Words of wisdom from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama (all taken from his autobiography):

"A supposed enemy is more valuable than a friend, for an enemy teaches you things, such as forbearance, that a friend generally does not."

"No matter how bad things get, they will eventually get better. In the end, the innate desire of all people for truth, justice and human understanding must triumph over ignorance and despair."

"(The) experiences of support, freely given by the people of the industrialized nations, have confirmed my basic belief in what I call Universal Resposibility. It seems to me to be the key to human development. Without such a sense...there can be only unequal development in the world. The more people come to realise that we do not live on this planet of ours in isolation-that ultimately we are all brothers and sisters-the more likely is progress for all humankind, rather than for just parts of it".

"Taking care of our planet is like taking care of our houses. Since we human beings come from Nature, there is no point in going against Nature, which is why I say the environment is not a matter of religion or ethics or morality. These are luxuries, since we can survive without them. But we will not survive if we continue to go against them".

"I do not consider those who support Tibet to be 'pro-Tibet'. Instead, I consider them to be pro-Justice".

"Throughout our struggle I have not been concerned for myself but for the rights, welfare and freedom of my six million fellow countrymen and women. My reason for this is not simply a concern for borders and so forth. It is because I believe that the most important thing for humankind is its own creativity. I further believe that in order to exercise this creativity, people need to be free".

"It would be much more constructive if people tried to understand their supposed enemies. Learning to forgive is much more useful than merely picking up a stone and throwing it at the object of one's anger, the moreso when the provocation is extreme. For it is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good". (Imagine if some of the leaders of the 'free world' took this advice!)

"There are more than a billion Chinese, and whilst maybe several thousand are participating in acts of cruelty at any one moment, I believe there must be several million performing acts of kindness".

"In the end, people's love for truth, justice, freedom and democracy will triumph. No matter what governments do, the human spirit will always prevail".

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