Top 500 Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 6 of 10

251. “We are aware that blaming and arguing can never help us and only create a wider gap between us; that only understanding, trust, and love can help us change and grow.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

252. “There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. There is no way to peace, peace is the way. There is no way to enlightenment, enlightenment is the way.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

253. “Every one of us is trying to find our true home. Some of us are still searching. Our true home is inside, but it’s also in our loved ones around us. When you’re in a loving relationship, you and the other person can be a true home for each other.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

254. “To “love our enemy” is impossible, because the moment we love him, he is no longer our enemy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

255. “The object of your practice should first of all be yourself. Your love for the other, your ability to love another person, depends on your ability to love yourself.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

256. “We have an idea of happiness. We believe that only certain conditions will make us happy. But it is often our very idea of happiness that prevents us from being happy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

257. “See that everything is impermanent and without eternal identity. See that although things are impermanent and without lasting identity, they are nonetheless wondrous.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

258. “If someone were to ask, “What’s the purpose of walking meditation? What’s the point? Why do you practice it?” There are several answers we can give. But for me the best answer is, “Because I like it.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

259. “My actions are my only true belongings.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

260. “There is no difference between healing ourselves and healing the Earth.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

261. “Every time we truly stop and look deeply, the result is a better understanding of the true nature of what is there inside us and around us.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

262. “Someone asked me, “Aren’t you worried about the state of the world?” I allowed myself to breathe and then I said, “What is most important is not to allow your anxiety about what happens in the world to fill your heart. If your heart is filled with anxiety, you will get sick, and you will not be able to help.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

263. “True love is made of four elements: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

264. “The wheat field needs clouds and sunshine. So in this slice of bread there is sunshine, there is cloud, there is the labor of the farmer, the joy of having flour, and the skill of the baker and then – miraculously! – there is the bread. The whole cosmos has come together so that this piece of bread can be in your hand. You don’t need to do a lot of hard work to get this insight. You only need to stop letting your mind carry you away with worrying, thinking, and planning.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

265. “Calming, Smiling. Present moment, Wonderful moment.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

266. “When there are wars within us, it will not be long before we are at war with others, even those we love.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

267. “In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

268. “Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements, including Christian ones, and Christianity is made of non-Christian elements, including Buddhist ones.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

269. “When you prepare a meal with artful awareness, it’s delicious and healthy. You have put your mindfulness, love, and care into the meal, then people will be eating your love.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

270. “Impermanence and selflessness are not negative aspect of life, but the very foundation on which life is built. Impermanence is the constant transformation of things. Without impermanence, there can be no life. Selflessness is the interdependent nature of all things. Without interdependence, nothing could exist.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

271. “In our sangha, we have a porch we call, Listening to the Rain Veranda. We made it specially for that purpose – so we could sit there and listen to the rain and not need to think about anything. Listening to the rain can help the mind come to stillness.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

272. “Feeling the heat of anger right now, I close my eyes and look into the future. Three hundred years from now, where will you, where will I, be?”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

273. “Everyone needs a spiritual dimension in life. Without a spiritual dimension, it’s very challenging to be with the daily difficulties we all encounter.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

274. “Emptiness means to be full of everything but empty of a separate existence.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

275. “I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people like you who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

276. “When you have trouble sleeping, follow your breathing in and breathing out. Bring your awareness to the different parts of your body in turn, and allow them to relax.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

277. “We absorb and reflect what is around us. If we live in a place where people are angry and violent, then eventually we’ll become like them.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

278. “Compassion is the only energy that can help us connect with another person. The person who has no compassion in him can never be happy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

279. “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.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

280. “When we observe or listen to other people, we often don’t see them clearly or really hear what they’re saying. We see and hear our projections and prejudices instead.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

281. “When a feeling or thought arises, your intention should not be to chase it away, even if by continuing to concentrate on the breath the feeling or thought passes naturally from the mind. The intention isn’t to chase it away, hate it, worry about it, or be frightened by it. So what exactly should you be doing concerning such thoughts and feelings? Simply acknowledge their presence.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

282. “What are you ruminating on? Old suffering?”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

283. “Standing in line at a grocery store or a restaurant, or waiting for the time to eat, we don’t need to waste our time. We don’t need to “wait” for one second. Instead, we can enjoy breathing in and out for our nourishment and healing. We can use that time to notice that we will soon be able to have food, and we can be happy and grateful during that time. Instead of waiting, we can generate joy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

284. “When you love someone, the most precious gift you can give your loved one is your true presence.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

285. “You have to protect yourself and your beloved ones by practicing selective watering.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

286. “When this body was just born, it was very light. As we grow, we tend to get weighed down by worries and lose our freshness and beauty. Mindful eating helps us regain this freshness, nourishing our spirits as well as our bodies. Eating with appreciation of our own bodies, we eat with more relaxation and joy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

287. “If you can see your mother as a fragile five-year-old girl, then you can forgive her very easily with compassion. The five-year-old girl who was your mother is always alive in her and in you.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

288. “Someday, with no effort at all, you will understand. You only have to allow yourself to be there, to touch deeply each thing you encounter, to walk mindfully, and to help others with the whole of your being. This is the practice of non-practice.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

289. “Nourish yourself every day with the wonderful things that life has to offer you. Nourish yourself in the present moment. Walk in the kingdom of God.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

290. “Throughout our life we produce energy. We say things and do things, and every thought, every word, and every act carries our signature. What we produce as thoughts, as speech, as action, continues to influence the world, and that is our continuation body. Our actions carry us into the future. We are like stars whose light energy continues to radiate across the cosmos millions of years after they become extinct.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

291. “In the past, we probably did suffer from one thing or another. It may even have felt like a kind of hell. If we remember that suffering, not letting ourselves get carried away by it, we can use it to remind ourselves, “How lucky I am right now. I’m not in that situation. I can be happy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

292. “Our suffering is impermanent, and that is why we can transform it. And because happiness is impermanent, that is why we have to nourish it.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

293. “During the moment one is consulting, resolving, and dealing with whatever arises, a calm heart and self-control are necessary if one is to obtain good results. Anyone can see that. If we are not in control of ourselves but instead let our impatience or anger interfere, then our work is no longer of any value.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

294. “Being rich is an obstacle to loving. When you are rich, you want to continue to be rich, and so you end up devoting all your time, all your energy, in your daily life to stay rich.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

295. “Precepts in Buddhism and commandments in Judiasm and Christianity are important jewels that we need to study and practice. They provide guidelines that can help us transform our suffering.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

296. “In everyone there’s a continuous desire and expectation; deep inside, you still expect something better to happen. That is why you check your email many times a day!”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

297. “Suppose you want something very much. You think that if you don’t get that something, happiness won’t be possible. You get caught in that idea. But, in reality, there are people who have that thing who are miserable, and there people who don’t have that thing who are perfectly happy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

298. “True happiness isn’t found in success, money, fame, or power. True happiness should be found in the here and the now. With that kind of insight you can truly relax.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

299. “We produce ourselves, we product our own future. We have to offer our best thoughts, speech and actions. Mindfulness helps us to know whether we’re producing the right thing for future and helps us remember that what we produce is us, is our continuation.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

300. “While practicing mindfulness, don’t be dominated by the distinction between good and evil, thus creating a battle within oneself.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh