Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes

When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.

When you are suffering, you become more understanding about yourself, but also about other people's sufferings too. That's the first step to understand somebody is to understand their sufferings. So then love follows.

A compassionate heart will lift you out of the pain and suffering of your own world because it knows that everyone is doing the best they can, given their state of consciousness and the histories they're dragging behind them.

Sometimes I wonder if we don't see Christ's love as much in the people he tolerated as in the pain he endured.

Kill if you must, but never hate: Man is but grass and hate is blight, The sun will scorch you soon or late, Die wholesome then, since you must fight

It would be great if people never got angry at someone for doing something they've done themselves.

The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.

Imagine you are walking in the woods and you see a small dog sitting by a tree. As you approach it, it suddenly lunges at you, teeth bared. You are frightened and angry. But then you notice that one of its legs is caught in a trap. Immediately your mood shifts from anger to concern: You see that the dog's aggression is coming from a place of vulnerability and pain. This applies to all of us. When we behave in hurtful ways, it is because we are caught in some kind of trap. The more we look through the eyes of wisdom at ourselves and one another, the more we cultivate a compassionate heart.

True charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbors fault's; never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues.

I'm not someone who feels anger on particular issues.

I don't bear any bitterness towards anyone.

I don't feel bitterness, I don't feel anger towards anybody. Fighting is never emotional to me.

I just don't know that shame and fear need to be our teachers; rather, compassion, understanding, and love should be our guides.

Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.

I have begun to sympathetically understand Paul, though I don't like him much.

I got a lot of empathy from my mother growing up, and I think it prevented me from ever really just writing people off.

You know how big love is? Love is big. love can hold anger; love can even hold hatred.

Tolerance, compromise, understanding, acceptance, patience - I want those all to be very sharp tools in my shed.

I've gotten really good at not judging characters.

People who have suffered know more about compassion.

In order to have understanding, you need forgiveness, compassion, and empathy.

Hate is a learned reaction, and it can be unlearned.