Quotes from Thích Nh?t H?nh

Without reason, there is no concentration. Without concentration, there is no reason.

Do not allow your heart to whirl in the pleasures of senses.

Unchecked craving strangles the careless man.

It is better to live alone than to have a fool for a companion.

The one contains the many and the many contains the one. Without the one, there cannot be the many. Without the many, there cannot be the one.

Give up the lesser comforts for the greater happiness.

The suffering and the quarreling in a family don't begin with unkindness, they begin with one person's pain and stress.

If you have mindfulness, if you feel safe, you recognize that you have plenty of conditions to be happy already, and that you don't need to run into the future in order to get a few more conditions.

Curb your speech, restrain your mind, commit no evil deed.

Freedom from desire is the best of states.

The bikku should not rest content until mental intoxicants are fully extinct.

The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.

He who judges a situation impulsively is not righteous.

It is easy to see the flaws of others, hard to see one's own. One exposes flaws of others, yet hides one's own flaws.

falcon swooped down and caught a young quail

One included all, and all were contained in one.

Those flawed in their nature have no control over themselves.

Place your left hand, palm side up, in your right palm. Let all the muscles in your hands, fingers, arms, and legs relax. Let go of everything.

shortest distance possible, finally reaching the bottom, the point of perfect rest.

Just as rust produced by iron corrodes iron, so is the violator of moral law destroyed by his own wrong action.

The ground for action is to be. Walk, sit, and eat in such a way that peace is possible in the here and the now.

the four sacred and wonderful truths of Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths are: first, there is suffering; second, there is a path or a series of conditions that has produced the suffering; third, suffering can be ended—happiness is always possible; and fourth, there is a path that leads to the cessation of suffering, to happiness.

Clinging to what is dear brings sorrow and fear. Sorrow and fear spring from affection; from indulgence in sensual pleasures; from preoccupation with lustful pleasures; from craving.

If you truly practice mindfulness, it will never cause harm. If the practice doesn't bring about more compassion, then it's not right mindfulness.