110 Buddha Quotes To Awaken You

As with other famous historical icons, Buddha’s teachings were not largely recognized until after his death.

In fact, little is known about the life of Buddha.

The accounts of his life, conversations, and monastic rules are believed to have been put together after his death and then memorized and passed on by his followers.

Various collections of valuable lessons and Buddha sayings that were attributed to him were passed on through generations by oral tradition and weren’t committed to writing until about 400 years after his passing.

People today typically turn to Buddha’s quotes because they convey useful life lessons and an opportunity to understand how to make the world a better place.

He is regarded as a spiritual guide who can benefit everyone from humans to small animals who are roaming the earth.

The best Buddha quotes are often referenced by those who are trying to spread mindfulness, peace, and happiness.

Buddha, which literally translates to Awakened One, is thought of as one who truly discovered what it means to be happy.

We’re sharing some of the most inspirational Buddhist quotes that will inspire and enlighten you.

Reading these Buddha quotes can help you develop a peaceful and virtuous state of mind.

You can use these quotes . . .

  • As part of your meditation time.
  • To boost your mood and get out of a negative mindset.
  • To inspire positive affirmations you can repeat to yourself.
  • To increase mindfulness in your daily activities.
  • To foster feelings of gratitude and appreciation.

Who Is Buddha?

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, was a monk, philosopher, and teacher whose lessons provided the basis for Buddhism.

With almost 550 million people in the world today practicing Buddhism, this is one of the fastest-growing religions.

While little is known about his life, it can’t be doubted that Buddha’s teachings have largely influenced a lot of people, leading them to find more meaning and happiness in their lives.

Historians believe that Buddha was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini, Nepal sometime around 400 BCE, and he is believed to have lived until he was eighty.

Buddha is known for his belief that meditation is the only track to awakening at which one has risen from the sleep of ignorance and is able to see things as they truly are.

During his twenties, Buddha experienced some of the world’s realities that inspired him to go on a quest for enlightenment, which he eventually attained after meditating for 49 days without stopping.

He believed that in order to lead the best life possible, people must be both mentally and physically present to experience reality.

Buddha meditation is often used in conjunction with mindfulness to help people find peace and awareness.

110 Buddha Quotes To Enlighten You

Buddha Quotes on Life

Buddha often reminded those around him that tomorrow is not promised, so you must live for today. Living with a sense of mindfulness is the only way to ensure that you will enjoy your time on earth.

1. Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, Death comes.

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

3. Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.

4. In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.

5. Live every act fully, as if it were your last.

6. One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world.

Buddha quotes

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

8. She who knows life flows, feels no wear or tear, needs no mending or repair.

9. If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

10. Kindness should become the natural way of life, not the exception.

11. What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.

Buddha Quotes on Love

Buddha was a firm believer that people must love themselves first before other people can love them. Confidence is born from loving yourself.

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

13. Love is a gift of one’s inner most soul to another so both can be whole.

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

15. Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.

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

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

18. Radiate boundless love towards the entire world.

19. Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth.

20. Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.

21. True love is born from understanding.

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

Buddha Quotes on Happiness

Happiness cannot be found in material possessions. Rather, people must find happiness within themselves and their experiences. Buddha often taught about the power of giving and how letting go of one’s possessions will never lead to emotional harm.

23. May all beings have happy minds.

24. One who acts on truth is happy in this world and beyond.

25. Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all.

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

27. 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.

28. Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.

29. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

30. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.

Buddha quotes

31. It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.

32. Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.

33. We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.

Buddha Quotes on Death

The Buddha taught that wise people understand death and realize that it happens when it is supposed to. Being able to accept that life has a pre-determined end to it can help people accept death. These Guatama Buddha quotes embody this idea.

34. 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.

35. All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

36. Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.

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

38. Some do not understand that we must die, but those who do realize this settle their quarrels.

39. Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

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

41. The world is afflicted by death and decay. But the wise do not grieve, having realized the nature of the world.

42. Good health is simply the slowest way a human being can die.

43. Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are.

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

Buddha Quotes on Change

Buddha’s teachings often centered on the power of oneself. At the end of the day, you should value our own opinion the most. These Siddhartha Gautama quotes show that you are the only one who has the power to change yourself. Learn to love yourself first, before loving anything else.

45. One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world.

46. If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

47. What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.

48. Nothing is forever except change.

49. If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

50. Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.

51. Should you find a wise critic to point out your faults, follow him as you would a guide to hidden treasure.

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

53. The one who has conquered himself is a far greater hero than he who has defeated a thousand times a thousand men.

54. We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.

55. 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.

