“Without suffering, you have no way to learn how to be understanding and compassionate.”

The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.

In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.

If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love.

The desire to be a free person is very worthwhile. To be free means you are no longer the victim of fear, anger, craving, or suspicion.

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.

Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and nurtured by love, is the most effective way to confront adversity.

If you think that peace and happiness are somewhere else and you run after them, you will never arrive.

A true partner or friend is one who encourages you to look deep inside yourself for the beauty and love you’ve been seeking.

We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.

Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive – that you can touch the miracle of being alive – then that is a kind of enlightenment.

We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.

As long as you find something beautiful, good, and true to believe in and abide by, you have the equivalent of God in your life.

You cannot transmit wisdom and insight to another person. The seed is already there. A good teacher touches the seed, allowing it to wake up, to sprout, and to grow.

Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.

Real love means loving kindness and compassion, the kind of love that does not have any conditions.

When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?

Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.

The underlying issues, the psychological motives, in all my movies have been the same, he said. Personal responsibility and friendship, the importance of a compassionate life as opposed to a passionate life.

An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend.

Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another.

All human beings are limbs of the same body. God created them from the same essence. If one part of the body suffers pain, then the whole body is affected. If you are indifferent to this pain, you cannot be called a human being.

Now is the time to understand That all your ideas of right and wrong Were just a child’s training wheels to be laid aside When you finally live With veracity And love.

The most important thing on Earth is for all of us to make this sentence true: Compassion is what people do.

It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked.