It is jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

it is jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.

I am a Catholic, not so committed to the church, but to the idea of the Virgin, the female face of God.

If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory.

There must be must be a first mover existing above all – and this we call god.

Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God.

It is immoral to brand children with religion. ‘This is a Catholic child.’ ‘That is a Muslim child.’ I want everyone to flinch when they hear such a phrase, just as they would if they heard, ‘That is a Marxist child.’

If you don’t behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.

The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.

Let nothing disturb you,
let nothing frighten you,
all things are passing away:
god never changes.
patience obtains all things.
whoever has god lacks nothing;
god alone suffices.

The church is a perpetually defeated thing that always outlives her conquerers.

It is theologically and anthropologically important for woman to be at the center of christianity. Through mary, and the other holy women, the feminine element stands at the heart of the christian religion.

The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

Making your dad happy is – especially for an Italian Catholic girl, I’ll tell you – it feels really good.

What you are is god’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to god.

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

I am a Catholic.

What is the good of words if they aren’t important enough to quarrel over? why do we choose one word more than another if there isn’t any difference between them? if you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn’t there be a quarrel about a word? if you’re not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about? are you going to convey your meaning to me by moving your ears? the church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about.

The heart is like a woman, and the head is like a man, and although man is the head of woman, woman is the heart of man, and she turns man’s head because she turns his heart.

I mean, I went to a Catholic boys’ school for a year, but that was to play hockey. Religion class was quite contentious for me.

A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so that those who govern can govern. But what is the best that we can offer to those who govern? Prayer!

An armchair Jungian would say the whole thing is about my own ongoing spiritual search. My interior life has always been one of trying to find a spiritual link, maybe because I’m from a family of separate religious philosophies: Protestant and Catholic.

Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren’t. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist. Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment (even when freed from modern rules and hours, and exercised more spontaneously by a more protected person) is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worth while to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the cathedral of amiens or drudge behind a gun at trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be queen elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes. And books, to be aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the rule of three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? how can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? no; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.

I was raised a Catholic on both sides of the family. I went to a Catholic grade school and thought everybody in the country was Catholic, because that’s all I ever was associated with.

To be Catholic is the only way of being fully and utterly Christian.

Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from god, you are perfected and completed.

I believe in God – not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.

If I should say anything that is not in conformity with what is held by the Holy Roman Catholic Church, it will be through ignorance and not through malice. This may be taken as certain, and also that, through God’s goodness, I am, and shall always be, as I always have been, subject to her.

My mother was Catholic, my father was Protestant. There was always a debate going on at home – I think in those days we called them arguments – about who was right and who was wrong.

I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.

The most total opposite of pleasure is not pain but boredom, for we are willing to risk pain to make a boring life interesting.

In the Western Church to which I belong, priests cannot be married as in the Byzantine, Ukrainian, Russian or Greek Catholic Churches. In those churches, the priests can be married, but the bishops have to be celibate. They are very good priests.

I do disapprove very strongly of labelling children, especially young children, as something like ‘Catholic children’ or ‘Protestant children’ or ‘Islamic children.’

[said during a debate when his opponent asserted that atheism and belief in evolution lead to nazism:]

atheism by itself is, of course, not a moral position or a political one of any kind; it simply is the refusal to believe in a supernatural dimension. For you to say of nazism that it was the implementation of the work of charles darwin is a filthy slander, undeserving of you and an insult to this audience. Darwin’s thought was not taught in germany; darwinism was so derided in germany along with every other form of unbelief that all the great modern atheists, darwin, einstein and freud were alike despised by the national socialist regime.

now, just to take the most notorious of the 20th century totalitarianisms – the most finished example, the most perfected one, the most ruthless and refined one: that of national socialism, the one that fortunately allowed the escape of all these great atheists, thinkers and many others, to the united states, a country of separation of church and state, that gave them welcome – if it’s an atheistic regime, then how come that in the first chapter of mein kampf, that hitler says that he’s doing god’s work and executing god’s will in destroying the jewish people? how come the fuhrer oath that every officer of the party and the army had to take, making hitler into a minor god, begins, “i swear in the name of almighty god, my loyalty to the fuhrer?” how come that on the belt buckle of every nazi soldier it says gott mit uns, god on our side? how come that the first treaty made by the nationalist socialist dictatorship, the very first is with the vatican? it’s exchanging political control of germany for catholic control of german education. How come that the church has celebrated the birthday of the fuhrer every year, on that day until democracy put an end to this filthy, quasi-religious, superstitious, barbarous, reactionary system?

again, this is not a difference of emphasis between us. To suggest that there’s something fascistic about me and about my beliefs is something I won’t hear said and you shouldn’t believe.

Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.

When I was fourteen, Mom and Dad sent me to St. Joseph High School, the Catholic school up the hill from our place, housed in a 1950s-era tan brick building sometimes confused for a light industrial structure due to the surprisingly high smokestack of its old incinerator.

Eomer said, ‘how is a man to judge what to do in such times?’
as he has ever judged,’ said aragorn. ‘good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among elves and another among men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the golden wood as in his own house.

I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters – and the church does not speak for me.

This is the secret of life: the self lives only by dying, finds its identity (and its happiness) only by self-forgetfulness, self-giving, self-sacrifice, and agape love.

The catholic church is like a thick steak, a glass of red wine, and a good cigar.

It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.

One cannot really be a Catholic and grown up.

If jesus had been killed twenty years ago, catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.

The Catholic and the Communist are alike in assuming that an opponent cannot be both honest and intelligent.

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.

Some people, in order to discover god, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! look below you! read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, he set before your eyes the things that he had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?.

It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and god. Without god people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished.

The facts tell us that no religious Faith releases – or ever has released at any moment in History – a higher degree of warmth, a more intense dynamism of unification than the Christianity of our own day – and the more Catholic it is, the truer my words.

I am a Catholic because I choose to be a Catholic. And then I go to the Mass because I choose. It is out of my free will.

We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and he saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love.

If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature.

God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.

he has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do his work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep his commandments.

therefore, I will trust him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what he is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, he knows what he is about.

Where most men work for degrees after their names, we work for one before our names: ‘st.’ it’s a much more difficult degree to attain. It takes a lifetime, and you don’t get your diploma until you’re dead.

When man is with god in awe and love, then he is praying.

Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.

Famous Buddhist quotes encourage millions of people to lead moral lives, to be mindful of their actions, and to develop a deeper sense of wisdom. Buddhism teaches its followers about karma, another way of saying that all actions have results, whether they are positive or negative, and Buddhism asks its followers to examine the wisdom underlying their actions for potential karmic effects. 

In order to reach Enlightenment, Buddhists work to overcome suffering, cravings, and unfair expectations in order to attain true happiness and contentment. Find a list of quotes below which highlight enlightenment and spirituality, or wisdom and compassion in the face of adversity. 

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.

Enlightenment is not the byproduct of avoiding the darkness in favor of the light. It is the byproduct of taking the light of consciousness and diving deep into the darkness with it. To make the darkness conscious is to turn the shadow into light.

It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

No one saves us by but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

It’s in the entrails of the earth, not on its surface, that you can find diamonds and gold. It’s in going into the darkness that we find enlightenment.

Nirvana or lasting enlightenment or true spiritual growth can be achieved only through persistent exercise of real love.

Ignorance has always been the weapon of tyrants; enlightenment the salvation of the free.

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.

Your imagination is the vehicle to enlightenment.

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.

Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment.

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead it’s about becoming more fully human. . . It is the end of ignorance.

Enlightenment, joy, and peace can never be given to you by another. The well is inside you.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation.

If one wishes to be sure of the road one treads on, one must close one’s eyes and walk in the dark.

Always keep your mind as bright and clear as the vast sky, the great ocean, and the highest peak, empty of all thoughts. Always keep your body filled with light and heat. Fill yourself with the power of wisdom and enlightenment.

Unity is divinity, purity is enlightenment.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

In my own life I know that my state of cheerfulness is a reliable gauge of my level of spiritual enlightenment at that moment. The more cheerful, happy, contented, and satisfied I am feeling, the more aware I am of my deep connection to Spirit.

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

The moment of enlightenment is when a person’s dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.

We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.

Enlightenment is any experience of expanding our consciousness beyond its present limits. We could also say that perfect enlightenment is realizing that we have no limits at all, and that the entire universe is alive.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.

Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.

Enlightenment is the key to everything, and it is the key to intimacy, because it is the goal of true authenticity.

Borrowing knowledge of reality from all sources, taking the best from every study, Science of Mind brings together the highest enlightenment of the ages.

