Top 500 Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 9 of 10

401. “1. Tell the truth. Don’t lie or turn the truth upside down. 2. Don’t exaggerate. 3. Be consistent. This means no double-talk: speaking about something in one way to one person and in an opposite way to another for selfish or manipulative reasons. 4. Use peaceful language. Don’t use insulting or violent words, cruel speech, verbal abuse, or condemnation.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

402. “Each morning when we wake up to life we see that we have a gift of twenty-four brand new hours. If.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

403. “My dear friends, my dear disciples, don’t take refuge in anything outside of you.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

404. “As a culture, we place great stock in external appearance. Our attachment to physical beauty is something that we need to let go of, yet it seems that the majority of people are racing toward it.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

405. “Creating happiness is an art. Living together is an art. Even with a lot of goodwill, you can still make the other person very unhappy. Goodwill is not enough. We need to know the art of making the other person happy. Art is the essence of life. Try to be artful in your speech and actions. The substance of art is mindfulness. When you are mindful, you are more artful.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

406. “Life is real; it’s not a dream when mindfulness is there.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

407. “Why wander all over the world looking for something you already have?”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

408. “When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

409. “Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing, both inside and around yourself.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

410. “To be in the here and the now – solid and fully alive – is a very positive contribution to our collective situation.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

411. “The best position for practicing this is lying down. You focus your attention on a part of your body, such as your heart. As you breathe in, you become aware of your heart, and as you breathe out, you smile towards it. You send it your love, your tenderness.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

412. “If monks and nuns do not cherish their time of practice, they will have nothing to offer the world.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

413. “In the process of meditation, fetters are undone; internal blocks of suffering such as resentment, fear, anger, despair, and hatred are transformed; relationships with humans and nature become easier; freedom and joy can penetrate us. We become aware of what is inside and around us;.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

414. “We can look around and see that a person who lives with happiness and compassion has the capacity to make others happy.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

415. “True love gives us beauty, freshness, solidity, freedom, and peace. True love includes a feeling of deep joy that we are alive. If we don’t feel this way when we feel love, then it’s not true love.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

416. “We must practice living deeply, loving, and acting with charity if we wish to truly honor Jesus.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

417. “You should have a chance to observe him when he sleeps. Look deeply, and see the tenderness that is revealed, the suffering, the hope, the despair that can be expressed during sleep. Sit there for fifteen minutes or half an hour, and just look. Understanding and compassion will arise in you, and you will know how to be there for your partner.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

418. “If we accept life and everything that belongs to life – the moments of happiness, joy, and peace, but also sickness, old age, and death – then we don’t suffer anymore. So suffering is okay. Not only is suffering okay, but thanks to suffering we have an opportunity to experience well-being.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

419. “You can arrange your schedule so you have enough time to eat. The place and teh food should be appropriate. Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are. Tell me where you eat, and I will tell you who you are.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

420. “When conditions are sufficient, we manifest in a particular way. When conditions are no longer sufficient, we no longer manifest in that way. This doesn’t mean that we don’t exist. If we’re afraid of death, it’s because we don’t understand that things do not really die.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

421. “We must begin to live fully and truly, every moment of our daily lives.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

422. “Whether you can see the Buddha or not depends on you, on the state of your being.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

423. “I stopped committing acts that cause suffering to other living beings. All living beings want to live. All fear death. We must nurture a heart of compassion and protect the lives of all beings.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

424. “We have millions of ways to lose this precious time – we turn on the TV, or pick up the telephone, or start the car and go somewhere. We are not used to being with ourselves, and we act as if we don’t like ourselves and are trying to escape from ourselves. Meditation.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

425. “Many years ago, I recognized that by understanding your own tradition better, you also develop increased respect, consideration, and understanding for others. I had had a naive thought, a kind of prejudice inherited from my ancestors. I thought that because Buddha had taught for forty-five years and Jesus for only two or three, that Buddha must have been a more accomplished teacher. I had that thought because I did not know the teachings of the Buddha well enough. One.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

426. “If you have enough spiritual strength, you will give birth to a spiritual child, and through your life and practice, you continue giving birth, even after you die.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

427. “You cannot take the mind out of the body, and you cannot take the body out of the mind.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

428. “True love gives us a lot of space. Because you are connected spiritually and emotionally as well as physically, you do not need to always be in the same place or doing the same thing. You do not worry if your beloved is over here today and you are over there.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

429. “The sea is either calm or stormy. If one wants a calm sea one cannot get it by suppressing the stormy sea. One must wait for this same sea to become calm.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

430. “The most basic precept of all is to be aware of what we do, what we are, each minute. Every other precept will follow from that.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

431. “If you are really joyful and your joy is healthy, then that benefits other people. If you’re not joyful, not fresh, or not smiling, then that doesn’t benefit anyone. If you’re inhabited by joy and freshness, even if you do nothing, we profit from you.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

432. “Refrain from discussing subjects that can destroy your awareness of the people around you and the food. If someone is thinking about something other than the good food on the table, such as his difficulties in the office or with friends, it means he is losing the present moment and the food. You can help by returning his attention to the meal.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

433. “If we want the lotus bud to appear, it will appear. If we want it to grow, it will grow. When the lotus flower in our heart has grown, wherever we walk the Pure Land appears.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

434. “To love is, first of all, to accept ourselves as we are.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

435. “There is no distinction between means and ends. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. There is no way to enlightenment, enlightenment is the way.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

436. “Mindfulness makes you and the other person happy and free. The other person may be caught in her worries, anger, and forgetfulness, but with mindfulness you can save her and yourself.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

437. “Without suffering, you cannot grow. Without suffering, you cannot get the peace and joy you deserve.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

438. “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life. Don’t be attached to the future. Don’t worry about things you have to do. Don’t think about getting up or taking off to do anything. Don’t think about “departing.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

439. “Don’t look outside yourself for happiness. Let go of the idea that you don’t have it. It is available within you.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

440. “If one’s perceptions were accurate, reality revealed itself with ease; but if one’s perceptions were erroneous, reality was veiled. People were caught in endless suffering because of their erroneous perceptions: they believed that which is impermanent is permanent, that which is without self contains self, that which has no birth and death has birth and death, and they divided that which is inseparable into parts.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

441. “Beginning anew” means being determined not to repeat the negative things we have done in the past. A new era begins when we commit ourselves to living in mindfulness. When we vow to ourselves, “I am determined not to behave as I did in the past,” transformation occurs immediately.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

442. “My friend, things appear and disappear according to causes and conditions. The true nature of things is not being born, and not dying. Birth and death are nothing more than concepts. Our true nature is the nature of no-birth and no-death, and we must touch our true nature in order to be free.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

443. “Contemplating a beautiful sunrise, you’re not distracted by thinking about the past or the future. The more concentrated you become, the more you see the beauty all around you. So concentration is a source of happiness.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

444. “Every time we buy or consume something, we may be condoning some form of killing.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

445. “So the place where you should look for the kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha, the place where you should look for your happiness, your peace, and your fulfillment, has to be in the present moment. It’s so simple and clear. But since we have the tendency to slide back into the past or to run into the future, we have to recognize that habit and learn how to be free from it to really establish ourselves in the present moment. When.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

446. “Our quality of being determines our quality of doing.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

447. “When we can see our partner as not separate from us, not better or worse or even equal to ourselves, then we have the wisdom of nondiscrimination. We see the happiness of others as our happiness, their suffering as our suffering.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

448. “You have to practice going back to your wounded child every day. You have to embrace him or her tenderly, like a big brother or a big sister.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

449. “4. 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.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

450. “The greatest gift we can offer anyone is our true presence.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh