Gotama Buddha Quotes

“There is a wealth of source material concernig Gotama Buddha, far more than for (Confucius or Jesus Christ, for example. The problem thus becomes one of selection. There are also, as Erich Frauwallner has pointed out, far more historical facts available for the Buddha than for his near contemporaries, the Greeks Thales and Pythagoras. There can be no doubt concerning the cxistence of the person who advocated the unique thought that we attribute to him.”
― Hajime Nakamura, Gotama Buddha

“Ignorant, ordinary people like us experience disgust when seeing someone old and weak, despite the fact that we ourselves cannot avoid the same fate. Gotama, experiencing the same emotion, turned that disgust toward himself, ashamed that he should feel that way toward someone whose fate he would eventually share. He similarly personalized the problems of illness and death. Such reflection is the outcome of a genuine and keenly felt emotion.
Every grown person wants to remain forever young, never to grow old, fall sick, and die. Such a wish, though, arising as it does from the nature of human existence, can never be attained.”
― Hajime Nakamura, Gotama Buddha