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Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha Quotes

Founding Figure

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama or the Buddha, was a spiritual leader and the founder of Buddhism. Born in the 6th century BC in the region of Lumbini, Nepal, he renounced his princely life to seek enlightenment. His teachings, emphasizing the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, have profoundly influenced the lives of millions around the world.

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Famous Gautama Buddha Quotes

“However young, the seeker who sets out upon the way Shines bright over the world. But day and night the person who is awake Shines in the radiance of the spirit. Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work, with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine!”

World Way Persons Young Spirit Night Behinds Quiet Moon Shining Clouds Awake Mastery Seekers Day And Night Radiance Shine Bright

Author:Gautama Buddha

“One who does not rouse themself when it is time to rise, who, though capable, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle person will never find their way to true knowledge.”

Way Persons Doe Capable Weak Buddhist Lazy Idle Sloth True Knowledge

Author: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.”

Way Shows Effort Buddhist Thoughtful Bondage Defilement

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

Way Treats Golden Rule Hurtful

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Life is easy For the man who is without shame, Impudent as a crow, A vicious gossip, Vain, meddlesome, dissolute. But life is hard For the man who quietly undertakes The way of perfection, With purity, detachment and vigor. He sees light.”

Men Way Hard Light Life Is Easy He Man Perfection Shame Vain Purity Gossip Vicious Detachment Crow Vigor Life Is Hard Life Is Easy Meddlesome

Author:Gautama Buddha

“"Existence is sorrow." Understand, and go beyond sorrow. This is the way of brightness.”

Way Existence Sorrow Brightness

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. The elephant hauls himself from the mud. In the same way drag yourself out of your sloth.”

Way Witness Awake Drag Elephants Mud Sloth Haul

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Follow the truth of the way. Reflect upon it. Make it your own. Live it. It will always sustain you.”

Author:Gautama Buddha

“"All is passing". When one realises this, he sits loose to this world of sorrow : This is the way of purity.”

World Way This World Sorrow Passing Passings Purity Realising

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Do not close your eyes before suffering. Find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means, Including personal contact and visits, images, sound. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.”

World Way Mean Reality Eye Suffering Sound Including Contact

Author:Gautama Buddha

“At the end of the way is freedom. Until then, patience.”

Author:Gautama Buddha

“But if you do not find an intelligent companion, a wise and well-behaved person going the same way as yourself, then go on your way alone, like a king abandoning a conquered kingdom, or like a great elephant in the deep forest.”

Ifs Way Wells Persons Wise Goes On Kings Intelligent Kingdoms Forests Companion Elephants

Author:Gautama Buddha

“In exactly the same way, ... scatter your body, your feeling, your perception, your predispositions, your discriminative consciousness, break them up, knock them down, cease to play with them, apply yourself to the destruction of craving for them. Verily, ... the extinction of craving is Nirvana.”

Way Play Feelings Body Consciousness Break Perception Destruction Your Body Cease Craving Extinction

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Which do you think is more my friend, the water in the four great oceans or the tears that you have shed on this long way of taking birth again and again?”

Thinking Way Long Water Four Tears Birth Ocean My Friends Shed Again And Again Long Way

Author:Gautama Buddha

“A man should first direct himself in the way he should go. Only then should he instruct others.”

Men Way Should Firsts Teach Teacher Teaching Direct Buddhist Teaching And Learning Teachers And Teaching Teaching Learning Teaching Others Teachers From Kids

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Live in Joy, In love, Even among those who hate. Live in joy, In health, Even among the afflicted. Live in joy, In peace, Even among the troubled. Look within. Be still. Free from fear and attachment, Know the sweet joy of living in the way.”

Knows Way Looks Stills Joy Hate Sweet Buddhist Attachment Joy Of Living

Author:Gautama Buddha

“There is no fire like greed, No crime like hatred, No sorrow like separation, No sickness like hunger of heart, And no joy like the joy of freedom. Health, contentment and trust Are your greatest possessions, And freedom your greatest joy. Look within. Be still. Free from fear and attachment, Know the sweet joy of living in the way.”

Knows Way Looks Heart Stills Joy Fire Crime Sweet Sorrow Hatred Greed Hunger Possession Separation Buddhist Sickness Contentment Attachment Joy Of Living

Author:Gautama Buddha

“We will develop love, we will practice it, we will make it both a way and a basis.”

Way Practice Bases Buddhist

Author:Gautama Buddha

“If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.”

Ifs Knows Way Giving Community Inspiring Buddhist Meals Public Service Siddhartha Community Service

Author:Gautama Buddha

“You yourself must strive. The Buddhas only point the way.”

Way Strive Buddhist

Author:Gautama Buddha

“In four ways ... should one who flatters be understood as a foe in the guise of a friend: He approves of his friend's evil deeds, he disapproves his friend's good deeds, he praises him in his presence, he speaks ill of him in his absence.”

Way Should Evil Speak Four Understood Praise Ill Deeds Absence Buddhist Good Deeds Foe Guise

Author:Gautama Buddha

“To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.”

“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”

“It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.”

“Without approval and without scorn, but carefully studying the sentences word by word, one should trace them in the Discourses and verify them by the Discipline. If they are neither traceable in the Discourses nor verifiable by the Discipline, one must conclude thus: 'Certainly, this is not the Blessed One's utterance; this has been misunderstood by that bhikkhu - or by that community, or by those elders, or by that elder.' In that way, bhikkhus, you should reject it.”

Ifs Way Should Has Beens Community Study Discipline Blessed Sentences Buddhist Rejects Approval Discourse Misunderstood Elders Scorn Utterance Verify

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Don't give way to heedlessness or to intimacy with sensual delight - for a heedful person, absorbed in jhana, attains an abundance of ease.”

