Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.

I became the Dalai Lama not on a voluntary basis.

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

It is about one's wisdom that came with the years of hardship.

If you are being trolled, you are sticking out your neck for some good cause.

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; The way you play it is free will.

I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.

The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British culture, British institutions, are automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing as African culture.

I never called my work an 'art'. It's part of show business, the business of building entertainment.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.