Quotes from Daisaku Ikeda

It is crucial that we develop real awareness of ourselves as citizens of Earth, linked by mutual and indissoluble bonds. When we clearly recognize this reality and ground ourselves in it, we are compelled to take a strict accounting of our way of life.

It is only through such real-life daily struggles and challenges that a genuine sensitivity to human rights can be inculcated. This is a truth that is not limited to school education: it applies to all of us.

The power of art can break the shackles that bind and divide human beings.

Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself.

Before comparing yourself with others, win the battle with yourself. Strive to be better today than yesterday, and better tomorrow than today.

The idea of interdependence is central to Buddhism, which holds that all things come into being through the mutual interactions of various causes and conditions.

Living here on Earth, we breathe the rhythms of a universe that extends infinitely above us. When resonant harmonies arise between this vast outer cosmos and the inner human cosmos, poetry is born.

People need to be made conscious of a very simple reality: we have no choice but to share this planet, this small blue sphere floating in the vast reaches of space, with all of our fellow 'passengers.'

The reactions of the human heart are not mechanical and predictable but infinitely subtle and delicate.

Envying another's beauty will diminish your own. But when you praise beauty in others your own beauty deepens.

A truly beautiful person is one who is good at discovering beauty.

There are no greater treasures than the highest human qualities such as compassion, courage and hope. Not even tragic accident or disaster can destroy such treasures of the heart.

Even if things don't unfold the way you expected, don't be disheartened or give up. One who continues to advance will win in the end.

To communicate the truths of history is an act of hope for the future.

No one should be left to suffer alone.

No one can live entirely on their own, nor can any country or society exist in isolation.

Ultimately, all human activities have as their goal the realization of happiness. Why, then, have we ended up producing the opposite result? Could the underlying cause be our failure to correctly understand the true nature of happiness?

We are not merely passive pawns of historical forces nor are we victims of the past. We can shape and direct history.

There are no greater treasures than the highest human qualities such as compassion, courage and hope. Not even tragic accident or disaster can destroy such treasures of the heart.

Men and women who know the brutal reality of war, who know that war strips people of their very humanity, must unite in a new global partnership for peace.

Divorced from the cosmos, from nature, from society and from each other, we have become fractured and fragmented.

In the past, human society provided encouragement and opportunity for people to extend support to each other, especially in highly stressful situations.

When human beings live together, conflict is inevitable. War is not.

Women are, in my view, natural peacemakers. As givers and nurturers of life, through their focus on human relationships and their engagement with the demanding work of raising children and protecting family life, they develop a deep sense of empathy that cuts through to underlying human realities.