Enlightenment is the journey from the head back to the heart, from words back to silence.

Enlightenment is very possible for the ordinary individual. Actually, it is easier than for someone who thinks that they are special.

Make no mistakes about it – enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of the untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.

Enlightenment…is real; and each of us, whoever we are, can in the right circumstances and with the right training realize the nature of mind and so know in us what is deathless and eternally pure. This is the promise of all the mystical traditions of the world, and it has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in countless thousands of human lives.

Enlightenment is beyond the connection to me and mine; it’s past the illusion that you know who you are. In our world it is considered advantageous to have a positive self-image, but the wisdom of Buddhism is to let go of images altogether. There is a great deal of suffering in self-esteem. It’s nice when it’s around, but it comes and goes, utterly out of our control. This practice is headed in the direction of letting go of everything you think you are. Then you’re doing the same things other people are—eating rice and drinking tea—but you’re beginning to get a taste of what it is like to be free and clear, wholehearted and effortless.

You are destined for enlightenment. Cooperate with your destiny, Don’t go against it, Don’t thwart it. Allow it to fulfill itself.

Enlightenment must come little by little otherwise it would overwhelm.

For one human being to seek enlightenment from another is like a grain of sand on the beach seeking enlightenment from another.

Enlightenment is understanding that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you’re being right now.

Words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.

There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take one with a heart.

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

Enlightenment takes place when one lets his innocence emerge and sees nature and life with a childlike awe and respect. The ‘why’ of a child is repeated over and over, causing questions and the never-ending process of discovery.

If we demand enlightenment, it hides. . . . All that we can do is make ourselves enlightenment-prone. We learn to treasure the possibility of awakening in all moments and circumstances. We learn to simplify and cultivate the receptivity of heart that can be touched by profound understanding. We learn to listen deeply and discover stillness amid the movement in our world.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

You may have expected that enlightenment would come Zap! instantaneous and permanent. This is unlikely. After the first ‘ah ha’ experience, it can be thought of as the thinning of a layer of clouds.

According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.

Nobody makes anybody enlightened. Just tell them what you want to say, then let them decide for themselves.

There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.

Enlightenement or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs but the recognition of what already is.

Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! ‘Have courage to use your own reason!’ — that is the motto of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.

To the illumined man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same.

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

Suffering just means you’re having a bad dream. Happiness means you’re having a good dream. Enlightenment means getting out of the dream altogether.

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

Just being the seeker, somebody whose open to spiritual enlightenment, is in itself the important thing and it’s the reward for being a seeker in this world.

The ego tries to convince us that we must do things to achieve enlightenment. The spirit knows that enlightenment is not a matter of doing, but a magnificent consequence of being.

Not every sky will be blue and not every day is springtime. So on the spiritual path a person learns to find this kind of happiness without needing nice things to happen on the outside. Rather, you find happiness by being who you really are. This isn’t mystical. Young children are happy being who they are. The trick is to regain such a state when you are grown and have seen the light and dark sides of life.

Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground.

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

If we pretend to be more enlightened than we really are, we will miss an opportunity to heal ourselves. Admitting our limitations can make us feel vulnerable, yet it is very freeing. We just have to be ourselves as we are now, accepting the mixture of enlightened awareness and human limitation that is in each of us. Through this self-acceptance, we find a deep peace and self-love.

You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your inner enlightenment.

Enlightenment has nothing to do with physical knowledge. It is the experience of existence. Existence is infinite. There are countless universes and creations taking place simultaneously.

The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.

Zen has no gates. The purpose of Buddha’s words is to enlighten others. Therefore Zen should be gateless. But, how does one pass through the gateless gate?

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead it’s about becoming more fully human. . . . It is the end of ignorance.

Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways – either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength. Thanks to the teachings of Buddha, I have been able to take this second way.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back and reasons to stay.

Time passes unhindered. When we make mistakes, we cannot turn the clock back and try again. All we can do is use the present well.

An open heart is an open mind.

An eye for an eye….we are all blind.

A spoon cannot taste of the food it carries. Likewise, a foolish man cannot understand the wise man´s wisdom even if he associates with a sage.

There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.

In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

Don’t ever mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance or my kindness for weakness. Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.

Man surprised me most about humanity.Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.

Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.

If it can be solved, there’s no need to worry, and if it can’t be solved, worry is of no use.

When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.

Follow the three R’s: – Respect for self. – Respect for others. – Responsibility for all your actions.

True happiness comes from having a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved by cultivating altruism, love and compassion, and by eliminating anger, selfishness and greed.

When you talk you are only repeating something you already know. But, if you listen you may learn something new.

The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.

We need to learn to want what we have, not to have what we want, in order to get stable and steady happiness.

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

Compassion is the radicalism of our time.

To conquer oneself is a greater victory than to conquer thousands in a battle.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.

It is very rare or almost impossible that an event can be negative from all points of view.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

The world doesn’t belong to leaders. The world belongs to all humanity.

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals the secret of some hidden treasure.

Hard times build determination and inner strength. Through them we can also come to appreciate the uselessness of anger. Instead of getting angry nurture a deep caring and respect for troublemakers because by creating such trying circumstances they provide us with invaluable opportunities to practice tolerance and patience.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

You must not hate those who do wrong or harmful things; but with compassion, you must do what you can to stop them — for they are harming themselves, as well as those who suffer from their actions.

If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.

When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.

Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.

Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.

I don’t know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars and planets, has a deeper meaning or not, but at the very least, it is clear that we humans who live on this earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.

Anger or hatred is like a fisherman’s hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it.

Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us—a crucified God—must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile.

God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.

God will meet you where you are in order to take you where He wants you to go.

Let God’s promises shine on your problems.

Christ literally walked in our shoes.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.

Remember who you are. Don’t compromise for anyone, for any reason. You are a child of the Almighty God. Live that truth.

If you can’t fly, then run, If you can’t run, then walk, If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.

I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.

If God called us to a task, He will then qualify us for the job.

When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life.

Success is on the same road as failure; success is just a little further down the road.

God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible.

We have a God who delights in impossibilities.

One touch of Christ is worth a lifetime of struggling.

God grades on the Cross not on the curve.

We may speak about a place where there are no tears, no death, no fear, no night; but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God.

I’m not afraid of the devil. The devil can handle me – he’s got judo I never heard of. But he can’t handle the One to whom I’m joined; he can’t handle the One to whom I’m united; he can’t handle the One whose nature dwells in my nature.

If God is your partner, make your plans BIG

You are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read.

God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.

The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.

Always, everywhere God is present, and always He seeks to discover Himself to each one.

If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look ‘little’ or ‘big’.

There is no one who is insignificant in the purpose of God.

Relying on God has to start all over everyday, as if nothing has yet been done.

This is our time on the history line of God. This is it. What will we do with the one deep exhale of God on this earth? For we are but a vapor and we have to make it count. We’re on. Direct us, Lord, and get us on our feet.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

The ultimate measure of a man [or women] is not where he [she] stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he [she] stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Faith looks not at what happens to him but at Him Whom he believes.

Faith and works are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God; and he that trusts God obeys God. He that is without faith is without works; and he that is without works is without faith.

Faith upholds a Christian under all trials, by assuring him that every painful dispensation is under the direction of his Lord.

Faith is trust or commitment to what you think is true.

The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in.

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

Faith is not something that goes against the evidence, it goes beyond it.

The steps of faith fall on the seeming void, but find the rock beneath.

I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eternity on them.

He said “Love…as I have loved you.” We cannot love too much.

Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.

The art of love is God at work through you.

God’s love is the most powerful love there is. It is a bond that draws us to God and motivates us to serve Him successfully.

Those in the circle of Christ had no doubt of his love; those in our circles should have no doubt about ours.

Love leaves a legacy. How you treated other people, not your wealth or accomplishments, is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth.

We are to enjoy what we have while we have it, but we are never to get to the point where we think we could not love without it.

The more we love, the more love we have to offer. So it is with God’s love for us. It is inexhaustible.

If we claim to love God but don’t love each other our love is nothing and meaningless.

As believers in Christ, we are part of Him-God the Father decided before the foundation of the world that anyone who loved Christ would be loved and accepted by Him.

Love pays attention. Love listens to the fears and the doubts of others and treats them with respect. Love accepts others the way Jesus accepts you.

God is not keeping score with our bank accounts, our trophies, or what people are saying about us. The only thing that matters is how we spend our love.

At best we are but clay, animated dust; but viewed as sinners, we are monsters indeed. Let it be published in heaven as a miracle that the Lord Jesus should set His heart’s love upon people like us.

Whatever a person may be like, we must still love them because we love God.

Love is the sum of all virtue, and love disposes us to good.

Christianity is a love relationship between a child of God and his Maker through the Son Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You can see God from anywhere if your mind is set to love and obey Him.

Though we cannot think alike may we not love alike?

To love is to be venerable.

He who lays up treasures on earth spends his life backing away from his treasures. To him, death is loss. He who lays up treasures in heaven looks forward to eternity; he’s moving daily toward his treasures. To him, death is gain.

Let us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection.

When we die we leave behind us all we have, and take with us all we are.

Many Christians dread the thought of leaving this world. Why? Because so many have stored up their treasures on earth, not in heaven. Each day brings us closer to death. If your treasures are on earth, that means each day brings you closer to losing your treasures.

I don’t so much pray that my death will be without pain, but that it will be without doubt.

Death is never the last word in the life of a…man. When a man leaves this world, be he righteous or unrighteous, he leaves something in the world. He may leave something that will grow and spread like a cancer or a poison, or he may leave something like the fragrance of perfume or a blossom of beauty that permeates the atmosphere with blessing.

Death is not the end of the road; it is only a bend in the road. The road winds only through those paths through which Christ Himself has gone. This Travel Agent does not expect us to discover the trail for ourselves. Often we say that Christ will meet us on the other side. That is true, of course, but misleading. Let us never forget that He walks with us on this side of the curtain and then guides us through the opening. We will meet Him there, because we have met Him here.

Your life preaches your funeral.

Depend upon it, your dying hour will be the best hour you have ever known! Your last moment will be your richest moment, better than the day of your birth will be the day of your death. It shall be the beginning of heaven, the rising of a sun that shall go no more down forever!

Living is death; dying is life. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that, citizens; on this side, orphans, on that, children; on this side, captives; on that, freemen; on this side, disguised, unknown; on that, disclosed and proclaimed as the sons of God.

Tears are a tribute to our deceased friends. When the body is sown, it must be watered. But we must not sorrow as those that have no hope; for we have a good hope through grace both concerning them and concerning ourselves.

Life is a great sunrise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow.

We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we don’t want to travel by way of death. And yet there stands Necessity saying: ‘This way, please.’ Do not hesitate, man, to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you.

Death may be the King of terrors… but Jesus is the King of kings!

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

Life is but a moment, death also is but another.

You have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave.

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

Your potential is the sum of all the possibilities God has for your life.

The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

The greater your knowledge of the goodness and grace of God on your life, the more likely you are to praise Him in the storm.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.

God has been good and He will continue to manifest His goodness. Let us approach these days expecting to see the goodness of the Lord manifest. Let us be strong and of good courage, for the Lord will fight for us if we stand in faith.

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.

If God can bring blessing from the broken body of Jesus and glory from something that’s as obscene as the cross, He can bring blessing from my problems and my pain and my unanswered prayer. I just have to trust Him.

Pray, and let God worry.

[I]t’s never too late. You can’t screw up so badly that God can’t find something worth building in the wreckage, that life can’t assert its return when it is time.

God is the only one who can make the valley of trouble a door of hope.

God does not always heal us instantly the way we think. He is not a jack-in-the-box God. But God is walking with me through this.

You’ve got to believe that God is in control of your life. It may be a tough time but you’ve got to believe that God has a reason for it and he’s going to make everything good.

What gives me the most hope every day is God’s grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God.

To live without Hope is to Cease to live.

The safest place in all the world is in the will of God, and the safest protection in all the world is the name of God.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face…we must do that which we think we cannot.

Continuous effort — not strength nor intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.

Outside of Christ, I am weak; in Christ, I am strong.

God’s strength in your weakness is His presence in your life.

People are always more encouraged when we share how God’s grace helped us in weakness than when we brag about our strengths.

To fully release the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we must allow God to deal with us and do with us as He wills.

The Bible isn’t hocus pocus and reading it doesn’t give you magical powers, but it does reveal to you who you really are and illumines a path that you were created to walk. Mitting a weakness is a sign of strength.

God can even give you the strength to keep going within those difficult situations. God calls us to maintain our faith and integrity and we respond by trusting in Him.

Don’t let circumstances distress you. Rather, look for the will of God for your life to be revealed in and through those circumstances.

Failing to focus on our strengths may prevent us from accomplishing the unique tasks God has called us to do.

