Top 40 David Michie Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Acknowledge. Accept. Let go.”

— David Michie

2. “It is the wonderful paradox,” he continued, “that the best way to achieve happiness for oneself is to give happiness to others.”

— David Michie

3. “Sometimes we need to be reminded what we’re capable of.”

— David Michie

4. “Inner qualities, not outer appearances.”

— David Michie

5. “Impermanence. It is the nature of all things, especially relationships. They are certainly not a true cause of happiness.”

— David Michie

6. “Most people think that their only option is to change their circumstances. But these are not the true causes of their unhappiness. It has more to do with the way they think about their circumstances.”

— David Michie

7. “One way to achieve happiness is to give happiness to others.”

— David Michie

8. “If pleasure is a circumstantial enjoyment, happiness refers to a deeper sense of fulfilment not dependent on circumstance, and which is usually accompanied by qualities such as peacefulness, purposefulness and benevolence. Unlike pleasure, which requires situations to be constantly renewed or upgraded, happiness is a state of mind that grows the more we experience it.”

— David Michie

9. “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality. It wakes us up to the fact that our lives unfold only in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation.”

— David Michie

10. “I sometimes think the past is a dangerous place to go looking for happiness,” said the Indian man sitting next to Serena.”

— David Michie

11. “For those beings with a broader perspective of Planet Earth, boredom is sometimes accompanied by a darker companion – guilt. We know that compared to many others, our lives are actually quite comfortable. We don’t live in a war zone or in abject poverty; we don’t have to dwell in the shadows on account of our gender or religious opinions. We’re free to eat, dress, live, and walk however we like, thank you very much. But even so, we’re bored beyond measure.”

— David Michie

12. “Karma operates not so much as some external credit-and-debit ledger but more as an energy, a charge that grows over time. This is how even small acts of generosity, especially when motivated by the best intention, can become causes for much greater wealth in the future.”

— David Michie

13. “Before we eat any meal, vegetarian or meat, we should always remember the beings that have died so that we can eat. Their lives were just as important to them as your life is to you. Think of them with gratitude and pray that their sacrifice will be a cause for them to be reborn in a higher realm – and for you to be healthy, so that you can quickly, quickly reach full enlightenment in order to lead them to that same state.”

— David Michie

14. “It’s wonderful what becomes possible when we start to accept ourselves,” he told me. “Others find it easier to accept us, too, when we don’t keep engaging in negative thoughts about ourselves.”

— David Michie

15. “Yes, karma propels us into all kinds of unexpected situations,” His Holiness said. “This is another reason we should behave with love and compassion toward all living beings. We never know in what circumstances we will meet up with them again. Sometimes even in this same lifetime.”

— David Michie

16. “Mahatma Gandhi once said: ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.’ Interesting, isn’t it?”

— David Michie

17. “In the Dharma, there is no place for guilt. Guilt is useless. It is pointless to feel bad about something in the past that we can’t change. But regret? Yes. This is more useful. Do you both feel sincere regret for what you did?”

— David Michie

18. “When we’re being mindful, we’re paying attention to the present moment, deliberately and non-judgementally. When we’re meditating, we’re being mindful of a specific object, such as the sensation of the breath at the tip of our nostrils, for a sustained period of time.”

— David Michie

19. “It was the ruling King of Bhutan himself who, in the 1980s, set up a system that measured national advancement according to Gross National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product.”

— David Michie

20. “Would I have fared better if I had stood my ground and stared down my pursuers? Could so-called self-preservation sometimes backfire and become the very cause of pain?”

— David Michie

21. “Fourth: no swamp, no lotus. The most transcendent of flowers grows out of the filth of the swamp. Suffering is like the swamp. If it makes us more humble, more able to sympathize with others and more open to them, then we become capable of transformation and of becoming truly beautiful, like the lotus.”

— David Michie

22. “Even though cats spend most of the day dozing comfortably, we like our humans to keep busy. Not in a noisy or intrusive way – just active enough to entertain us during those periods when we choose to remain awake. Why else do you think most cats have a favorite theater seat – a preferred spot on a windowsill, porch, gatepost, or cupboard top? Don’t you realize, dear reader, that you are our entertainment?”

— David Michie

23. “What if someone conducted tens of thousands of hours of rigorous investigation to discover truths about the nature of consciousness? Suppose other people replicated the research over hundreds of years. How amazing would it be not just to have an intellectual understanding of the mind’s potential but also to establish the most rapid and direct way to realize it? That is the science of Buddhism.”