Way Giving Persons Delight Buddhist Sensual Intimacy Ease Abundance

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Do not pursue the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. The past no longer is. The future has not yet come. Looking deeply at life as it is. In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom. We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death comes unexpectedly. How can we bargain with it? The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day, 'one who knows the better way to live alone.'”

“Master your words. Master your thoughts. Never allow your body to do harm. Follow these three roads with purity And you will find yourself upon the one way, The way of wisdom.”

Way Body Three Inspiring Wise Masters Harm Your Body Buddhist One Way Purity Finding Yourself Dhammapada Real Buddhist

Author:Gautama Buddha

“You are far from the end of your journey. The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. See how you love.”

Way Heart Ends Journey Sky Buddhist

Author:Gautama Buddha

“The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings.”

“One may desire a spurious respect and precedence among one's fellow monks, and the veneration of outsiders. "Both monks and laity should think it was my doing. They should accept my authority in all matters great or small." This is a fool's way of thinking. His self-seeking and conceit just increase.”

Thinking Way Should May Self Matter Desire Accepting Humility Pride Fool Authority Increase Fellows Seeking Buddhist Outsiders Monk Way Of Thinking Conceit Precedence Veneration

Author:Gautama Buddha

“One way leads to acquisition, the other leads to nirvana. Realising this a monk should take no pleasure in the respect of others, but should devote himself to solitude.”

Way Should Realizing Pleasure Humility Pride Solitude One Way Acquisition

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Love yourself and be awake- Today, tomorrow, always. First establish yourself in the way, Then teach others, And so defeat sorrow. To straighten the crooked You must first do a harder thing- Straighten yourself. You are your only master. Who else? Subdue yourself, And discover your master.”

Way Firsts Today Teach Love You Masters Tomorrow Sorrow Harder Defeat Self Worth Buddhist Awake Over You Love Yourself Crooked

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Do not speak harshly to any one; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful: blows for blows will touch thee.”

Way Pain Speak Answers Speech Angry Blow Painful Buddhist Thee

Book:The Dhammapada

Source: The Dhammapada

“Do not give up your authority and follow blindly the will of others. This way will lead to only delusion.”

Way Giving Giving Up Authority Buddhist Delusion Not Giving Up Do Not Give Up

Author:Gautama Buddha

“It is in this way that I went forth to teach.”

Way Teach Buddhist

Author:Gautama Buddha

“You must take action yourself, for Buddhas only teach the way.”

Way Action Teach Buddhist

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Live contemplating the body through mindfulness. Live contemplating feelings. In this way you will be aware of and control wrong desires.”

Way Feelings Body Desire Mindfulness Buddhist Contemplating

Author:Gautama Buddha

“There is a way to be purified, to overcome sorrows and grief, to release suffering, to secure the right path to realize nirvana. This is to be mindful.”

Way Suffering Realizing Grief Path Sorrow Overcoming Secure Release Buddhist Right Path

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Come, live with the doors of the senses guarded, diligent and mindful, vigilant and mindful, with the ways of the mind well watched, possessed of a mind that is awake and observing.”

Way Mind Wells Doors Senses Buddhist Awake Possessed Observing Guarded Diligent Vigilant

Author:Gautama Buddha

“In the same way that rain breaks into a house with a bad roof, desire breaks into the mind that has not been practising meditation.”

Way Mind Desire House Break Meditation Rain Buddhist Roof

Author:Gautama Buddha

“'I've got children', 'I've got wealth.' This is the way a fool brings suffering on himself. He does not even own himself, so how can he have children or wealth?”

Way Children Doe Suffering Wealth Fool Buddhist

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Journey over, sorrowless, freed in every way, and with all bonds broken - for such a man there is no more distress.”

Men Way Journey Broken Buddhist Distress

Author:Gautama Buddha

“He whose inflowing thoughts are dried up, who is unattached to food, whose dwelling place is an empty and imageless release - the way of such a person is hard to follow, like the path of birds through the sky.”

Way Persons Hard Path Sky Bird Empty Release Buddhist Dwelling Dwelling Place

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Neither my life of luxury in the palace -nor- my life as ascetic in the forest were ways to enlightenment.”

Way Enlightenment Forests Luxury Buddhist Palaces

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Ye must leave righteous ways behind, not to speak of unrighteous ways.”

Way Speak Behinds Buddhist Righteous

Author:Gautama Buddha

“I manifested in a dreamlike way to dreamlike beings and gave a dreamlike Dharma, but in reality I never taught and never actually came.”

Way Reality Taught Buddhist Dharma

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Do not let pleasure distract you from meditation, from the way. Free yourself from pleasure and pain.”

Way Pain Pleasure Meditation Pain And Pleasure Free Yourself

Author:Gautama Buddha

“The Buddhas do but tell the way; it is for you to swelter at the task.”

Way Effort Meditation Tasks

Author:Gautama Buddha

“You have to do your own work; Enlightened Ones will only show the way. Those who practise meditation will free themselves from the chains of death”

Way Shows Inspiration Meditation Chains Enlightened Practise

Author:Gautama Buddha

About the Author

Born: 567 BC
Died: 484 BC
Known for: Founding Figure
Quotes: 1183

Related Topics

Buddhist Mind Ifs Men Buddhism Wise Way World Suffering Meditation Doe Wise Buddhist Knows Should Heart Giving Evil Real Buddhist Siddhartha Inspirational Buddhist

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The DhammapadaRelated source material

Zen DogsRelated source material

Zen KittensRelated source material

Zen Puppies: Meditations for the Wise Minds of Puppy LoversRelated source material

The Lotus SutraRelated source material

DhammapadaRelated source material

Sayings of BuddhaRelated source material

The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima NikayaRelated source material

The splendour of enlightenment (sambodhipabhāsakathā: a life of the BuddhaRelated source material

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