I think the perception of peace is what distracts most people from really having it.

There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

If you die you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I’ve got.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by war.

My constant prayer, my number one foreign goal, is to bring peace to Israel. And in the process to Israel’s neighbours.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

When I left Dortmund, I said it’s not important what people think when you come in but what they think when you leave.

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

Sometimes I try to just sit at home and do something calmer and simpler and just be in my life. You know, not trying to solve a lot of things at once.

I am a simple Buddhist monk – no more, no less.

Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.

Well, I think everybody is frustrated by the finances of the U.N. and the inability to solve problems of war and peace.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

I mean, if you didn’t get it or if you didn’t feel like you enjoyed it, sometimes that experience can change.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

I have all the emotions that everyone has; it just appears that I don’t.

Silence is a source of great strength.

We think too much and feel too little.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future. I live in the present.

If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest – but suffer from a constant strain.

Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion – towards ourselves and towards all living beings.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

Anger is like a storm rising up from the bottom of your consciousness. When you feel it coming, turn your focus to your breath.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.

When you take your attention into the present moment, a certain alertness arises. You become more conscious of what’s around you, but also, strangely, a sense of presence that is both within and without.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

When I was 18, I thought that, to be a romantic, you couldn’t live past 30.

In today’s world, having money has allowed people who are extremely uncool to think that they’re cool and carry it like that. People who really are cool and people who really are artists and have ideas have to literally turn in their cool card to society just to make it past the age of 28.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.

When you read, I’m sure you don’t realize that your eyes are going backwards and forwards and to this place and that place. Mine don’t do that.

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

I’m very type-A, and many things in my life are about control and domination, but eating should be a submissive experience, where you let down your guard and enjoy the ride.

In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow.

In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

A warrior is not a person that carries a gun. The biggest war you ever go through is right between your own ears. It’s in your mind. We’re all going through a war in our mind, and we have to callus our mind to fight that war and to win that war.

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.

In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind.

For me, the world that I inhabit in reality is probably a very different world than the one people expect that I would be in.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.