Mindfulness Quotes - Mindful Acceptance, Stress, Love, and More
By request, here is a list of my favorite mindfulness quotes. These quotes cover a variety of topics related to mindfulness, including being present, meditation, and awareness.
Mindfulness Quotes for Anxiety and Stress
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
- Amit Ray
“Mindfulness is a pause – the space between stimulus and response: that’s where choice lies.”
– Tara Brach
“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”
– Dan Millman
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different from the way they are.” – Allan Lokos
“Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften.”
– Jack Kornfield
“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”
– Kahlil Gibran
“No amount of anxiety can change the future. No amount of regret can change the past.”
– Karen Salmansohn
Present Moment Awareness Quotes
“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest taken between two deep breaths.”
– Etty Hillesum
“The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Wherever you are, be there totally.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“Mindfulness isn’t about getting anywhere else — it’s about being where you are.”
– Jon Kabat‑Zinn
“How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience and, therefore, the quality of our lives.”
– Sam Harris
“The richness of present‑moment experience is the richness of life itself.”
– Jon Kabat‑Zinn
Mindfulness Quotes for Love & Relationships
“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, our love grows.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“We are wired for connection as much as we are for food and water.”
– Sharon Salzberg
“When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
– Simone Weil
“When you have a mindful relationship with your partner, you are intentional about your choices and actions; you become more responsive to each other and less reactive to your challenges and ego needs.”
– S.J. Scott
Buddhist Mindfulness Quotes
“Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don’t struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.”
- Pema Chodron
“Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).”
- James Baraz
“Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.”
- Sylvia Boorstein
“In Asian languages, the word for ‘mind’ and the word for ‘heart’ are the same word. So when we hear the word ‘mindfulness’, we have to inwardly also hear ‘heartfulness’ in order to grasp it even as a concept, and especially as a way of being.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
“No matter how far out on the sea of suffering we’ve sailed,
all that is required is to turn toward awakening.
It’s never too late, but it takes that turning, and no one can do that for us.”
- Bonnie Myotai Treace
“All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.”
- Buddha
Mindfulness and Letting Go Quotes
“Radical acceptance begins when we can say, ‘Yes, this is happening. I can’t think of it as other than it is.’”
– Tara Brach
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“The moment you completely accept your non‑peace, your non‑peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“To let go means to give up chasing certainty, to stop insisting that life be exactly as you wish.”
– Tara Brach
Mindfulness Quotes Related to Meditation
“Observe the space between your thoughts, then observe the observer.”
- Hamilton Boudreaux
“Mindfulness is the root of all the methods that tame the mind. First it focuses the mind. Then it eases the mind. Finally it is the luminous nature, beyond thoughts.”
- Patrul Rinpoche
“At certain times, a silent mind is very important, but ‘silent’ does not mean closed. The silent mind is an alert, awakened mind; a mind seeking the nature of reality.”
- Lama Yeshe
“The more and more you listen, the more and more you hear; the more and more you hear, the deeper and deeper your understanding becomes.”
- Dudjom Rinpoche
“Meditation is participatory observation.
What you are looking at responds to the process of looking.
What you are looking at is you,
and what you see depends on how you look.”
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
More Posts
Matthew Sockolov is a Buddhist meditation teacher who trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Completing the Dharma Leader training program in 2017, Matthew was given power to teach in the Insight Meditation tradition by Jack Kornfield, Kittisaro, Thanissara, and others. You can learn more about Matthew here.