I only escaped from Tibet because I feared my people would resort to desperate violence if the Chinese took me as their prisoner.

I am confident I will set foot again in Tibet in my lifetime.

We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate-right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.

Compassion should be unbiased and based on the recognition that others have the right to happiness, just like you.

To my mind, there are two things that, in life, you can do about death. Either you can choose to ignore it, in which case you may have some success in making the idea of it go away for a limited period of time, or you can confront the prospect of your own death and try to analyze it and, in so doing, try to minimize some of the inevitable suffering that it causes. Neither way can you actually overcome it.

Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that's important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences.

It is in everybody's interest to seek those [actions] that lead to happiness and avoid those which lead to suffering. And because our interests are inextricably linked, we are compelled to accept ethics as the indispensable interface between my desire to be happy and yours.