Siddhartha Gautama Quotes

For you know that soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rock, love stronger than force. Vesadeva to Siddartha ~ Hermann Hesse

Whereas Buddhists believe that the law of nature was discovered by Siddhartha Gautama, Communists believed that the law of nature was discovered by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The similarity does not end there. Like other religions, Communism too has its holy scripts and prophetic books, such as Marx's Das Kapital, which foretold that history would soon end with the inevitable victory of the proletariat. ~ Yuval Noah Harari

Meat-eating is condemned by the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Sravakas; if one devours meat out of shamelessness he will always be devoid of sense. ~ Gautama Buddha

It is the impulse of science to try to understand nature, and the impulse of technology to try to manipulate it. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee

Observe the life by cause and consequence. Explore the life by wisdom. Treat the life by equality. Complete the life by love. ~ Gautama Buddha

A positive attitude does not cure cancer, any more than a negative one causes it. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee

The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment ~ Gautama Buddha

There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being. ~ Gautama Buddha

There is no satisfying the senses, not even with a shower of money. "The senses are of slight pleasure and really suffering." When a wise man has realised this, he takes no pleasure, as a disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures of heaven. Instead he takes pleasure in the elimination of craving. ~ Gautama Buddha

Cancer is not a concentration camp, but it shares the quality of annihilation: it negates the possibility of life outside and beyond itself; it subsumes all living. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee

And more importantly - what we have chosen to do ~ Gautama Buddha

A brahmin once asked The Blessed One: "Are you a God?" "No, brahmin" said The Blessed One. "Are you a saint?" "No, brahmin" said The Blessed One. "Are you a magician?" "No, brahmin" said The Blessed One. "What are you then?" "I am awake." ~ Gautama Buddha

Happiness follows sorrow, sorrow follows happiness, but when one no longer discriminates happiness and sorrow, a good deal and a bad deed, one is able to realize freedom. ~ Gautama Buddha

In 2004, a rash of early scientific reports suggested that cell phones, which produce radio frequency energy, might cause a fatal form of brain cancer called a glioma. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee

The God of Worms had evidently left tiny loopholes of chance in the worm's design, but He still wouldn't throw dice. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee

In the art of love," she said thoughtfully, "you are the best I've ever seen. You are stronger than others, more agile, more willing. Well have you learned my art, Siddhartha. Some day, when I am older, I wish to bear your child. And yet all this time, beloved, you have remained a Samana. Even now you do not love me; you love no one. Is it not so?" "It may be so," Siddhartha said wearily. "I am like you. You, too, do not love - how else could you practice love as an art? Perhaps people of our sort are incapable of love. The child people can love; that is their secret. ~ Hermann Hesse

Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear. ~ Gautama Buddha

When your mind is set in meditative equipoise, you can see reality exactly as it is ~ Gautama Buddha

Suggestions for further reading Karen Armstrong, Jerusalem; Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones; Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha; Deepak Chopra, God: A Story of Revelation; Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet; Lawrence Kushner, Kabbalah: A Love Story; C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity; Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith; Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now ~ Paulo Coelho

The Truth is not Arbitrary or a Matter of Opinion, but can be Investigated, and Those who Earnestly Search for the Truth will Find It. The Truth is Hidden to the Blind, but he who has the Mental Eye Sees the Truth. ~ Gautama Buddha

Seeing the Way is like going into a dark room with a torch; the darkness instantly departs, while the light alone remains. When the Way is attained and the truth is seen, ignorance vanishes and enlightenment abides forever. ~ Gautama Buddha

Nirvana is this moment seen directly. There is no where else than here. The only gate is now. The only doorway is your own body and mind. There's nowhere to go. There's nothing else to be. There's no destination. It's not something to aim for in the afterlife. It's simply the quality of this moment. ~ Gautama Buddha

Pain is the outcome of sin. ~ Gautama Buddha

Never in the world does hatred cease by hatred; hatred ceases by love. ~ Gautama Buddha

How deaf and stupid have I been!" he thought, walking swiftly along.
"When someone reads a text, wants to discover its meaning, he will not
scorn the symbols and letters and call them deceptions, coincidence, and
worthless hull, but he will read them, he will study and love them, letter
by letter. But I, who wanted to read the book of the world and the book
of my own being, I have, for the sake of a meaning I had anticipated be-fore I read, scorned the symbols and letters, I called the visible world a
deception, called my eyes and my tongue coincidental and worthless
forms without substance. No, this is over, I have awakened, I have in-deed awakened and have not been born before this very day. ~ Hermann Hesse

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted! ~ Gautama Buddha

Unkind people spread malicious tales, and well-intentioned people also censure; but in either case the tranquil sage remains unconcerned. Nowhere is there to be found a disconcerted sage. ~ Gautama Buddha

Rage is a powerful energy that with diligent practice can be transformed into fierce compassion. However much we disagree with our enemies, our task is to identify with them. They too feel justified in their point of view. ~ Gautama Buddha

You yourself must make an effort. Buddhas are only show the way. The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of defilements. ~ Gautama Buddha

The worlds originate so that truth may come and dwell therein. ~ Gautama Buddha

Men who are addicted to the passions are like the torch-carrier running against the wind; his hands are sure to be burned. ~ Gautama Buddha

Solitude is happiness for one who is content, who has heard the Dhamma and clearly sees. Non-affliction is happiness in the world - harmlessness towards all living beings. ~ Gautama Buddha

The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, for one great cause alone appear in the world. The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the world because they wish to cause the beings to hear of the Buddha's knowledge and insight and thus enable them to gain purity. They appear in the world because they wish to demonstrate the Buddha's knowledge and insight to the beings. They appear in the world because they wish to cause the beings to understand. They appear in the world because they wish to cause the beings to enter into the path of the Buddha's knowledge and insight. ~ Gautama Buddha

Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy. ~ Gautama Buddha

The one who has conquered himself is a far greater hero than he who has defeated a thousand times a thousand men. ~ Gautama Buddha

Live every act fully, as if it were your last. ~ Gautama Buddha

You can not travel the path until you have become the path itself ~ Gautama Buddha

The good shine from afar Like the snowy Himalayas. The bad don't appear Even when near, Like arrows shot into the night. ~ Gautama Buddha

You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy. ~ Gautama Buddha

To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family. ~ Gautama Buddha

If you do not follow the right path, you will be lost. ~ Gautama Buddha

The darkest night is ignorance. ~ Gautama Buddha

The biological universe was full of molecules picking out their partners like clever locks designed to fit a key: toxins clinging inseparably to antitoxins, dyes that highlighted only particular parts of cells, chemical stains that could nimbly pick out one class of germs from a mixture of microbes. If biology was an elaborate mix-and-match game of chemicals, Ehrlich reasoned, what if some chemical could discriminate bacterial cells from animal cells--and kill the former without touching the host? ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee

It is impossible for a man who is bogged to extricate another who is bogged. ~ Gautama Buddha

It's your road ... and yours alone ... Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. No matter what path you choose, really walk it. ~ Gautama Buddha

Therefore, be islands unto yourselves. Be your own refuge. Have recourse to none else for refuge. Hold fast to the Dharma as a refuge. Resort to no other refuge. Whosoever, either now or after I am gone, shall be islands unto themselves, shall seek no eternal refuge, it is they, among my disciples who shall reach the very topmost height! But they must be keen to progress. ~ Gautama Buddha

The seeker is that which is being sought. ~ Gautama Buddha