Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

If indeed the qualities such as love, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness are what happiness consists in, and if it is also true that compassion, defined as concern for others, is both the source and the fruit of these qualities, then the more we are compassionate, the more we provide for our own happiness.

We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.

I have to be able to love somebody except myself and the theater.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.

In my mind, as long as I did what was right for me, I was cool. But that's not the way it works. You have to think about other people and take their feelings into account.

It's curious how, when you're in love, you yearn to go about doing acts of kindness to everybody.

To love is to take delight in happiness of another, or, what amounts to the same thing, it is to account another's happiness as one's own.

If I am only happy for myself, many fewer chances for happiness. If I am happy when good things happen to other people, billions more chances to be happy!

Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of a man all wrapped up in himself.

Those who are willing to sacrifice and be of service have very little difficulty with people. They know what they are all about. People can't help but want to be near them. They help them; they work with them. That's what love is all about. It starts with your heart and radiates out.

I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion--and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.

My mum taught me to have a soul.

What one thing does the world need most today-apart, that is, from the all-inclusive thing we call righteousness? Aren't you inclined to agree that what this old world needs is just the art of being kind? Every time I visit a factory or any other large business concern, I find myself trying to diagnose whether the atmosphere is one of kindliness or the reverse. And somehow, if there is palpably lacking that spirit of kindness, the owners ... have fallen short of achieving 24-carat success no matter how imposing the financial balance sheet may be.

To love is to find pleasure in the happiness of others.

Even more important than the warmth and affection we receive, is the warmth and affection we give. It is by giving warmth and affection, by having a genuine sense of concern for others, in other words through compassion, that we gain the conditions for genuine happiness. More important than being loved, therefore, is to love.

The greatest is to have a tendency to friendship; this is expressed in the form of tolerance and forgiveness, in the form of service and trust. In whatever form he may express it this is the central theme: the constant desire to prove one's love for humanity, to be the friend of all.

The measure of man's humanity is the extent and intensity of his love for mankind.

Learning to cherish others is the best solution to our daily problems, and it is the source of all our future happiness and good fortune.

Kindness is wisdom. There is none in life But needs it and may learn.

Loving one another is half of wisdom.

Love, compassion and concern for others are real sources of happiness. If you have these in abundance, you will not be disturbed even by the most uncomfortable circumstances. If you nurse hatred, however, you will not be happy even in the lap of luxury. Thus, if we really want happiness, we must widen the sphere of love. This is both religious thinking and basic common sense.

I think true success is intrinsic... It's love. It's kindness. It's community.

Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.

Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other's good, and melt at other's woe.