Gautama Buddha, known as the Buddha, was a sage believed to have lived mostly in northeastern India between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, he founded Buddhism.
The enlightened being who is known as the founder of Buddhism has been a guiding light for spiritual seekers for over 2500 years. The times of Gautama’s birth and death are uncertain. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandharan Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Hadda near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. Below are some of the Buddha’s most profound quotes:
1) The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
2) All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If the mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?
3) It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.
4) Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
5) Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, death comes.
6) The mind is everything. What you think you become.
7) In the end, these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?
8) You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
9) Give, even if you only have a little.
10) It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.
11) However many holy words you read, however, many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
12) Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
13) Should you find a wise critic to point out your faults, follow him as you would a guide to hidden treasure.
14) There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind.
15) There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.
16) No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
17) Should a seeker not find a companion who is better or equal, let them resolutely pursue a solitary course.
18) Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.
19) All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, suffering follows him as the wheel follows the hoof of the beast that draws the wagon…. If a man speaks or acts with a good thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.
20) Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
21) We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
22) However many holy words you read, however, many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
23) Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.
25) Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
26) Meditate … do not delay, lest you later regret it.
27) One is not called noble who harms living beings. By not harming living beings one is called noble.
28) There is no fear for one whose mind is not filled with desires.
29) A disciplined mind brings happiness.
30) The one in whom no longer exist the craving and thirst that perpetuate becoming; how could you track that Awakened one, trackless, and of limitless range.
31) To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.
32) You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.
33) The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
34) No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
35) The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.
36) You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
37) If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.
38) There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.
39) Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
40) A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless.
41) You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
42) You only lose what you cling to.
43) Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
44) Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun, and the Truth.
45) No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
46) Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
47) 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.
48) Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
49) Doubt everything. Find your own light.
50) Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
51) Purity and impurity depend on oneself; no one can purify another.
52) They blame those who remain silent, they blame those speak much, they blame those who speak in moderation. There is none in the world who is not blamed.
53) Conquer anger with non-anger. Conquer badness with goodness. Conquer meanness with generosity. Conquer dishonesty with the truth.
54) Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever’s not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet.
55) A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.
56) People with opinions just go around bothering one another.
57) Remembering a wrong is like carrying a burden on the mind.
58) There isn’t enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle.
59) Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.
60) If you are facing in the right direction, all you need to do is keep on walking.
