Buddha c. 563 BC – c. 483 BC
Buddha (c. 563 BC – c. 483 BC) was an Indian philosopher of the Ancient era, associated with Buddhism and Indian Philosophy.
Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha or Awakened One, was the founder of Buddhism, traditionally said to have lived in northern India in the fifth century BC. Born into the ruling Shakya clan, he renounced his royal life in search of a way beyond suffering, attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, and spent the rest of his life teaching the path he had discovered. His central teachings include the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the doctrine of the impermanence of all conditioned things, and the absence of an enduring self. His teachings were transmitted orally for several centuries before being written down in the Pali Canon and other early scriptures. Buddhism became one of the major philosophical and religious traditions of Asia and is increasingly engaged by Western philosophy, ethics, and cognitive science.
The Buddha — Siddhartha Gautama, traditional dates around 563–483 BC, more recently reckoned around 480–400 BC — was the historical founder of Buddhism and one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy. Born into the kshatriya warrior class in Kapilavastu (in modern Nepal), he renounced his princely life in his late twenties, studied with the major meditation teachers of his day, and after a period of severe ascetic practice arrived at his characteristic teaching during a long meditation under the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya.
The Buddha's teaching is preserved in the Pali Canon (the Tipitaka) and in the parallel Sanskrit and East Asian recensions. The Four Noble Truths frame the philosophical core: suffering pervades conditioned existence; suffering arises from craving; the cessation of craving is possible; the eightfold path leads to that cessation. The doctrines of impermanence, non-self, and dependent origination provide the philosophical analysis that supports the practical teaching.
The Buddha taught for forty-five years across northern India and died at Kushinagar around eighty. The tradition he founded developed into the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana schools, each producing sophisticated philosophical commentaries — Buddhaghosa, Nagarjuna, Asanga, Dignaga, Dharmakirti, Tsongkhapa — and shaping the philosophical traditions of South, Southeast, and East Asia for two and a half millennia. The contemporary Western reception of Buddhist philosophy is one of the most significant intellectual transitions of the past century.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Indian
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Buddhism, Indian Philosophy
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Buddha:
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts.”
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Attributed to Buddha:
“Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.”
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Attributed to Buddha:
“Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.”
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Attributed to Buddha:
“If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his shadow that never leaves him.”
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Attributed to Buddha:
“Conquer anger by love. Conquer evil by good. Conquer the stingy by giving. Conquer the liar by truth.”
Buddha by topic
Buddha vs other philosophers
Frequently asked about Buddha
- When did Buddha live?
- Buddha was born in c. 563 BC and died in c. 483 BC.
- Where was Buddha from?
- Buddha was an Indian philosopher of the Ancient era.
- What philosophical movements is Buddha associated with?
- Buddha was associated with Buddhism and Indian Philosophy.
- What was Buddha known for?
- Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha or Awakened One, was the founder of Buddhism, traditionally said to have lived in northern India in the fifth century BC.
- How many quotes are attributed to Buddha?
- There are 17 attributed quotations from Buddha in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.
Quotes that are not actually from Buddha
These lines are widely circulated as Buddha, but they do not appear in Buddha's works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
This sentence is one of the most widely circulated Buddha quotations on the modern internet but does not appear in any canonical Buddhist scripture. The closest precedent is a passage in the Visuddhimagga IX.23, compiled by Buddhaghosa in the fifth century CE, which uses a similar coal metaphor; Buddhaghosa wrote nearly a thousand years after the Buddha. The English form circulating today appears to be a 20th-century paraphrase of uncertain origin.
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“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
This aphorism is widely circulated as a Buddha quotation but does not appear in the Pali Canon, the early Buddhist scriptures, or any other canonical Buddhist source that has been identified. Its earliest verifiable English appearances are in 20th-century quotation compilations. The actual author is unknown.
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“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
This chain-aphorism has been attributed at various times to Lao Tzu, the Buddha, Confucius, Frank Outlaw, and Margaret Thatcher's father. The earliest verifiable English-language appearance is from the 1970s in American self-help literature. None of the classical Eastern philosophical texts contains it, and there is no Chinese, Pali, or Sanskrit original.
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“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
This formulation is broadly compatible with the early Buddhist distinction between dukkha (the unsatisfactoriness of conditioned existence) and tanha (craving) but does not appear in the Pali Canon or in any other classical Buddhist source in this form. The phrasing is twentieth-century English and circulated through Western mindfulness literature. Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007) is one of its better-known appearances.
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“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
This image has been attributed to the Buddha, Nelson Mandela, Saint Augustine, and Malachy McCourt's memoir of the same name (1998). It does not appear in the Pali Canon or in any other classical Buddhist source. The earliest verifiable appearances are twentieth-century American self-help literature, and McCourt's memoir is the most widely-circulated source.
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“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
This saying does not appear in the Pali Canon, the Daodejing, the Analects, or any other classical Asian source. Its earliest verifiable appearances are in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Theosophical literature, particularly the writings of Madame Blavatsky's circle. Subsequent New Age writers attached it to various Asian sages, but no pre-modern source has been traced.
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“To understand everything is to forgive everything.”
This is generally reported as a French proverb, and one familiar as such in Russia as well, in many 19th and 20th century works; it seems to have first become attributed to Gautama Buddha without citation of sources in Farm Journal , Vol. 34 (1910), p. 417
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“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”
G. K. Chesterton , in "On Holland" in Illustrated London News (29 April 1922)
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“Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle."”
Director Jean-Pierre Melville made it up for the epigraph of Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle).
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“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”
As rendered by T. Byrom (1993), Shambhala Publications. There is no quote from the Pali Canon that matches up with any of these. The closest quote to this is in the Majjhima Nikaya 19: "Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking & pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with sensuality, abandoning thinking imbued with renunciation, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with sensuality. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with ill will, abandoning thinking imbued with non-ill will, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with ill will. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with harmfulness, abandoning thinking…
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“There is no quote from the Pali Canon that matches up with any of these. The closest quote to this is in the Majjhima Nikaya 19:”
"Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking & pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with sensuality, abandoning thinking imbued with renunciation, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with sensuality. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with ill will, abandoning thinking imbued with non-ill will, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with ill will. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with harmfulness, abandoning thinking imbued with harmlessness, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with harmfulness." Sources: [1]
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“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection”
Sharon Salzberg in an article in a magazine called “Woman of Power” in 1989
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“There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way.”
The source is likely to be either modern Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, or Calvinist clergyman Abraham Johannes Muste. The phrase appears in Thich Nhat Hanh's writings; but it also appears in a volume of US senate hearings from 1948, when Thich Nhat Hanh had not yet been ordained as a monk. Muste is known to have used a variant of the phrase – "'peace' is the way" in 1967, but this was not the first time he had used it, and he had a connection with the 1948 hearing.
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“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
"This is a bad translation of the Kalama Sutta — so bad, in fact, that it contradicts the message of the sutta, which says that reason and common sense are not sufficient for ascertaining the truth."
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“A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another, it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden.”
Earliest match that could be found was in a 1962 book published by Bukkyō Dendō Kyōka titled The Teaching of the Buddha .