If you’re looking for inspirational Buddhist Quotes to help you overcome depression, look no further! I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of quotes from Buddhism to help with depression. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Buddhist Quote #1
Buddha
“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
Buddhist Quote #2
Buddha
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
Buddhist Quote #3
Chogyam Trungpa
“When you relate to thoughts obsessively, you are actually feeding them because thoughts need your attention to survive. Once you begin to pay attention to them and categorise them, then they become very powerful. You are feeding them energy because you are not seeing them as simple phenomena. If one tries to quiet them down, that is another way of feeding them.”
Buddhist Quote #4
Pema Chodron
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. Even if we run a hundred miles an hour to the other side of the continent, we find the very same problem awaiting us when we arrive.”
Buddhist Quote #5
Dalai Lama
“If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry.”
Buddhist Quote #6
Buddha
“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you.”
Buddhist Quote #7
Dalai Lama
“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. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
Buddhist Quote #8
Buddha
“However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?”
Buddhist Quote #9
Dalai Lama
“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.”
Buddhist Quote #10
Dalai Lama
“True change is within; leave the outside as it is.”
Buddhist Quote #11
Buddha
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Buddhist Quote #12
Dalai Lama
“Real change in the world will only come from a change of heart.”
Buddhist Quote #13
Dalai Lama
“Do not let the behaviour of others destroy your inner peace.”
Buddhist Quote #14
Buddha
“All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?”
Buddhist Quote #15
Dalai Lama
“As you breathe in, cherish yourself. As you breathe out, cherish all beings.”
Buddhist Quote #16
Dalai Lama
“A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.”
Buddhist Quote #17
Dalai Lama
“I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success in life.”
Buddhist Quote #18
Buddha
“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts. Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride.”
Buddhist Quote #19
Dalai Lama
“The remedy is to look deeper and recognise that we human beings are physically, mentally and emotionally the same.”
Buddhist Quote #20
Dalai Lama
“As individuals we can influence our own families. Our families can influence our communities and our communities can influence our nations.”
Buddhist Quote #21
Buddha
“If you find no one to support you on the spiritual path, walk alone. There is no companionship with the immature.”
Buddhist Quote #22
Dalai Lama
“It is not enough to be compassionate, we must act.”
Buddhist Quote #23
Dalai Lama
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
Buddhist Quote #24
Dalai Lama
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
Buddhist Quote #25
Dalai Lama
“The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.”
Buddhist Quote #26
Dalai Lama
“If a problem can be solved it will be. If it can not be solved there is no use worrying about it.”
Buddhist Quote #27
Dalai Lama
“Open your arms to change but don’t let go of your values.”
Buddhist Quote #28
Dalai Lama
“We need to learn to want what we have, not to have what we want, in order to get stable and steady happiness.”
Buddhist Quote #29
Dalai Lama
“It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.”
Buddhist Quote #30
Dalai Lama
“People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
Buddhist Quote #31
Dalai Lama
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
Buddhist Quote #32
Pema Chodron
“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”
Buddhist Quote #33
Dalai Lama
“It is very rare or almost impossible that an event can be negative from all points of view.”
Buddhist Quote #34
Dalai Lama
“Remember, that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”
Buddhist Quote #35
Dalai Lama
“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
Buddhist Quote #36
Buddha
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”
Buddhist Quote #37
Buddha
“To understand everything is to forgive everything.”
Buddhist Quote #38
Buddha
“No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.”
Buddhist Quote #39
Buddha
“Do not learn how to react learn how to respond.”
Buddhist Quote #40
Buddha
“The gift of truth excels all other gifts.”
Buddhist Quote #41
Buddha
“Don’t rush anything. When the time is right, it’ll happen.”
Buddhist Quote #42
Buddha
“Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.”
Buddhist Quote #43
Buddha
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
Buddhist Quote #44
Chogyam Trungpa
“We must be willing to be completely ordinary people, which means accepting ourselves as we are without trying to become greater, purer, more spiritual, more insightful. If we can accept our imperfections as they are, quite ordinarily, then we can use them as part of the path. But if we try to get rid of our imperfections, then they will be enemies, obstacles on the road to our ‘self-improvement’.”
Buddhist Quote #45
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“Day by day, be content with whatever you have and satisfied with whatever happens. Everything else will then fall naturally into place.”
Buddhist Quote #46
Chogyam Trungpa
“To be a spiritual warrior, one must have a broken heart; without a broken heart and the sense of tenderness and vulnerability, your warrior-ship is untrustworthy.”
Buddhist Quote #47
Sakyong Mipham
“We suffer because we want life to be different from what it is. We suffer because we try to make pleasurable what is painful, to make solid what is fluid, to make permanent what is always changing.”
Buddhist Quote #48
Chogyam Trungpa
“We are always in transition. If you can just relax with that, you’ll have no problem.”
Buddhist Quote #49
Sakyong Mipham
“Whatever we do lays a seed in our deepest consciousness, and one day that seed will grow.”
Buddhist Quote #50
Chogyam Trungpa
“Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself.”
Buddhist Quote #51
Pema Chodron
“Loving kindness towards ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. It means we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.”
Buddhist Quote #52
Chogyam Trungpa
“In the garden of gentle sanity, may you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.”
Buddhist Quote #53
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“It is our mind, and that alone, that chains us or sets us free.”
Buddhist Quote #54
Chogyam Trungpa
“We cannot change the way the world is, but by opening ourselves to the world as it is, we may find that gentleness, decency and bravery are available – not only to us, but to all human beings.”
Buddhist Quote #55
Chogyam Trungpa
“Meditation practice is a way of making friends with ourselves. Whether we are worthy or unworthy, that’s not the point. It’s developing a friendly attitude to ourselves, accepting the hidden neurosis coming through.”
Buddhist Quote #56
Chogyam Trungpa
“Mindfulness does not mean pushing oneself toward something or hanging on to something. It means allowing oneself to be there in the very moment of what is happening in the living process – and then letting go.”
Buddhist Quote #57
Chogyam Trungpa
“It’s possible to be completely enlightened… except with your family.” 😉
Buddhist Quote #58
Chogyam Trungpa
“The experience of a sad and tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness. Conventionally, being fearless means that you are not afraid or that, if someone hits you, you will hit him back. But we aren’t talking about that street-fighter level of fearlessness. Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world.”
Buddhist Quote #59
Sakyong Mipham
“This is bravery: using the challenge of daily life to sharpen our mind and open our heart.”
Buddhist Quote #60
Chogyam Trungpa
“Good and bad, happy and sad, all thoughts vanish into emptiness like the imprint of a bird in the sky.”
Buddhist Quote #61
Sakyong Mipham
“Sometimes people feel disappointed when they hear about practicing compassion: “You mean I have to be nice?” It’s kind of a letdown. We often overlook compassion, seeing it as merely a pit stop on the way to more advanced practices. We want something more; we don’t even know what. But that’s just a trick of our mind. One of the greatest teachings is to practice compassion.”
Buddhist Quote #62
Chogyam Trungpa
“A great deal of the chaos in the world occurs because people don’t appreciate themselves.”
Buddhist Quote #63
Pema Chodron
“Difficult things provoke all your irritations and bring your habitual patterns to the surface. And that becomes the moment of truth. You have the choice to launch into your lousy habitual patterns, or to stay with the rawness and discomfort of the situation and let it transform you.”
Buddhist Quote #64
Chogyam Trungpa
“The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations and blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralises into oneself.”
Buddhist Quote #65
Chogyam Trungpa
“We are threatened by the now so we jump to the past or the future.”
Buddhist Quote #66
Sakyong Mipham
“If you want to be miserable, think of yourself. If you want to be happy, think of others.”
Buddhist Quote #67
Pema Chodron
“The best spiritual instruction is when you wake up in the morning and say, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen today.’ And then carry that kind of curiosity through your life.”
Buddhist Quote #68
Chogyam Trungpa
“We say that the sun is behind the clouds, but actually it is not the sun but the city from which we view it that is behind the clouds. If we realised that the sun is never behind the clouds we might have a different attitude toward the whole thing.”
Buddhist Quote #69
Pema Chodron
“Be kinder to yourself. And then let your kindness flood the world.”
Buddhist Quote #70
Sakyong Mipham
“There are no boundaries, only possibilities.”
Buddhist Quote #71
Pema Chodron
“The next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction: change the way you see it and lean in. Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves. This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering—yours, mine, and that of all living beings.”
Buddhist Quote #72
Sakyong Mipham
“The most outrageous thing we can do in this world is to accept what happens and fly with it.”
Buddhist Quote #73
Pema Chodron
“It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens.”
Buddhist Quote #74
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“When a rainbow appears vividly in the sky, you can see its beautiful colours, yet you could not wear as clothing or put it on as an ornament. It arises through the conjunction of various factors, but there is nothing about it that can be grasped. Likewise, thoughts that arise in the mind have no tangible existence or intrinsic solidity. There is no logical reason why thoughts, which have no substance, should have so much power over you, nor is there any reason why you should become their slave.”
Buddhist Quote #75
Pema Chodron
“Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.”
Buddhist Quote #76
Pema Chodron
“Feel the feelings and drop the story.”
Buddhist Quote #77
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“Obstacles can arise from good as well as bad circumstances, but they should never deter or overpower you. Be like the earth, which supports all living creatures indiscriminately, without distinguishing good from bad. The earth is simply there. Your practice should be strengthened by the difficult situations you encounter, just as a bonfire in a strong wind is not blown out, but blazes even brighter.”
Buddhist Quote #78
Pema Chodron
“Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected. We simply have to uncover it.”
Buddhist Quote #79
Buddha
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”
Buddhist Quote #80
Pema Chodron
“The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.”
Buddhist Quote #81
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
“Each step may seem to take forever, but no matter how uninspired you feel, continue to follow your practice schedule precisely and consistently. This is how we can use our greatest enemy, habit, against itself.”
Buddhist Quote #82
Pema Chodron
“All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.”
Buddhist Quote #83
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“To meet someone who really hurts you is to meet a rare and precious treasure. Hold that person in high esteem, and make full use of the opportunity to eradicate your defects and make progress on the path. If you cannot yet feel love and compassion for those who treat you badly, it is a sign that your mind has not been fully transformed and that you need to keep working on it with increased application.”
Buddhist Quote #84
Pema Chodron
“Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.”
Buddhist Quote #85
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“Once you overcome the hatred within your mind, you will discover that in the world outside, there is no longer any such thing as even a single enemy.”
Buddhist Quote #86
Pema Chodron
“We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.”
Buddhist Quote #87
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“To expect happiness without giving up negative action is like holding your hand in a fire and hoping not to be burned. Of course, no one actually wants to suffer, to be sick, to be cold or hungry – but as long as we continue to indulge in wrong doing we will never put an end to suffering. Likewise, we will never achieve happiness, except through positive deeds, words, and thoughts. Positive action is something we have to cultivate ourselves; it can be neither bought nor stolen, and no one ever stumbles on it just by chance.”
Buddhist Quote #88
Pema Chodron
“When we are willing to stay even a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it.”
Buddhist Quote #89
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“If we allow our thoughts to arise and dissolve by themselves, they will pass through our mind as a bird flies through the sky, without leaving a trace.”
Buddhist Quote #90
Pema Chodron
“Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way.”
Buddhist Quote #91
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“Unless the inner forces of negative emotions are conquered, strife with outer enemies will never end.”
Buddhist Quote #92
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
“If you’re determined to think of yourself as limited, fearful, vulnerable, or scarred by past experience, know only that you have chosen to do so. The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.”
Buddhist Quote #93
Milarepa
“When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.”
Buddhist Quote #94
Sheng-yen
“I follow four dictates: face it, accept it, deal with it, then let it go.”
Buddhist Quote #95
Buddha
“Concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Buddhist Quote #96
Dalai Lama
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.”
Buddhist Quote #97
Buddha
“One moment can change a day, One day can change a life and One life can change the world.”
Buddhist Quote #98
Nhat Hanh
“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”
Buddhist Quote #99
Dalai Lama
“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.”
Buddhist Quote #100
Buddha
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little.”
Buddhist Quote #101
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“Do not encumber your mind with useless thoughts. What good does it do to brood on the past or anticipate the future? Remain in the simplicity of the present moment.”
Buddhist Quote #102
Sogyal Rinpoche
“Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.”
Buddhist Quote #103
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
“Don’t let any emotional thought concerning success or failure, fame or gain, overtake you, and don’t dwell upon them. Give up your personal shortcomings, such as foolish talk, distracting activities, and absentmindedness. Train in being totally gentle in all physical, verbal, or mental activities. Don’t ponder the flaws of others; think instead of their good sides.”
Buddhist Quote #104
Thubten Yeshe
“When you check your own mind properly, you stop blaming others for your problems.”
Buddhist Quote #105
Thubten Yeshe
“It is a simple truth that if we identify ourselves as being fundamentally pure, strong, and capable we will actually develop these qualities, but if we continue to think of ourselves as dull and foolish, that is what we will become.”
Buddhist Quote #106
Matthieu Ricard
“Nothing goes right on the outside when nothing is going right on the inside.”
Buddhist Quote #107
Matthieu Ricard
“The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favourable.”
Buddhist Quote #108
Thubten Yeshe
“Be wise. Treat yourself, your mind, sympathetically, with loving kindness. If you are gentle with yourself, you will become gentle with others.”
I hope you enjoyed these quotes from Buddhism to help with depression!
Much love 💖
All the best,
Marie 😉
