Matthieu Ricard > Quotes

“We try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are.”
― Matthieu Ricard

“Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“There is a possibility for change because all emotions are fleeting.”
― Matthieu Ricard

“One is not born wise; one becomes it.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“Few of us would regret the years it takes to complete an education or master a crucial skill. So why complain about the perseverance needed to become a well-balanaced and truly compassionate human being?”
― Matthieu Ricard

“According to the philosopher Andre Comte-Sponville: The wise man has nothing left to expect or to hope for. Because he is entirely happy, he needs nothing. Because he needs nothing, he is entirely happy.”
― Matthieu Ricard

“I have also come to understand that although some people are naturally happier than others, their happiness is still vulnerable and incomplete, and that achieving durable happiness as a way of being is a skill. It requires sustained effort in training the mind and developing a set of human qualities, such as inner peace, mindfulness, and altruistic love.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“We deal with our mind from morning till evening, and it can be our best friend or our worst enemy.”
― Matthieu Ricard

“I think what everyone should be doing, before it's too late, is committing themselves to what they really want to do with their lives.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet

“As long as a sense of self-importance rules your being, you will never know lasting peace.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Why Meditate?: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

“Being altruistic not only helps us to benefit others, but it is also the most satisfying way to live.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Why Meditate?: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

“Einstein said: “A human being is part of a whole, called by us the ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet

“our Earth is taking part in a fantastic cosmic ballet. First, it pulls us through space at a speed of nearly twenty miles per second during its annual journey around the Sun. The Sun then drags the Earth with it during its voyage through the Milky Way at a speed of 140 miles per second. The Milky Way is falling in turn at approximately fifty-five miles per second toward Andromeda. And there's more to come. The Local Group that contains our galaxy and Andromeda is falling at about 375 miles per second toward the Virgo cluster of galaxies, which is in turn moving toward a large complex of galaxies called the Great Attractor.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet

“We are very much like birds that have lived too long in a cage to which we return even when we get the chance to fly away. We have grown so accustomed to our faults that we can barely imagine what life would be like without them. The prospect of change makes us dizzy.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“Another form of laziness is thinking: ‘That’s not for me; it’s beyond my abilities. I’d rather not get involved with it.’ In other words, you give up the race before you reach the starting line.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Meditation

“Tibetan poet Shabkar said: “One with compassion is kind even when angry; one without compassion will kill even as he smiles.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“He understands that all beings have the power to free themselves from ignorance and unhappiness, but that they don’t know it. How”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“The most striking quality that humans and animals have in common is the capacity to experience suffering.”
― Matthieu Ricard, A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion

“Demanding immediate results is an aspect of unsteadiness of mind or laziness.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Meditation

“The ultimate reason for meditating is to transform ourselves in order to be better able to transform the world.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Why Meditate?: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

“The truth is that even if resentment is triggered by an external object, it is not located anywhere else but in our mind.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Why Meditate?: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

“The humble person has nothing to lose and nothing to gain. If she is praised, she feels that it is humility, and not herself, that is being praised. If she is criticized, she feels that bringing her faults to light is a great favor. “Few people are wise enough to prefer useful criticism to treacherous praise,” wrote La Rochefoucauld, echoing the Tibetan sages who are pleased to recall that “the best teaching is that which unmasks our hidden faults.” Free of hope and fear alike, the humble person remains lighthearted.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“Voluntary simplicity is at once joyous and altruistic. Joyous because it is not permanently plagued by the hunger for “more”; altruistic because it does not encourage the disproportionate concentration of resources in the hands of a few, resources which—were they to be spread evenly—would significantly improve the lives of those deprived of basic needs.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World

“Repeatedly comparing our situation with that of others is a kind of sickness of the mind that brings much unnecessary discontent and frustration. When we have a new source of enjoyment or a new car, we get excited and feel that we are at the top of our game. But we soon get used to it and our excitement subsides; when a new model comes out we become unhappy with the one we have and feel that we can only be satisfied if we get the new one, especially if other people around us have it. We are caught on the “hedonic treadmill” — a concept coined by P. Brinkman and D. T. Campbell.7 While jogging on a treadmill, we need to keep running simply to remain in the same spot. In this case, we need to keep running toward acquiring more things and new sources of excitement simply to maintain our current level of satisfaction.”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“Those who seek happiness in pleasure, wealth, glory, power, and heroics are as naive as the child who tries to catch a rainbow and wear it as a coat. DILGO KHYENTSE RINPOCHE”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“It is the only thing we can do. … Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others. And remember that every atom of hate added to this world makes it still more inhospitable. — ETTY HILLESUM29”
― Matthieu Ricard, Why Meditate?: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

“Happiness does not come automatically. It is not a gift that good fortune bestows upon us and a reversal of fortune takes back. It depends on us alone. One does not become happy overnight, but with patient labor, day after day. Happiness is constructed, and that requires effort and time. In order to become happy, we have to learn how to change ourselves. LUCA AND FRANCESCO CAVALLI-SFORZA”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

“Some people might think that the smartest way to guarantee their own well-being is to isolate themselves from others and to work hard at their own happiness, without consideration for what other people are experiencing. They probably assume that if everybody did that, we’d all be happy. But the result would be exactly the opposite: instead of being happy, they would be torn between hope and fear, make their own lives miserable, and ruin the lives of the people around them too.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Why Meditate?: Working with Thoughts and Emotions

“May every moment of my life and of the lives of others be one of wisdom, flourishing, and inner peace!”
― Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill