If you’re looking for some words of wisdom, you need look no further than Thich Nhat Hanh quotes. This Buddhist monk has plenty of insightful quotes to offer, and his thoughts on happiness, peace, and mindfulness can help you live a more meaningful life.
Thich Nhat Hanh was a Buddhist master who dedicated his life to helping others find inner peace and happiness. He wrote dozens of books on mindfulness and meditation, and his teachings have helped millions of people around the world. Thich Nhat Hanh was a powerful example of how a compassionate, mindful life can be filled with joy and happiness.
Nhat Hanh was born 11 October 1926, He was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, and peace activist. He is the founder of the Plum Village Monastery.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings focus on the importance of mindfulness and living in the present moment. He believed that if we can learn to focus on the present moment, we can overcome our fears and worries, and live more peacefully and happily.
Thich Nhat Hanh‘s work has inspired millions of people around the world, and he is widely recognized as one of the most important Buddhist teachers of our time.
Here are some of our favorite Thich Nhat Hanh quotes.
107 Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes
- “Because you are alive, everything is possible.”
2. “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 possessions – we cannot be free.”
3. “Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”
4. “When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?”
5. “Understanding someone’s suffering is the best gift you can give another person. Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love.”
6. “If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love.”
7. “Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others is possible.”
8. “We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”
9. “If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is nothing that can justify your desire.”
10. “Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.”
11. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
12. “Life is available only in the present moment.”
Famous Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes
13. “I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the day that is given me to live.”
14. “We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.”
15. “We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.”
16. “Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
17. “I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight… I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.”
18. “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
19. “Take my hand. We will walk. We will only walk. We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere.”
20. “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
21. “To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.”
22. “Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.”
23. “If we do not know how to take care of ourselves and to love ourselves, we cannot take care of the people we love. Loving oneself is the foundation for loving another person.”
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Fear and Inner Peace
24. “It is said that God has created man in his own image. But it may be that humankind has created God in the image of humankind.”
25. “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.”
26. “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.”
27. “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
28. “If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.”
29. “Your true home is in the here and the now.”
30. “When you say something really unkind, when you do something in retaliation your anger increases. You make the other person suffer, and he will try hard to say or to do something back to get relief from his suffering. That is how conflict escalates.”
31. “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
32. “Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.”
33. “My actions are my only true belongings.”
34. “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.”
35. “Happiness does not come from consumption of things.”
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Mindfulness
36. “Smile, breathe and go slowly.”
37. “The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.”
38. “Our own life has to be our message.”
39. “Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”
41. “The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.”
42. “If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence”
43. “Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos — the trees, the clouds, everything.”
44. “Many people think excitement is happiness…. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.”
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes Present Moment
45. “You have to learn how to help a wounded child while still practicing mindful breathing. You should not allow yourself to get lost in action. Action should be meditation at the same time.”
46. “A true partner or friend is one who encourages you to look deep inside yourself for the beauty and love you’ve been seeking.”
47. “Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.”
48. “My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.”
49. “Each time you look at a tangerine, you can see deeply into it. 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.”
50. “In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.”
51. “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.”
52. “For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Life
53. “Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive.”
54. “You are not an observer, you are a participant.”
55. “When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.”
56. “When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love.”
57. “Work is only a part of life. But work is life only when done in mindfulness. Otherwise, one becomes like the person “who lives as though dead.”
58. “Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.”
59. “To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love.”
60. “You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.”
61. “Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes”
62. “Don’t do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention. Enjoy and be one with your work.”
Inspirational Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes
63. “There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.”
64. “Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.”
65. “The most precious inheritance that parents can give their children is their own happiness.”
66. “Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.”
67. “Being rich is an obstacle to loving. When you are rich, you want to continue to be rich, and so you end up devoting all your time, all your energy, in your daily life to stay rich.”
68. “Life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.”
69. “Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion.”
70. “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.”
71. “I am determined to practice deep listening. I am determined to practice loving speech.”
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Happiness, Love and Pain
72. “Happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.”
73. “If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love.”
74. “If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.”
75. “The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”
76. “Other people’s actions are the result of their own pain and not the result of any intention to hurt you.”
77. “No argument, no reasoning, no blame, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.”
79. “The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.”
80. “If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.”
81. “As long as fear is in us, happiness cannot be perfect.”
82. “Be a friend to yourself. If you are a true friend to yourself, you can be a true friend to a loved one. A romantic crush is short-lived, but friendship and loving kindness can last very long and continue to grow.”
83. “If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”
Mind-Provoking Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes
84. “The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth.”
85. “The roots of a lasting relationship are mindfulness, deep listening and loving speech, and a strong community to support you.”
86. “Preventing war is much better than protesting against the war. Protesting the war is too late.”
87. “we must speak carefully so that we and our listeners do not get stuck in words or concepts. It is our duty to transcend words and concepts to be able to encounter reality.”
88. “People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer anymore.”
89. “Words and thoughts concerning compassionate action that are not put into practice are like beautiful flowers that are colorful but have no fragrance.”
90. “Life is a miracle, and being aware of simply this can already make us very happy.”
91. “It is possible to live happily in the present moment. It is the only moment we have.”
Positive Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes
92. “The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.”
93. “We have a lamp inside us. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, our steps, and our peaceful smile. Our practice is to light up the lamp.”
94. “If you walk with true awareness of every step, without having a goal to get anywhere, happiness will arise naturally. You don’t need to look for happiness.”
95. “Suffering has many faces. If we discover the roots of one suffering, we are at the same time discovering the roots of others.”
96. “Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes. But once you let go, happiness comes very quickly. You won’t have to go around search for it.”
97. “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.”
98. “Letting go gives us freedom and freedom is the only condition for happiness”
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes To Live By
99. “You have an appointment with life, an appointment that is in the here and now.”
100. “Anywhere we go, we will have our self with us; we cannot escape ourselves.”
101. “Love has no meaning without understanding”
102. “We are what we feel and perceive. If we are angry, we are the anger.”
103. “The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand.”
104. “When conditions are sufficient things manifest. When conditions are no longer sufficient things withdraw. They wait until the moment is right for them to manifest again.”
105. “Touching the present moment, we realize that the present is made of the past and is creating the future.”
106. “Learn to love, enjoy and embrace what you have in the here and now. That’s all you really need to be happy.”
107. “Compassion is born from understanding suffering. We all should learn to embrace our own suffering, to listen to it deeply, and to have a deep look into its nature.”