— David Michie

24. “Two main true causes of happiness: first, the wish to give happiness to others, which Buddhists define as love, and second, the wish to help free others from dissatisfaction or suffering, which we define as compassion.”

— David Michie

25. “Was it not Winston Churchill who said that a cat is a riddle, inside an enigma, inside a delightful pelt of cuddliness?”

— David Michie

26. “Thinking too much about oneself is a cause of much suffering,” the Dalai Lama said. “Anxiety, depression, resentment, fear – these become much worse with too much attention to the self. The mantra Me, me, me is not so good.”

— David Michie

27. “The Holy Secret is this: If you wish to end your suffering, seek to end the suffering of others. If you wish for happiness, seek the happiness of others. Exchanging thoughts of self for thoughts of others – this is the most effective way to be happy.”

— David Michie

28. “The purpose of Buddhism is not to convert people. It is to give them tools so they can create greater happiness. So they can be happier Catholics, happier atheists, happier Buddhists.”

— David Michie

29. “A reaction is automatic, habitual,” Ludo said. “A response is considered. That’s the difference. What’s important is to create space, to open ourselves up to possibilities beyond the habitual, which rarely serve us well. Anger is never an enlightened response. We may be wrathful – speaking in mock-angry tones to stop a child who is about to step near a fire, for example – but that’s very different from real anger.”

— David Michie

30. “Meditation provides the tools not only to abide more comfortably in the present, but also to observe rather than engage with unhappiness-creating thoughts.”

— David Michie

31. “There’s nothing like a good, long sleep to allow unpleasantness to recede into the past.”

— David Michie

32. “All is cause and effect. Action and reaction.”

— David Michie

33. “We cats are the most habitual of creatures. Preferred sun loungers, meal times, hidey holes, and scratching posts are among the considerations in which we take daily satisfaction. And it is exactly because many humans embrace routine that we even consider allowing them to share our homes, let alone retain them as members of our staff.”

— David Michie

34. “The mind is like a garden,” he told me. “You choose what to grow: weeds or flowers.”

— David Michie

35. “Be wisely selfish, little Snow Lion. Gain happiness for yourself by giving it to others.”

— David Michie

36. “When we think of other beings with compassion, this makes us happiest. When we consider how to help others avoid suffering and give them contentment, we, ourselves, are the first to benefit.”

— David Michie

37. “We don’t stop thinking about ourselves the whole time. Even when this makes us unhappy and uptight. If we focus too much on ourselves, we make ourselves sick. We have this constant inner chatter going morning, noon, and night, this inner monologue. But paradoxically, the more we are able to think about making other beings happy, the happier we become ourselves.”

— David Michie

38. “The problem,” observed a tall Indian man sitting next to Serena, “is that we get stuck in our comfort zone, even when it isn’t very comfortable.”

— David Michie

39. “It’s our version of “me” that causes us the most stress and heartache. Which is why it comes as a relief to discover that this version is as transient as a cloud in the sky. Focus on the cloud and the result is uncertain. Focus on the sky and we discover clarity.”

— David Michie

40. “Enduring happiness was only possible with equanimity. As long as our happiness depended on circumstances, it would be as fleeting and unreliable as the events themselves.”

— David Michie

41. “The researchers summarized: “A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.“. Long ago, Buddhists reached much the same conclusion.”

— David Michie

42. “When you say ‘This is a bad thing that’s happening,’ how often are you wrong?”

— David Michie

43. “Whatever is in our mind, we project onto the world outside us. Step by step, if we transform the way we think, especially by letting go of the self-grasping mind, we also transform our reality.”

— David Michie

44. “In Buddhism we would say that you are lazy... Despising yourself, thinking you are no good, saying ‘I can’t do this.’ This is the mind of weakness. You must work to overcome it .”

— David Michie

45. “Sentient beings are killed even for a vegetarian diet. When land is cleared to make space for crops, the natural habitat is destroyed, and many smaller beings are killed. Then crops are planted, and pesticides are sprayed, killing many thousands of insects. You see, it is very difficult to avoid harming other beings, especially in relation to food.”

— David Michie

46. “Even ordinary people like us, we also need the tools for transformation.”

— David Michie

47. “Serena smiled. “The historical Buddha who lived two and a half thousand years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha, he was a man. But enlightenment is a state beyond being male or female.”

— David Michie