much we disagree with our enemies, our task is to identify with them.
They too feel justified in their point of view.
– Buddha
Speak the truth, do not become angered and give when asked, even be it a little. By these
three conditions one goes to the presence of the gods.
– Buddha
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
– Buddha
I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.
– Buddha