Top 500 Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from the moon.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

302. “May we find ways to live more simply in order to have more time and energy to change the system of injustice that exists in the world.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

303. “If you get angry every day, your seed of anger will grow bigger and bigger, and it will be much more difficult for compassion to grow. Without compassion, it will be difficult to use loving speech.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

304. “When we take a moment to sit and breathe before we eat, we can get in touch with the real hunger in our body. We can discover if we’re eating because we’re hungry or if we’re eating because it’s the time to eat and the food is there.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

305. “The wise do not consider the chains and shackles of jail to be the toughest restraints. The chains of attachment are the strongest of the ties that bind.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

306. “We may think that if we ignore our fears, they’ll go away. But if we bury worries and anxieties in our consciousness, they continue to affect us and bring us more sorrow.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

307. “When we pay attention to our breathing, our in-breath and out-breath become peaceful and relaxed. When we walk with attention and we just walk without thinking or being carried away by anything, we already begin to heal.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

308. “We will receive the fruits of any act we have done, whether wholesome or unwholesome.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

309. “Hell is in us, like a seed. We need to cultivate the positive within us so we can generate the energy of understanding and compassion and transform hell.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

310. “When a farmer uses a kind of fertilizer that does not have any effect, he has to change the fertilizer. The same is true for us. If, after several months, the practice we are doing has not brought about any transformation and healing, we have to reconsider the situation.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

311. “What you read and write can help you heal, so be thoughtful about what you consume.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

312. “Listen Bhikkhus, just as a buffalo boy recognizes each of his own buffaloes, a bhikkhu recognizes each of the essential elements of his own body. Just as a buffalo boy knows the characteristics and tendencies of each buffalo, a bhikkhu knows which actions of body, speech, and mind are worthy and which are not. Just as a buffalo boy scrubs his animals clean, a bhikkhu must cleanse his mind and body of desires, attachments, anger, and aversions.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

313. “But the path back home is not long. Home is inside us. Going home requires only sitting down and being with yourself, accepting the situation as it is. Yes, it might be a mess in there, but we accept it because we know we have left home for a long time. So now we’re home. With our in-breath and our out-breath, our mindful breathing, we begin to tidy up our homes.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

314. “Suffering has its beneficial aspects. It can be an excellent teacher.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

315. “Ending our consumption of violent images and toxic communication gives us the chance to transform the violence and suffering in us.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

316. “When you work with your computer for three or four hours, you are totally lost. It’s like eating french fries. You shouldn’t eat french fries all day, and you shouldn’t be on the computer all day.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

317. “Zen Master Linji said, “The miracle is not to walk on water or fire. The miracle is to walk on the earth.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

318. “Flowers decompose, but knowing this does not prevent us from loving flowers. In fact, we are able to love them more because we know how to treasure them while they are still alive. If we learn to look at a flower in a way that impermanence is revealed to us, when it dies, we will not suffer. Impermanence is more than an idea. It is a practice to help us touch reality.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

319. “In modern society most of us don’t want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book – we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

320. “We fall back into the past, we jump ahead into the future, and in this we lose our entire lives.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

321. “If one person keeps calm and smiles at a provocation, the whole world will have a better chance for peace.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

322. “Ignorance is in each cell of our body and our consciousness. It’s like a drop of ink diffused in a glass of water.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

323. “No view can ever be the truth. It is just from one point; that is why it is called a “point of view.” If we go to another point, we will see things differently and realize that our first view was not entirely right. Buddhism is not a collection of views. It is a practice to help us eliminate wrong views. The quality of our views can always be improved. From the viewpoint of ultimate reality, Right View is the absence of all views.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

324. “It is my prayer that nations will no longer send their young people to fight each other, not even in the name of peace. I do not accept the concept of war for peace, nor of a ‘just war,’ in the same way that I cannot accept the concepts of ‘just slavery,,’ ’just hatred, or ’just racism.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

325. “What we have is enough for us. Once we adopt that style of living, we become a happy person right away.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

326. “You have the right to pursue economic growth, but not at the expense of life.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

327. “All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. I cannot keep anything. I come here empty-handed, and I go empty-handed. My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

328. “Death is essential to making life possible. Death is transformation. Death is continuation. When we die, something else is born, even if it takes time to reveal itself or for us to be able to recognize it.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

329. “Compassion doesn’t mean that you have to love that person who’s so difficult. But if you stop and look deeper, you’ll see that person’s difficulties. If you can accept him, then you can love him.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

330. “One day my left hand was holding a nail and my right hand a hammer. I was trying to hang a picture and I was not very mindful. Instead of pounding on the nail I pounded on the finger. Right away my right hand put the hammer down and took care of my left hand as if she were taking care of herself.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

331. “To be a friend means to offer happiness. If love doesn’t offer happiness, if it makes the other person cry all the time, then it’s not love; it’s the opposite.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

332. “Words can travel thousands of miles. May my words create mutual understanding and love. May they be as beautiful as gems, as lovely as flowers.3.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

333. “Relax. It’s only a game.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

334. “Happiness is possible only when you stop running and cherish the present moment and who you are. Who you are is already a wonder; you don’t need to be someone else. You are a wonder of life.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

335. “If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. It’s so clear. Mindfulness is the energy and practice that helps you go back to the here and now so that you encounter life.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

336. “A wave has a right to live her life as a wave, but she must also learn to live her life as water because she is not only a wave. She is also water. And water lives without the fear carried by the wave.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

337. “When you sit alone quietly, it’s something beautiful, even if nobody sees it.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

338. “When we’re having a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. Yet when we don’t have a toothache, we’re still not happy. A non-toothache is very pleasant.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

339. “As the Buddha said, “The past no longer is, the future is not yet here; there is only one moment in which life is available, and that is the present moment.” To meditate with mindful breathing is to bring body and mind back to the present moment so that you do not miss your appointment with life.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

340. “A person who looks at the table and can see the universe is a person who can see the way.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

341. “A real love letter is made of insight, understanding, and compassion. Otherwise it’s not a love letter. A true love letter can produce a transformation in the other person, and therefore in the world. But before it produces a transformation in the other person, it has to produce a transformation within us. Some letters may take the whole of our lifetime to write.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

342. “When you climb a beautiful mountain, invite your child within to climb with you. When you contemplate the sunset, invite her to enjoy it with you.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

343. “Knowledge is the first obstacle of the mind that a meditator should be able to remove. We should not be too sure of anything.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

344. “When a person’s speech is full of anger, it is because he or she suffers deeply. Because he has so much suffering, he becomes full of bitterness. He is always ready to complain and blame others for his problems. This is why you find it very unpleasant to listen to him and try to avoid him.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

345. “We all exist as part of a wonderful stream of life.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

346. “Often in daily life, our body and mind may not be together. Sometimes our body is here but our mind is lost in the past or in the future. We may be possessed by anger, hatred, jealousy, or anxiety. If we practice the teaching of the Buddha on how to breathe mindfully, we bring mind and body together, and they become one again. This is what is meant by the expression, “oneness of body and mind.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

347. “If you know how to go back to her and listen carefully every day for five or ten minutes, healing will take place.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

348. “Whatever views we hold, we should be careful not to get caught up in thinking that our view is the “best” and that only we have the truth.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

349. “We will not just say, “I love him very much,” but instead, “I will do something so that he will suffer less.” The mind of compassion is truly present when it is effective in removing another person’s suffering.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

350. “If we can heal our wounded child, we will not only liberate ourselves, but we will also help liberate whoever has hurt or abused us. The abuser may also have been the victimg of abuse.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh