Dalai Lama Quotes About Peace

For 59 years Tibetans have placed their trust in Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, as their head of state and spiritual leader. In 1950, he was called upon to assume full political power after some 80,000 People's Liberation Army soldiers invaded Tibet. He soon created a resistance movement against China. In 1959, after a large uprising, he escaped to Dharamsala India (where he currently resides) and received political asylum. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

March 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's escape to India. To honor his life's work so far, we've chosen some of the most beautiful and wise Dalai Lama quotes on peace from our own virtual library to share with you.

Dalai Lama Quote #1...

A good motivation is what is needed: compassion without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their human rights and dignities. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human capacities.

The Dalai Lama

As free human beings we can use our unique intelligence to try to understand ourselves and our world. But if we are prevented from using our creative potential, we are deprived of one of the basic characteristics of a human being.

The Dalai Lama

Anger is the real destroyer of our good human qualities; an enemy with a weapon cannot destroy these qualities, but anger can. Anger is our real enemy.

The Dalai Lama

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.

The Dalai Lama

Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to provide people with food, shelter and clothing. Human nature needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.

The Dalai Lama

We have a saying in Tibet. "If you lose your temper and get angry, bite your knuckles." This means that if you lose your temper, do not show it to others. Rather, say to yourself, "Leave it."

The Dalai Lama

When we demand the rights and freedoms we so cherish, we should also be aware of our responsibilities. If we accept that the others have an equal right to peace and happiness as ourselves, do we not have a responsibility to help those in need?

Without love we could not survive. Human beings are social creatures, and a concern for each other is the very basis of our life together.

The Dalai Lama

Real peace [is] not just the absence of violence or of war... A mere absence of war is not genuine, lasting world peace. Peace must develop on mutual trust.

The Dalai Lama

The whole of humanity is…one human family. This planet is our only home.

The Dalai Lama

Non-violence means dialogue, using our language, the human language. Dialogue means compromise; respecting each other’s rights; in the spirit of reconciliation there is a real solution to conflict and disagreement. There is no hundred percent winner, no hundred percent loser; not that way but half-and-half. That is the practical way, the only way.

The Dalai Lama

My call for a spiritual revolution is thus not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow other-worldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather, it is a call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others’ interests alongside our own.

The Dalai Lama

I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend, that together we may succeed in building a better world through human understanding and love, and that in doing so we may reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings.

The Dalai Lama

We should not seek revenge on those who have committed crimes against us, or reply to their crimes with other crimes. We should reflect that by the law of karma, they are in danger of lowly and miserable lives to come, and that our duty to them, as to every being, is to help them to rise towards Nirvana, rather than let them sink to lower levels of rebirth.

The Dalai Lama

Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are members of one and the same family.

The Dalai Lama

It is extremely important to investigate the causes or origins of suffering. One must begin that process by appreciating the impermanent, transient nature of our existence. All things, events and phenomena are dynamic, changing every moment, nothing remains static. Meditating on one’s blood circulation could serve to reinforce this idea: the blood is constantly flowing, it never stands still...

The Dalai Lama

Wars arise from a failure to understand one another's humanness. Instead of summit meetings, why not have families meet for a picnic and get to know each other while the children play together?

The Dalai Lama

It is my belief that whereas the twentieth century has been a century of war and untold suffering, the twenty-first century should be one of peace and dialogue. As the continued advances in information technology make our world a truly global village, I believe there will come a time when war and armed conflict will be considered an outdated and obsolete method of settling differences among nations and communities.

The Dalai Lama

Happiness cannot come from hatred or anger. Nobody can say, "Today I am happy because this morning I was very angry." On the contrary, people feel uneasy and sad and say, "Today I am not happy because I lost my temper this morning." Through kindness, whether at our own level or at the national and international level, through mutual understanding and through mutual respect, we will get peace, we will get happiness, and we will get genuine satisfaction.

The Dalai Lama

Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country is spent
Developing the mind instead of the heart.
Be compassionate not just to your friends but to everyone
Be compassionate.
Work for peace in your heart and in the world.
Work for peace and I say again
Never give up.
No matter what is happening,
No matter what is going on around you,
Never give up.

The Dalai Lama