

The Great Fourteenth Dalai Lama — Quotes from His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”
“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”
“The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.”
“The purpose of all major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.”
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
“Inner peace is the key: if you have inner peace, the external problems do not affect your deep sense of peace and tranquility.”
“Love is the absence of judgement.”
“When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.”
“The question is not to know the meaning of life, but what meaning I can give to my life.”
“The more we take the welfare of others to heart and work for their benefit, the more benefit we derive for ourselves. This is a fact that we can see.”
“ Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
“If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it.”
“In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.”
“We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.”
“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday, and the other is called Tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly Live.”
“Open your arms to change but don’t let go of your values.”
“Because we all share this planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity.”
“Every day, think as you wake up: Today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.”
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.”
“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.”
“Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.”
“The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness.”
“Love and compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion.”
“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.”
“Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.”
“There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’ No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.”
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”
“We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate. Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.”
“We need to learn how to want what we have, not to have what we want in order to get steady and stable happiness.”
We create most of our suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations and to our relationships with other people. When it comes to personal happiness there is a lot that we as individuals can do.”
“the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous.”
“Wherever you have friends that’s your country, and wherever you receive love, that’s your home.”
“Marriages, even the best ones—perhaps especially the best ones—are an ongoing process of spoken and unspoken forgiveness.”