One of the ways we come to know God is in adversity. We draw close to Jesus in suffering. The very One who calls us to follow Him was well acquainted with suffering and sorrow.

Do you need strength? Peace? Wisdom? Direction? Discipline? Ask for it! God will hear you.

The inwards fortitude needed to face life’s difficulties comes only as we open our hearts to Christ in the quiet moment, ceasing from activity and letting Him supply guidance, confidence, and direction we reflect on His word.

Unbelief is infectious! The unbelief of one strengthens the unbelief of another, just as the faith of one strengthens the faith of another.

Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

Do not strive in your own strength; cast yourself at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and wait upon Him in the sure confidence that He is with you, and works in you. Strive in prayer; let faith fill your heart-so will you be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation is in God.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

A holy act strengthens the inward holiness. It is a seed of life growing into more life.

God created marriage. No government subcommittee envisioned it. No social organization developed it. Marriage was conceived and born in the mind of God.

Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.

Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because He assures us of God’s love for us. He sets us free from guilt because He died for us and from paralyzing fear because He reigns. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship.

As God by creation made two of one, so again by marriage He made one of two.

Sexual expression within a marriage is not an option or an extra. It is certainly not, as it has sometimes been considered, a necessary evil in which spiritual Christians engage only to procreate children. It is far more than a physical act. God created it to be the expression an experience of love on the deepest human level and to be a beautiful and powerful bond between husband and wife.

Jesus’ teaching in general [implies] that happy and fulfilling sexual relations in marriage depend on each partner aiming to give satisfaction to the other. If it is the joy of each to make the other happy, a hundred problems will be solved before they happen.

Sex appeal alone is the poorest basis in the world for a happy marriage.

According to the Bible, the marriage act is more than a physical act. It is an act of sharing. It is an act of communion. It is an act of total self-giving wherein the husband gives himself completely to the wife, and the wife gives herself to the husband in such a way that the two actually become one flesh.

Marriage is getting to have a sleep over with your best friend, every single night of the week.

Love me when I least deserve it because that is when I really need it.

They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.

Do not be depressed. Do not let your weakness make you impatient. Instead, let the serenity of your spirit shine through your face. Let the joy of your mind burst forth.

Ladies, a real man does more than pay for you, he prays for you.

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

God has set the type of marriage everywhere throughout the creation. Every creature seeks its perfection in another. The very heavens and earth picture it to us.

The man who loves his wife above all else on earth gains the freedom and power to pursue other noble, but lesser, loves.

As God by creation made two of one, so again by marriage He made one of two.

The same Jesus Who turned water into wine can transform your home, your life, your family, and your future. He is still in the miracle-working business, and His business is the business of transformation.

This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give them one which will make them rich indeed.

The Church is everywhere represented as one. It is one body, one family, one fold, one kingdom. It is one because pervaded by one Spirit. We are all baptized into one Spirit so as to become, says the apostle, on body.

No man hath a right to claim God as his Father, unless he feeleth in his soul, and believeth, solemnly, through the faith of God’s election, that he has been adopted into the one family of which is in heaven and earth, and that he has been regenerated or born again.

After all is said that can be said upon the liquor traffic, its influence is degrading upon the individual, the family, politics and business, and upon everything that you touch in this old world.

Family education and order are some of the chief means of grace; if these are duly maintained, all the means of grace are likely to prosper and become effectual.

If therefore our houses be houses of the Lord, we shall for that reason love home, reckoning our daily devotion the sweetest of our daily delights; and our family-worship the most valuable of our family-comforts… A church in the house will be a good legacy, nay, it will be a good inheritance, to be left to your children after you.

A man ought to live so that everybody knows he is a Christian… and most of all, his family ought to know.

A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.

The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works is the family.

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible — the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.

No matter what you’ve done for yourself or for humanity, if you can’t look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?

We cannot destroy kindred: our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break.

Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.

I know why families were created with all their imperfections. They humanize you. They are made to make you forget yourself occasionally, so that the beautiful balance of life is not destroyed.

The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus results in men becoming like Him.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings.

Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.

If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don’t accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept, because you will gain one friend.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

Friends always show their love. What are brothers for if not to share troubles?

My friends are my estate. Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them. They tell me those who were poor early have different views of gold. I don’t know how that is. God is not so wary as we, else He would give us no friends, lest we forget Him.

Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shall drink it with pleasure.

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.

The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.

No love, no friendship, can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever.

I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

What we think, we become.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

It is better to travel well than to arrive.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Understanding is the heartwood of well-spoken words.

Purity or impurity depends on oneself.

I do not dispute with the world; rather it is the world that disputes with me.

All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.

Speak only endearing speech, speech that is welcomed. Speech, when it brings no evil to others, is a pleasant thing.

To support mother and father, to cherish partner and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupation — this is the greatest blessing.

Whatever has the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing.

Understanding is the heartwood of well-spoken words.

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?

You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

A woman of the world is anxious to exhibit her form and shape, whether walking, standing, sitting, or sleeping. Even when represented as a picture, she desires to captivate with the charms of her beauty and, thus, to rob men of their steadfast heart.

He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.

Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked than it is loved by the good.

Radiate boundless love towards the entire world…

Just as a mother would protect her only child with her life, even so let one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings.

In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?

If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.

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.

Love the whole world as a mother lovers her only child.

Until he has unconditional and unbiased love for all beings, man will not find peace.

The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings.

Never in the world does hatred cease by hatred; hatred ceases by love.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

The man who foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my most ungrudging love; and the more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me.

Whoever makes love grow boundless, and sets his mind for seeing the end of birth, his fetters are worn thin. If he loves even a single being, Good will follow. But the Noble One with compassionate heart for all mankind, generates abounding good.

To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family.

Full of love for all things in the world, practicing virtue, in order to benefit others, this man alone is happy.

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

Karma grows from our hearts. Karma terminates from our hearts.

Surely if living creatures saw the results of all their evil deeds, they would turn away from them in disgust. But selfhood blinds them, and they cling to their obnoxious desires. They crave pleasure for themselves and they cause pain to others; when death destroys their individuality, they find no peace; their thirst for existence abides and their selfhood reappears in new births. Thus they continue to move in the coil and can find no escape from the hell of their own making.

Just as one can make a lot of garlands from a heap of flowers, so man, subject to birth and death as he is, should make himself a lot of good karma.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought; what we think we become.

Once you know the nature of anger and joy is empty and you let them go, you free yourself from karma.

When action comes out of nothing it creates no karma.

One who previously made bad karma, but who reforms and creates good karma, brightens the world like the moon appearing from behind a cloud.

To be selfish, greedy and unwilling to help the needy gives rise to future starvation and clothlessness.

Man should make himself a lot of good karma.

Not even death can wipe out our good deeds.

If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

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.

Without health life is not life; it is only a state of langour and suffering – an image of death.

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.

Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.

We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death comes unexpectedly. How can we bargain with it?

Here will I live in the rainy season, here in the autumn and in the summer: thus muses the fool. He realizes not the danger (of death).

Even loss and betrayal can bring us awakening.

Through zeal, knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal, knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.

In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom.

Those who are truly wise will remain unmoved by feelings of happiness and suffering, fame and disgrace, praise and blame, gain and loss.They will remain calm like the eye of a hurricane.

Insignificant, is the loss of relatives, wealth and fame; The loss of wisdom is the greatest loss. Insignificant, is the increase of relatives, wealth and fame; The increase of wisdom is the highest gain. Therefore, you should train yourselves thus: “We will grow in the increase of wisdom” Thus you should train yourselves.

He who never thinks of anything as ‘mine’ does not feel the lack of anything: he is never worried by a sense of loss.

Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears; there is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death.

No one can escape death and unhappiness. If people expect only happiness in life, they will be disappointed.

Without health life is not life; it is only a state of langour and suffering – an image of death.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows them like a never-departing shadow.

Whatever is not yours: let go of it. Your letting go of it will be for your long-term happiness and benefit.

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.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

On life’s journey faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.

If a man who enjoys a lesser happiness beholds a greater one, let him leave aside the lesser to gain the greater.

Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.

The way to happiness is: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, give much. Fill your life with love. Do as you would be done by.

When you go into the space of nothingness, everything becomes known.

When you have great joy, you will become Buddhas!

He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after his death.

When we feel happy and peaceful, our happiness and peace radiates around us, and others can enjoy it as well. This is called ‘the enjoyment of others of our body of bliss’.

Health is the first benefit. Content is the first fortune. Friendliness is the first kindness. Nirvana is the first happiness.

May everyone be happy and safe, and may their hearts be filled with joy.

Let the wise guard their thoughts, which are difficult to perceive, extremely subtle, and wander at will. Thought which is well guarded is the bearer of happiness.

The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness.

Freedom and happiness are found in the flexibility and ease with which we move through change.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

True love is born from understanding.

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.

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.

Speak the truth do not become angered and give when asked, even be it a little. By these three conditions one goes to the presence of the gods.

The man that is dominated by Anger Doth not know what is seemly and seeth not the Law; That man whom Hate doth accompany, Becometh like unto murky darkness.

There are those who discover they can leave behind destructive reactions and become patient as the earth, unmoved by fires of anger or fear, unshaken as a pillar, unperturbed as a clear and quiet pool.

And he who has considered all the contrasts on this earth, and is no more disturbed by anything whatever in the world, the Peaceful One, freed from rage, from sorrow, and from longing, he has passed beyond birth and decay.

Through effort you will cross any raging flood, through energy you will pass any sorrow.

Rage is a powerful energy that with diligent practice can be transformed into fierce compassion. However much we disagree with our enemies, our task is to identify with them. They too feel justified in their point of view.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

The tongue like a sharp knife… Kills without drawing blood.

There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.

Only within our body, with its heart and mind, can bondage and suffering be found, and only here can we find true liberation.

May all that have life be delivered from suffering.

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

Pain in life is inevitable but suffering is not. Pain is what the world does to you, suffering is what you do to yourself [by the way you think about the ‘pain’ you receive]. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. [You can always be grateful that the pain is not worse in quality, quantity, frequency, duration, etc]

“All conditioned things are impermanent” – when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.

By oneself the evil is done, and it is oneself who suffers: by oneself the evil is not done, and by one’s Self one becomes pure.

A virtuous man or woman who is determined to develop the Supreme Enlightened Mind, should thus develop it: I have to lead all living beings to put a stop to (reincarnation) and escape (suffering), and when they have been so led, not one of them in fact stops (reincarnating) or escapes suffering. Why? Because, if a Bodhisattva believes in the notion of an ego, a personality, or a living being, he is not a true Bodhisattva.

I’ve got children’, ‘I’ve got wealth.’ This is the way a fool brings suffering on himself. He does not even own himself, so how can he have children or wealth?

A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.

One should strive to understand what underlies sufferings and diseases – and aim for health and well-being while gaining in the path.

The root of suffering is attachment.

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.

Pain is certain, suffering is optional.

The second noble truth is the cause of suffering. The cause of suffering is lust. The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst, which clamors for immediate satisfaction. The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in the net of sorrow. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain.

The wise who injure no living being, who keep themselves under self-control, they go to the unchangeable realm of Nirvana where sorrow and suffering are no more.

There is no suffering for the traveler who has reached the end of his journey. He is free from all sorrows: the fetters that bound him are thrown away and the burning fever of life is no more.

Let each person direct himself to what is right and proper, and then teach others. By doing so, he can avoid pain and suffering.

Men, driven by fear, go for refuge in the mountains and forests, the grooves and sacred shrines. But these places are not safe refuge for they do not free a man from suffering.

Let a man forsake anger and pride, let him overcome all bondage. No sorrow or suffering can befall a man who is free from attachment to existence and calls nothing his own.

The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.

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.

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.

Pay no attention to the faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone.

If you knew how perfect things are… you would tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn the past nor worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.

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Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

Everything changes, nothing remains without change.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

Your work is to discover the world, and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do If you do not act upon them?

Teach this triple truth to all… A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reasons and your own common sense.

Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind they can change our world.

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road of truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

If we destroy something around us we destroy ourselves. If we cheat another, we cheat ourselves.

Life is dear to all beings, they have the right to live the same that we do.

I never see what has to be done. I only see what remains to be done.

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If people speak or act with evil thoughts, pain follows them. If people speak or act with pure thoughts, happiness follows them, like a shadow that never leaves them.

Live like a mighty river.

Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like) ; fletchers bend the arrow ; carpenters bend a log of wood ; wise people fashion themselves.

The good renounce everything. The pure don’t babble about sensual desires. Whether touched by pleasure or pain, the wise show no change of temper.

With our thoughts we make the world.

Times of luxury do not last long, but pass away very quickly; nothing in this world can be long enjoyed.