Famous Quotes & Sayings

Nhat Hanh

In April, we cannot see sunflowers in France, so we might say the sunflowers do not exist. But the local farmers have already planted thousands of seeds, and when they look at the bare hills, they may be able to see the sunflowers already. The sunflowers are there. They lack only the conditions of sun, heat, rain and July. Just because we cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist.

Nhat Hanh

Anxiety is the illness of our age. We worry about ourselves, our family, our friends, our work, and our state of the world. If we allow worry to fill our hearts, sooner or later we will get sick.

Nhat Hanh

There are two ways to wash the dishes. One way is to wash them to get them clean. The other way is to wash them in order to wash the dishes.

Nhat Hanh

In order to rally people, governments need enemies... if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.

Nhat Hanh

When you enter deeply into this moment, you see the nature of reality, and this insight liberates you from suffering and confusion. Peace is already there to some extent: the problem is whether we know how to touch it.

Nhat Hanh

To educate people for peace, we can use words or we can speak with our lives.

Nhat Hanh

If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is nothing that can justify your desire.

Nhat Hanh

What is most important is to find peace and to share it with others. To have peace, you can begin by walking peacefully. Everything depends on your steps.

Nhat Hanh

The essence of nonviolence is love. Out of love and the willingness to act selflessly, strategies, tactics, and techniques for a nonviolent struggle arise naturally. Nonviolence is not a dogma; it is a process.

Nhat Hanh

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. (21)

Nhat Hanh

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.

Nhat Hanh

It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.

Nhat Hanh

To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.

Nhat Hanh

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.

Nhat Hanh

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. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

Nhat Hanh

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.

Nhat Hanh

My actions are my only true belongings.

Nhat Hanh

By eating meat we share the responsibility of climate change, the destruction of our forests, and the poisoning of our air and water. The simple act of becoming a vegetarian will make a difference in the health of our planet.

Nhat Hanh

No thought about the past or future can pull you away from your present peace and joy. The universe exists in this present moment. No desire can pull you away from this present peace, not even the desire to become a Buddha or the desire to save all beings. Know that to become a Buddha and to save all beings can only be realized on the foundation of the pure peace of the present moment.

Neneh Cherry

To save my child, I'd rather go hungry. I got all of Ethiopia inside of me.

Noam Chomsky

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

Noam Chomsky

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

Noam Chomsky

Peace is preferable to war. But it’s not an absolute value, and so we always ask, “What kind of peace?

Muriel Rukeyser

Always our wars have been our confessions of weakness

Muriel Rukeyser

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.

Moby

Let peace and beauty reign.

Karl Marx

All social life is essentially practical. All mysterious which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of the practice.

Kaley Cuoco

James Garner is like a peaceful river through our chaos.

Judith Guest

Make peace with what is.

Judith Butler

Peace is a resistance to the terrible satisfactions of war .

Jude Law

I think the message of peace is for everyone.

Patti Smith

Pollution is a necessary result of the inability of man to reform and transform waste.

Ovid

Isn't the best defense always a good attack?