At the outset, I want to say that the suggestion that the struggle in South Africa is under the influence of foreigners or communists is wholly incorrect. I have done whatever I did because of my experience in South Africa and my own proudly felt African background, and not because of what any outsider might have said.

Look at the world. There is no pure competitor to the United States of America.

I felt we must separate political responsibility. The Dalai Lama should not carry that burden. So that is my selfish reason - to protect the old Dalai Lama tradition. It is safer without political involvement.

I have always been of opinion that all the political workers should be indifferent and should never bother about the legal fight in the law courts and should boldly bear the heaviest possible sentences inflicted upon them. They may defend themselves but always from purely political considerations and never from a personal point of view.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion.

When one door is closed, don't you know, another is open.

Things don't have to change the world to be important.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

Better than worshiping gods is obedience to the laws of righteousness.

He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.

The Jacques Cousteau shows actually got me very excited about the fact that there's an alien world here on Earth.