Buddha Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to Buddha, organized by topic.
Browse Buddha by topic
Buddha on God
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“Well, Lord, is the soul the same as the body , is the soul one thing and the body another?”
Wikiquote
Buddha on Knowledge
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Attributed to Buddha:
“Long is the night to the watcher, long is the road to the weary traveller, long is the round of birth and death to the foolish who do not know the true law.”
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“There are these four ways of answering questions . Which four? There are questions that should be answered categorically [straightforwardly yes, no, this, that]. There are questions that should be answered with an analytical (qualified) answer [defining or redefining the terms]. There are questions that should be answered with a counter-question. There are questions that should be put aside . These are the four ways of answering questions.”
As quoted in: Ṭhānissaro (Bhikkhu.) (2004) Handful of leaves. Vol. 3, p. 80 -
“There are these four ways of answering questions . Which four? There are questions that should be answered categorically [straightforwardly yes, no, this, that]. There are questions that should be answered with an analytical (qualified) answer [defining or redefining the terms]. There are questions that should be answered with a counter-question. There are questions that should be put aside . Thes”
As quoted in: Ṭhānissaro (Bhikkhu.) (2004) Handful of leaves. Vol. 3, p. 80 -
“Gautama Buddha in Digha Nikaya as quoted in Avatars down the ages by Felicity Elliot”
Now in those days, brethren, there shall arise in the world an Exalted One by name Maitreya (the Kindly One) an Arhat, a Fully Enlightened One, endowed with wisdom and righteousness, a Happy One, a World-knower, the Peerless Charioteer of men to be tamed, a teacher of the devas and mankind, an Exalted One, a Buddha like myself. He of His own abnormal powers shall realize and make known the world, -
“Whereas some ascetics and Brahmins remain addicted to attending such shows as dancing, singing, music, displays, recitations, hand-music, cymbals and drums, fairy-shows, acrobatic and conjuring tricks, combats of elephants, buffaloes, bulls, goats, rams, cocks and quail, fighting with staves, boxing, wrestling, sham-fights, parades, manoeuvres and military reviews, the ascetic Gotama refrains from attending such displays.”
M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 1, verse 1.13 -
“M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 1, verse 1.13”
Whereas some ascetics and Brahmins remain addicted to attending such shows as dancing, singing, music, displays, recitations, hand-music, cymbals and drums, fairy-shows, acrobatic and conjuring tricks, combats of elephants, buffaloes, bulls, goats, rams, cocks and quail, fighting with staves, boxing, wrestling, sham-fights, parades, manoeuvres and military reviews, the ascetic Gotama refrains from -
“The tongue is like a sharp knife, it kills without drawing blood; words in the hands of someone skilled can do more damage than a weapon in the hands of a warrior.”
M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 1, verse 5 -
“M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 1, verse 5”
The tongue is like a sharp knife, it kills without drawing blood; words in the hands of someone skilled can do more damage than a weapon in the hands of a warrior.
Buddha on Love
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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.”
Buddha on Mind
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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:
“If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his shadow that never leaves him.”
Buddha on Nature
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Attributed to Buddha:
“All conditioned things are impermanent. Strive on with diligence.”
Buddha on Time
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“Brethren, if outsiders should speak against me, or against the Doctrine, or against the Order, you should not on that account either bear malice, or suffer heart-burning, or feel ill will. If you, on that account, should be angry and hurt, that would stand in the way of your own self-conquest. If, when others speak against us, you feel angry at that, and displeased, would you then be able to judge”
T. W. Rhys Davids trans. (1899), Brahmajāla Sutta, verse 1.5-6 (text at archive.org ), as cited in: Hajime Nakamura (1992). A Comparative History of Ideas, p. 221-2
Buddha on Truth
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Attributed to Buddha:
“Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.”
Buddha on Virtue
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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.”
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Attributed to Buddha:
“There is no fire like passion, no shark like hatred, no snare like folly, no torrent like greed.”
Things actually not said by Buddha
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Buddha but are in fact from someone else. Did Buddha say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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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Did Buddha say this? No.
“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 .