If you’re in search of a spiritual awakening, then Buddha’s teachings can serve as a great guide. Known for his profound insights into the human experience, Buddha’s words have the power to inspire and transform. From life lessons to meditation techniques, Buddha’s philosophy has a lot to offer to everyone who seeks a better understanding of themselves and the world around them. So, to help you get started on your journey to enlightenment, we’ve curated a list of 101 Best Powerful Buddha Quotes.
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Powerful Buddha Quotes to Help You Throughout Your Life
- “In separateness lies the world’s greatest misery; in compassion lies the world’s true strength.”
- “There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.”
- “Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except your self.”
- “Even as a solid rock is unshaken by the wind, so are the wise unshaken by praise or blame.”
- “If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart.”
- “Understanding is the heartwood of well-spoken words.”
- “Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”
- “There is no fear for one whose mind is not filled with desires.”
- “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
- “Love is a gift of one’s inner most soul to another so both can be whole.”
- “Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.”
- “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
- “Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you, as the wheels of the oxcart follow the footsteps of the ox.”
- “Offend in neither word nor deed. Eat with moderation. Live in your heart. Seek the highest consciousness. Master yourself according to the law. This is the simple teaching of the awakened.”
- “There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.”
- “The tongue like a sharp knife. It kills without drawing blood.”
- “Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”
- “Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.”
- “Looking deeply at life as it is in this very moment, the meditator dwells in stability and freedom.”
- “Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever’s not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet.”
- “If you find no one to support you on the spiritual path, walk alone.”
- “In whom there is no sympathy for living beings: know him as an outcast.”
- “It is better to travel well than to arrive.”
- “Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.”
- “Nothing is forever except change.”
- “Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, death comes.”
- “Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”
- “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.”
- “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
- “Kindness should become the natural way of life, not the exception.”
- “Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.”
- “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
- “Better it is to live one day seeing the rise and fall of things than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the rise and fall of things.”
- “To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.”
- “Live every act fully, as if it were your last.”
- “The root of suffering is attachment.”
- “I do not dispute with the world; rather it is the world that disputes with me.”
- “Being deeply learned and skilled, being well trained and using well-spoken words: this is good luck.”
- “I am the miracle.”
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Powerful Buddha quotes about self
- “Let all-embracing thoughts for all beings be yours.”
- “Just as a mother would protect her only child with her life, even so let one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings.”
- “As a water bead on a lotus leaf, as water on a red lily, does not adhere, so the sage does not adhere to the seen, the heard, or the sensed.”
- “Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.”
- “Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.”
- “Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.”
- “If we fail to look after others when they need help, who will look after us?”
- “All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”
- “A mind unruffled by the vagaries of fortune, from sorrow freed, from defilements cleansed, from fear liberated — this is the greatest blessing.”
- “Don’t run after pleasure and neglect the practice of meditation. If you forget the goal of life and get caught in the pleasures of the world, you will come to envy those who put meditation first.”
- “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
- “There is no fire like passion. There is no shark like hatred. There is no snare like folly. There is no torrent like greed.”
- “Give, even if you only have a little.”
- “He who sits alone, sleeps alone, and walks alone, who is strenuous and subdues himself alone, will find delight in the solitude of the forest.”
- “A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again. But if he is peaceful, loving, and fearless, then he is in truth called wise.”
- “The one who has conquered himself is a far greater hero than he who has defeated a thousand times a thousand men.”
- “If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.”
- “What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.”
- “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”
- “An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast. A wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”
- “Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.”
- “A jug fills drop by drop.”
- “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
- “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
- “Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people.”
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Buddha quotes on feelings
- “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”
- “Radiate boundless love towards the entire world.”
- “Not by rituals and resolutions, nor by much learning, nor by celibacy, nor even by meditation can you find the supreme, immortal joy of nirvana until you extinguish your self-will.”
- “The instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.”
- “Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame.”
- “One moment can change a day, one day can change a life, and one life can change the world.”
- “People with opinions just go around bothering each other.”
- “It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one’s own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice.”
- “It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.”
- “The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
- “Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.”
- “Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.”
- “Our life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.”
- “Meditate. Do not delay, lest you later regret it.”
- “Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.”
- “My doctrine is not a doctrine but just a vision. I have not given you any set rules, I have not given you a system.”
- “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”
- “Delight in meditation and solitude. Compose yourself, be happy. You are a seeker.”
- “Should you find a wise critic to point out your faults, follow him as you would a guide to hidden treasure.”
- “Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.”
- “To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life. Foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.”
- “Life is so very hard. How can we be anything but kind?”
- “Irrigators channel waters; fletchers straighten arrows; carpenters bend wood; the wise master themselves.”
- “Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”
- “May all beings have happy minds.”
- “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
- “She who knows life flows, feels no wear or tear, needs no mending or repair.”
- “The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”
- “What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.”
- “Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching and discipline has one taste, the taste of liberation.”
- “Be a lamp for yourselves. Be your own refuge. Seek for no other. All things must pass. Strive on diligently. Don’t give up.”
- “Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.”
- “If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.”
- “True love is born from understanding.”
- “Wear your ego like a loose fitting garment.”
- “Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.”
- “One who acts on truth is happy in this world and beyond.”
