Inspirational Buddhist Quotes & Sayings

I feel so intensely the delights of shutting oneself up in a little world of one's own, with pictures and music and everything beautiful. — Virginia Woolf

The greatest impurity is ignorance. Free yourself from it. Be pure. — Gautama Buddha

If you are an entrepreneur planning to start your own company, I can't think of a better place to begin than by operating your business by the Golden Rule. Make this a high priority; never make a decision that contradicts the Golden Rule. — Mary Kay Ash

Be grateful to everyone is about making peace with the aspects of ourselves that we have rejected ... If we were to make a list of people we don't like - people we find obnoxious, threatening, or worthy of contempt - we would discover much about those aspects of ourselves that we can't face ... other people trigger the karma that we haven't worked out. — Pema Chodron

The motivation of all religious practice is similar: love, sincerity, honesty. The way of life of practically all religious persons is consistent. The teachings of tolerance, love, and compassion are the same. — Dalai Lama

Pain does not differentiate between rich and poor or Christian and Buddhist. It brings the same feelings to everyone. — Debasish Mridha

People just kind of associate me with kicking some ass. — Yancy Butler

They who do not fear darkness have learned to light their own candle. — Dodinsky

By your own efforts waken yourself, watch yourself. And live joyfully. — Gautama Buddha

It is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings. — Daisaku Ikeda

Man can embody the truth but he cannot know it. — W.B.Yeats

The means and the results, the good and the bad, are within all of us who are aware and care. — Suman Jyoty Bhante

When in doubt, just throw your hair in a topknot — Chelsea Leyland

Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness. The symbol of art is seen again in the magic flute of the Great God Pan which makes the young goats frisk at the edge of the grove. All modern art begins to appear comprehensible and in a way great when it is interpreted as an attempt to instill youthfulness into an ancient world . — Jose Ortega Y Gasset

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 reason and your own common sense. — Gautama Buddha

One is not called noble who harms living beings. By not harming living beings one is called noble. — Gautama Buddha

The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us
loves us so much that we the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is "renewed in the morning" or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, "our inner nature is being renewed everyday". Seen in this light, what strikes many modern readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the minuitae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God. — Kathleen Norris

But love gets in the way of her paper flowers, love keeps them secret from Papi. Chabella and Papi have ways of looking at each other, ways of touching that are full of stunned caution. They trip over each other constantly, marvel each time. When Mami sits down at the table, wiping her hands on her cooking skirt after she's set dishes down before us, Papi takes her hand, strokes her fingers, says her name as if he's asking it. Mami nods at him; her lips smile, her eyes smile. I grew up doubting that anyone would ever look at me in the same way. My doubt contains no great trauma; it's casual, the way people doubt they can jump off a bridge and fly. — Helen Oyeyemi

Health, contentment, and trust are your greatest possessions. And freedom your greatest joy. — Gautama Buddha

Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain. — Tara Brach

Consciously join with and become part of the power that is in everything around you. — Frederick Lenz

Write what you know," my ass. Now, I'm not suggesting that you write about my ass. But although you do not, in fact, know my ass, I give you permission to write about it. And if you think you need my permission to write about my ass ("What right do I have, as a male, twenty-something, single, childfree, immigrant Indonesian Buddhist, to pretend to understand the ass of an Anglo American middle-aged married female Freethinker?") or about anything, then you lack the courage, curiosity and imagination to write good fiction, so please find something else to do. — Robyn Parnell

Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth
penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told. — Joseph Campbell

Working with Dav Pilkey was a dream come true. Dav is incredibly funny, and he's been a hero of mine for a long time. It was great bringing the 'Wimpy Kid' and 'Captain Underpants' worlds together! — Jeff Kinney