An esteemed peace activist and writer, Thích Nhất Hạnh became one of the founders of the Engaged Buddhism movement during the Vietnam War. Rather than continue their contemplative life secluded from the fighting and death, he and his fellow monks decided to reach out and help their country's people through suffering and loss. After the war, Thích Nhất Hạnh brought this ideology of Engaged Buddhism to the West.
A devoted monk, Thích Nhất Hạnh has become a leader in guiding others in practicing compassion, mindfulness, humility, and love. Drawn from his acclaimed writings, this collection of 75+ quotes offers gentle reminders to live in the moment while making an active commitment to positive change in your community—and the world.
On mindfulness and living in the moment
“Mindfulness ... is the miracle which can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life.” -from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
"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." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
“You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.” -from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the day that is given me to live.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.” -from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“Cultivating a strong training in meditation and mindfulness is not an opiate to escape what’s going on but a way for us to truly still the mind and look deeply, in order to see ourselves and the world clearly.” -from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.” -from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
“Anxiety, the illness of our time, comes primarily from our inability to dwell in the present moment.” -from The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.” -from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
“Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life."-from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
“The reality is that we are safe and we have the capacity to enjoy the wonders of life in the present moment. When we recognize that our suffering is based on images instead of current reality, then living happily in the present moment becomes possible right away.” -from Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child
“The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.” -from Living Buddha, Living Christ
"Life is available only in the present moment." -from Taming the Tiger Within
"Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.” -from Being Peace
"Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” -from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
On anger, fear, and suffering
“When a person’s speech is full of anger, it is because he or she suffers deeply.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“The main cause of your suffering is the seed of anger in you, because it has been watered too often, by yourself and by other people.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“The fact is that when you make the other suffer, he will try to find relief by making you suffer more. The result is an escalation of suffering on both sides.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.” -from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.” -from The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
“When anger manifests in us, we must recognize and accept that anger is there and that it needs to be tended to. At this moment we are advised not to say anything, not to do anything out of anger. We immediately return to ourselves and invite the energy of mindfulness to manifest also.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“The only way to ease our fear and be truly happy is to acknowledge our fear and look deeply at its source. Instead of trying to escape from our fear, we can invite it up to our awareness and look at it clearly and deeply.” -from Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm
“The source of suffering is a false belief in permanence and the existence of separate selves.” -from Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha
“Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.” -from You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
“Sometimes our parents are full of love and sometimes they are full of anger. This love and anger comes not only from them, but from all previous generations. When we can see this, we no longer blame our parents for our suffering.” -from Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child
“Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your perceptions need you, your feeling needs you. The wounded child in you needs you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it.” -from Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child
"It is possible of course to get stuck in the 'mud' of life. It’s easy enough to notice mud all over you at times. The hardest thing to practice is not allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by despair." -from No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
"It is possible to listen to suffering in such a way that we don't get sucked in." -from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
“Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders.” -from Being Peace
“If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” -from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“Without suffering, we do not have the opportunity to cultivate compassion and understanding; and without understanding, there can be no true love.” -from You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
"We ruminate on suffering, regret, and sorrow. We chew on them, swallow them, bring them back up, and eat them again and again." -from No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
"We have to learn how to embrace and cradle our own suffering and the suffering of the world, with a lot of tenderness." -from No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
"If we’re feeding our suffering while we’re walking, working, eating, or talking, we are making ourselves victims of the ghosts of the past, of the future, or our worries in the present. We’re not living our lives." -from No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
"If your house is on fire, the most urgent thing to do is to go back and try to put out the fire, not to run after the person you believe to be the arsonist.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
"Don't make yourself into a battlefield; the world doesn't need any more fanatics." -from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
"We all have the seeds of both anger and compassion." -from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
On inner understanding and personal transformation
“If you are not able to take care of yourself, if you are not able to accept yourself, how could you accept another person and how could you love him or her?” -from True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart
"Our quality of being determines our quality of doing." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
“You have to realize that happiness is not something you find at the end of the road." -from You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
“Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
"Aimlessness does not mean doing nothing. It means not putting something in front of you to chase after." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
“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.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing.” -from The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
“When our beliefs are based on our own direct experience of reality and not on notions offered by others, no one can remove these beliefs from us.” -from Living Buddha, Living Christ
“The truth is the truth, whether or not it is accepted by the majority. Therefore, I tell you children, it takes great courage to stand up for and protect what is right.” -from Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha
“Now I see that if one doesn’t know how to die, one can hardly know how to live—because death is a part of life.” -from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
“Life is illuminated by right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.” -from Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha
“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.” -from Being Peace
“Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge.” -from Being Peace
"You trust that you contain the whole cosmos; you are made of stars. And that is why you respect yourself and offer reverence to yourself. And, when you look at another person, you see that they are also made of stars. They are a wonderful manifestation. They don't appear only for a hundred years: they carry eternity within them." -from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
“The Three Kinds of Pride are: (1) thinking I am better than the other(s); (2) thinking I am worse than the other(s); and (3) thinking I am just as good as the other(s).” -from The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
"You cannot take the mind out of the body, and you cannot take the body out of the mind." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything—anger, anxiety, or possession—we cannot be free.” -from The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
"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." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
"In this very moment all of us are dying. Some of us are dying more slowly and some of us more quickly." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
“To breathe and know you are alive is wonderful. Because you are alive, everything is possible.” -from Living Buddha, Living Christ
"The way out is in." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
On love, compassion, and peace
"The most effective way to show compassion to another is to listen, rather than talk." -from No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
"Compassion is a verb. It requires action and understanding." -from Taming the Tiger Within
"True love is a love without possessiveness." -from Taming the Tiger Within
"The first definition of love is to be there." -from No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
“In true love, there is no pride.” -from Anger: Buddhist Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
“To love is to recognize; to be loved is to be recognized by the other.” -from True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart
“If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love.” -from Living Buddha, Living Christ
“What is love? Love is treating your heart with a great deal of tenderness, with understanding, love, and compassion. If you cannot treat your own heart this way, how can you treat your partner with understanding and love?” -from You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
“Happiness is a function of compassion. If you do not have compassion in your heart, you do not have any happiness.” -from You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
“In true love, you attain freedom. When you love, you bring freedom to the person you love.” -from True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart
"Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?" -from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
"If we want peace, we have to be peace. Peace is a practice and not a hope." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
“Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see ... Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.” -from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“You are not an observer, you are a participant.” -from Being Peace
“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.” -from Being Peace
"We’re so close to Earth that sometimes we forget how beautiful it is." -from The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
"To understand is to love." -from Being Peace
