Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.
Nhat HanhRead
Through your love for each other, through learning the art of making one person happy, you learn to express your love for the whole of humanity and all beings. Please help us develop the curriculum for the Institute for the Happiness of One Person. Don't wait until we open the school. You can begin practicing right away.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Loving one person teaches us to extend that love to everyone around us.
This quote by Nhat Hanh emphasizes that the practice of love starts on an individual level and expands outward. By nurturing and learning to make someone happy, we not only deepen our personal relationships but also cultivate a greater capacity for love and compassion towards all of humanity.
Themes
LoveHappinessHumanityCompassionKindness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at a wedding ceremony to highlight the importance of love in relationships.
More from Nhat Hanh
All quotes →I have lost my smile, but don't worry. The dandelion has it.
Nhat HanhRead
I realize that many elements of the Buddhist teaching can be found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam. I think if Buddhism can help, it is the concrete methods of practice.
Nhat HanhRead
Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.
Nhat HanhRead
The therapist does not treat patients by simply giving them another set of beliefs. He or she tries to help them see which kinds of ideas and beliefs have led to their suffering. Many patients want to get rid of their painful feelings, but they do not want to get rid of their beliefs, the viewpoints that are the very roots of their feelings.
Nhat HanhRead
Scientists tell us that we have enough technology to save our planet. . . . Yet we don't take advantage of this new technology. . . . The technological has to work hand-in-hand with the spiritual. Our spiritual life is the element that can bring about the energies of peace, calm, brotherhood, understanding, and compassion. Without that, our planet doesn't stand a chance.
Nhat HanhRead
Similar quotes
Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.
John WesleyRead
To show great love for God and our neighbor we need not do great things. It is how much love we put in the doing that makes our offering something beautiful for God.
Mother TeresaRead
Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
And writers say, as the most forward bud_x000D_ _x000D_ Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,_x000D_ _x000D_ Even so by love the young and tender wit_x000D_ _x000D_ Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud,_x000D_ _x000D_ Losing his verdure even in the prime,_x000D_ _x000D_ And all the fair effects of future hopes.
William ShakespeareRead
Once my heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?
George SandRead
You don't have to be born beautiful to be wildly attractive.
Diana VreelandRead