Top 500 Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “The miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air, but to walk on Earth. Walk in such a way that you become fully alive and joy and happiness are possible. That is the miracle that everyone can perform... If you have mindfulness, concentration, and insight then every step you make on this Earth is performing a miracle.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

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

— Thich Nhat Hanh

353. “Without suffering, we do not have the opportunity to cultivate compassion and understanding; and without understanding, there can be no true love. So.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

354. “A few years ago, I asked some children, “What is the purpose of eating breakfast? One boy replied, “To get energy for the day.” Another said, “The purpose of eating breakfast is to eat breakfast.” I think the second child is more correct.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

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

— Thich Nhat Hanh

356. “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

357. “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

358. “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

359. “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

360. “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

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

— Thich Nhat Hanh

362. “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

363. “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

364. “To practice aimlessness is to identify what it is you’re looking for, waiting for, or running after, and let it go. By removing these objects of seeking that are pulling you away from the here and now, you will discover that everything you want is already right here in the present moment. You don’t need to “be someone” or do something in order to be happy and free.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

365. “There are those who say that in their heaven there is no suffering. But if there is no suffering, how can there be happiness? We need compost to grow flowers, and mud to grow lotuses.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

366. “Often we either don’t plan at all, or we get caught up in obsessive planning because we fear the future and its uncertainty.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

367. “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

368. “When we surround ourselves with people who are committed to understanding and loving, we’re nourished by their presence and our own seeds of understanding and love are watered. When we surround ourselves with people who gossip, complain, and are constantly critical, we absorb these toxins.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

369. “The problem is whether we are determined to go in the direction of compassion or not. If we are, then can we reduce the suffering to a minimum? If I lose my direction, I have to look for the North Star, and I go to the north. That does not mean I expect to arrive at the North Star. I just want to go in that direction.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

370. “Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

371. “God the Father is in God the Son; and the Holy Spirit is in the Son and in the Father. That is interbeing.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

372. “If we continue to hold on to a dream for something in the future, we lose the present moment. And if we lose the present, we lose everything.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

373. “No act of killing can be justified.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

374. “I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to utter words that can cause division or discord.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

375. “Know that life can only be found in the present moment.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

376. “Why wander all over the world looking for something you already have? You are already the richest person on Earth.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

377. “It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

378. “Often our perceptions are incorrect. We get in touch with an object and think that it embodies love, happiness, a self, or purity. We tend to think that love is something sentimental that will fill the emptiness inside us. We blame our suffering on another person or group, or on bad luck, but outside conditions are not the reason it appears. Our suffering was already there.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

379. “Everyone wants to be happy, and there is a strong energy in us pushing us toward what we think will make us happy. But we may suffer a lot because of this. We need the insight that position, revenge, wealth, fame, or possessions are, more often than not, obstacles to our happiness. We need to cultivate the wish to be free of these things so we can enjoy the wonders of life that are always available – the blue sky, the trees, our beautiful children.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

380. “When you touch deep understanding and love, you are healed.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

381. “Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

382. “During the past few years I have avoided tiring myself and losing my breath. I must take care of my body, treat it with respect as a musician does his instrument. I apply nonviolence to my body, for it is not merely a tool to accomplish something. It itself is the end.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

383. “Sorrow, fear, and depression are all a kind of garbage. These bits of garbage are part of real life, and we must look deeply into their nature. You can practice in order to turn these bits of garbage into flowers. It is not only your love that is organic; your hate is, too. So you should not throw anything out. All you have to do is learn how to transform your garbage into flowers.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

384. “Our practice is to water the flower in our loved one, and not bring them more garbage.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

385. “We can walk in such a way that we arrive with each step – not walking just to get somewhere else.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

386. “Suppose we give something to someone. With the wisdom of nondiscrimination, we see that there is no giver and no receiver. If we still think that we’re the giver and the other person is the receiver, then that’s not perfect giving. We give because the other person is in need of what we’re giving and the act is very natural. If we’re really practicing generosity, we won’t say, “He’s not grateful at all.” We won’t have these kinds of ideas.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

387. “Enlightenment is when the wave realizes that it is the ocean.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

388. “If we can relax when our strong emotions come, then we don’t pass fear on to our children and to future generations.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

389. “Whether we are in the city, the countryside, or the wilderness, we need to sustain ourselves by choosing our surroundings carefully and nourishing our awareness in each moment.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

390. “In the West, we are very goal oriented. We know where we want to go, and we are very directed in getting there. This may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the route.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

391. “A guided meditation is an opportunity to look deeply into the mind, to sow wholesome seeds there, and to strengthen and cultivate those seeds so that they may become the means for transforming the suffering in us.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

392. “Our appointment with life is in the present moment.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

393. “There are animals that are ruminants, like water buffalo and cows. After chewing and swallowing, they bring up the food again and they chew and swallow it again. There are people who continue to consume the suffering of the past in that way. They spend their time during the day ruminating over their own suffering from the past.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

394. “I am convinced that happiness is not possible unless it is based on freedom.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

395. “We all lose when we think that everything people in our party do and say is right and everything people in another party do and say is wrong. This is simply not true. If we think, speak, and act only along party lines, we operate like a machine without insight, without understanding, without compassion.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

396. “We disregard the wonders of the present moment, thinking that heaven and the ultimate are for later, not for now.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

397. “Even when we’re sitting still, with no external stimuli, an endless internal dialogue may be going on in our head. we’re constantly consuming our thoughts. Cows, goats, and buffalo chew their food, swallow it, then regurgitate and rechew it multiple times. We may not be cows or buffalo, but we ruminate just the same on our thoughts – unfortunately, primarily negative thoughts. We eat them, and then we bring them up to chew again and again, like a cow chewing its cud.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

398. “The way we perceive the world around us depends entirely on our way of looking at it.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

399. “Don’t agonize over the past, because the past is gone. Don’t worry about the future, because the future is not yet here.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

400. “When we compare, we see ourselves as superior, inferior, or as trying to be equal. But with this kind of comparing comes discrimination, and with discrimination comes suffering.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh