Dalai Lama

It is not just a person's physical constitution, their intellegence, their education, or even their social conditioning that enables them to withstand hardship. Much more significant is their inner development. And while some may be able to survive through sheer willpower, the ones who suffer the least are those who have a high degree of patience and courage in the face of adversity.

According to Buddhist psychology most of our troubles stem from attachment to things that we mistakenly see as permanent.

I call myself a feminist. Isn't that what you call someone who fights for women's rights?

The creation of a more peaceful and happier society has to begin from the level of the individual, and from there it can expand to one's family, to one's neighborhood, to one's community and so on.

The quality of everything we do: our physical actions, our verbal actions, and even our mental actions, depends on our motivation. That's why it's important for us to examine our motivation in our day to day life. If we cultivate respect for others and our motivation is sincere, if we develop a genuine concern for others’ well-being, then all our actions will be positive.

Material progress and a higher standard of living bring us greater comfort and health, but do not lead to a transformation of the mind, which is the only thing capable of providing lasting peace. Profound happiness, unlike fleeting pleasures, is spiritual in nature. It depends on the happiness of others and it is based on love and affection.

Friends, genuine friends, have much more to do with whether we have a warm heart, not money or power.

Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.

The more contact we have with one another and the more we come to understand each other's values, the greater will be our mutual respect.

If it can be solved, there's no need to worry, and if it can't be solved, worry is of no use.

Without freedom, creativity cannot flourish. The right to freedom is crucial to progress in any society; and the context is having a sense of global responsibility.

Our world is increasingly interdependent, but I wonder if we truly understand that our interdependent human community has to be compassionate; compassionate in our choice of goals, compassionate in our means of cooperation and our pursuit of these goals.

Being concerned about other people is especially relevant in today's world. If we consider the complex inter-connected ness of our modern lives, how we depend on others and others depend on us, our outlook will change. We’ll begin to see 'others' not as somehow distant from us, but as people we are in touch with, people close to us; we will no longer feel indifferent to them.

Instead of harboring fear and suspicion we need to think of other people not as ‘them’ but ‘us’.

When you engage in fulfilling the needs of others, your own needs are fulfilled as a by-product.

If we wish to ensure everyone’s peace and happiness we need to cultivate a healthy respect for the diversity of our peoples and cultures, founded on an understanding of this fundamental sameness of all human beings

My enemy is my greatest teacher.

In order to be happy we must first possess inner contentment; and inner contentment doesn't come from having all we want; but rather from wanting and appreciating being grateful for all we have.

The world has also learned that economic growth, by itself, cannot close the gap between rich and poor.

As free human beings we can use our unique intelligence to try to understand ourselves and our world. But if we are prevented from using our creative potential, we are deprived of one of the basic characteristics of a human being.

When selflessness is seen in objects, the seed of cyclic existence is destroyed.