Top 450 Nhat Hanh Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “There are many, many Christians who practice Buddhism, and they become better and better Christians all the time.”

— Nhat Hanh

402. “Total relaxation is the secret to enjoying sitting meditation. I sit with my spine upright, but not rigid; and I relax all the muscles in my body.”

— Nhat Hanh

403. “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.”

— Nhat Hanh

404. “Human beings are innately loving beings. When we fail to love, it is because an element of ignorance has intruded into our experience, submerging our natural impulse to love.”

— Nhat Hanh

405. “To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living things with the eyes of compassion.”

— Nhat Hanh

406. “In English we say ‘we are’ but it’s proper to say ‘we are becoming’ because things are becoming.”

— Nhat Hanh

407. “May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.”

— Nhat Hanh

408. “Usually, people have a tendency to be caught in the worries concerning the future or in the regret concerning the past. There is some kind of energy that is pushing them to run, and they are not able to establish themselves in the present moment.”

— Nhat Hanh

409. “If you really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile?”

— Nhat Hanh

410. “Loving ourselves means loving our community. When we are capable of loving ourselves, nourishing ourselves properly, not intoxicating ourselves, we are already protecting and nourishing society.”

— Nhat Hanh

411. “Wisdom and joy arise when you learn to exist now rather than in the nonexistent past or future.”

— Nhat Hanh

412. “The fact that I am standing there and washing bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions.”

— Nhat Hanh

413. “Shallow understanding accompanies poor compassion; great understanding goes with great compassion.”

— Nhat Hanh

414. “Wisdom is a living stream, not an icon to be preserved in a museum. Only when a practitioner finds the spring of wisdom in his or her own life can it flow to a future generation.”

— Nhat Hanh

415. “Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other.”

— Nhat Hanh

416. “The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives – the way we develop our industries, build up our society, and consume goods.”

— Nhat Hanh

417. “In the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change.”

— Nhat Hanh

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

— Nhat Hanh

419. “One included all, and all were contained in one.”

— Nhat Hanh

420. “The electron is first of all your concept of the electron.”

— Nhat Hanh

421. “When you say something really unkind, when you do something in retaliation your anger increases. You make the other person suffer, and he will try hard to say or to do something back to get relief from his suffering. That is how conflict escalates.”

— Nhat Hanh

422. “Mother Earth is very talented.”

— Nhat Hanh

423. “Meditation is not to avoid society; it is to look deep to have the kind of insight you need to take action. To think that it is just to sit down and enjoy the calm and peace, is wrong.”

— Nhat Hanh

424. “When we eat mindfully, we consume exactly what we need to keep our bodies, our minds, and the Earth healthy. When we practice like this, we reduce suffering for ourselves and for others.”

— Nhat Hanh

425. “When we are present, life is also present.”

— Nhat Hanh

426. “Contemplate to see that awakened people, while not being enslaved by the work of serving living beings, never abandon their work of serving living beings.”

— Nhat Hanh

427. “Knowing that anger makes me ugly, I smile instead. I return to myself and meditate on love.”

— Nhat Hanh

428. “Once you develop the practice of smiling, you may not need a reminder. You will smile as soon as you hear a bird singing or see the sunlight streaming through the window.”

— Nhat Hanh

429. “At the moment of waking up, before getting out of bed, get in touch with your breath.”

— Nhat Hanh

430. “Even if we cannot be completely non-voilent, by being vegetarian we are going in the direction of non-voilence.”

— Nhat Hanh

431. “Artists have to show us what is not going well within the person and within the society, not try to cover it up.”

— Nhat Hanh

432. “If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace.”

— Nhat Hanh

433. “Don’t think you have to be solemn to meditate. To meditate, well, you have to smile a lot.”

— Nhat Hanh

434. “The war is in our souls.”

— Nhat Hanh

435. “With understanding, those we love will certainly flower.”

— Nhat Hanh

436. “At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point.”

— Nhat Hanh

437. “Doubt in my tradition is something that is very helpful. Because of doubt, you can thirst more and you will get a higher kind of proof.”

— Nhat Hanh

438. “Loneliness cannot be alleviated just by the coming together of two bodies, unless there is also good communication, understanding, and loving kindness.”

— Nhat Hanh

439. “Buddhism has to do with your daily life, with your suffering and with the suffering of the people around you.”

— Nhat Hanh

440. “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.”

— Nhat Hanh

441. “Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even soldiers. Some army generals, for example, conduct their operations in ways that avoid killing innocent people; this is a kind of nonviolence.”

— Nhat Hanh

442. “We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet.”

— Nhat Hanh

443. “If we chew every morsel of our food, in that way we become grateful, and when you are grateful, you are happy.”

— Nhat Hanh

444. “To educate people for peace, we can use words or we can speak with our lives.”

— Nhat Hanh

445. “Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.”

— Nhat Hanh

446. “In Buddhism, we talk of meditation as an act of awakening, to be awake to the fact that the earth is in danger and living species are in danger.”

— Nhat Hanh

447. “To make peace, our hearts must be at peace with the world.”

— Nhat Hanh

448. “Because if the manifestations that happen in the present moment are beautiful and good, their continuation in the future will be also good and beautiful.”

— Nhat Hanh

449. “I don’t have to hate any person because I can always start anew, I can always reconcile.”

— Nhat Hanh

450. “When you feel anger arising, remember to return to your breathing and follow it. The other person may see that you are practicing, and she may even apologize.”

— Nhat Hanh