Buddha Quotes on Karma

Buddha taught that karma is a natural law that is created by one’s intentional acts. What you do in this moment impacts your life right now and possibly the lives of others.

While one’s intentions can be subconscious, only acts that are completely free from greed and hatred do not produce karmic effects.

56. Offend in neither word nor deed. Eat with moderation. Live in your heart. Seek the highest consciousness. Master yourself according to the law. This is the simple teaching of the awakened.

57. Life is like the harp string, if it is strung too tight it won’t play, if it is too loose it hangs, the tension that produces the beautiful sound lies in the middle.

58. The fool who knows he is a fool is that much wiser.

59. Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.

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

Buddha quotes

61. 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.

62. 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.

63. Someone who has set out in the vehicle of a Bodhisattva should decide that ‘I must lead all the beings to nirvana, into that realm of nirvana which leaves nothing behind’. What is this realm of nirvana which leaves nothing behind?

64. Conquer anger with non-anger. Conquer badness with goodness. Conquer meanness with generosity. Conquer dishonesty with truth.

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

66. The calmed say that what is well-spoken is best; second, that one should say what is right, not unrighteous; third, what’s pleasing, not displeasing; fourth, what is true, not false.”

Buddha Quotes on Peace

These Buddha sayings show that peace is a state of mind that everyone can attain through their own thoughts. You cannot find peace from other people, places, or things. Peace can only be found in your soul.

67. Resolutely train yourself to attain peace.

68. Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

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

70. Looking deeply at life as it is in this very moment, the meditator dwells in stability and freedom.

71. A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but is he peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.

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

73. Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

74. When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear.

75. Indeed, the sage who’s fully quenched rests at ease in every way; no sense desire adheres to him whose fires have cooled, deprived of fuel. All attachments have been severed, the heart’s been led away from pain; tranquil, he rests with utmost ease. The mind has found its way to peace.

76. Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever’s not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet.

77. Ceasing to do evil, cultivating the good, purifying the heart: this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

Buddha Quotes on Anger

During an argument, the only thing that you can do is try to win. Once anger takes over, Buddha believed reason goes out the window and the truth is never entirely revealed.

78. The instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.

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

Buddha quotes

80. Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.

81. They blame those who remain silent, they blame those who speak much, they blame those who speak in moderation. There is none in the world who is not blamed.

82. Whoever doesn’t flare up at someone who’s angry wins a battle hard to win.

83. Those who cling to perceptions and views wander the world offending people.

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

85. He who can curb his wrath as soon as it arises, as a timely antidote will check snake’s venom that so quickly spreads, — such a monk gives up the here and the beyond, just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin.

86. 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.

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

88. Overcome the angry by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth.

Buddha Quotes on Friendship

Caring for others and caring for oneself should occur simultaneously. Caring for yourself leads you to connect with the right people and care for them as well. Watching out for friends leads them to do the same in return.

89. If we fail to look after others when they need help, who will look after us?

90. Should a seeker not find a companion who is better or equal, let them resolutely pursue a solitary course.

91. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.

92. With fools, there is no companionship. Rather than to live with men who are selfish, vain, quarrelsome, and obstinate, let a man walk alone.

93. If you find no one to support you on the spiritual path, walk alone. There is no companionship with the immature.

94. Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace.

95. 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.

96. In separateness lies the world’s greatest misery; in compassion lies the world’s true strength.

97. 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.

98. Imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you. They are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you learn perfect patience, perfect wisdom, perfect compassion.

99. For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world.

Short Buddha Quotes

Buddha believed in the power of conciseness and was insistent on short speech, hence the Buddhist vow of silence in Buddha meditation. A few words with deep meaning are more powerful than a lot of words with no meaning.

100. A jug fills drop by drop.

101. I am the miracle.

102. May all beings have happy minds.

103. The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.

104. Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.

105. One who acts on truth is happy in this world and beyond.

106. Attachment leads to suffering.

107. What we think, we become.

108. It is better to travel well than to arrive.

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

110. Rule your mind or it will rule you.

Which of these quotes spoke to you?

Siddhartha Gautama quotes offer so many life lessons that each gives us an opportunity to better understand the world and improve it.

In order to live a happy life, we cannot forget the lessons that were taught by Buddha. They help people face life’s hardships with equanimity and resilience and better understand the fleeting nature of life and why we must appreciate each moment.

Which quotes most resonate with you and why?

Share your favorites in the comments below, and spread some good karma by sharing these quotes on your favorite social media platform.

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