Quotes By Daisaku Ikeda
Poems and songs penned as an unstoppable outpouring of the heart take on a life of their own. They transcend the limits of nationality and time as they pass from person to person, from one heart to another.
Daisaku Ikeda
Humanity has experienced many revolutionary changes over the course of history: revolutions in agriculture, in science, industrial production, as well as numerous political revolutions. But these have all been limited to the external aspects of our individual and collective lives.
Daisaku Ikeda
Ultimately, all human activities have as their goal the realization of happiness. Why, then, have we ended up producing the opposite result? Could the underlying cause be our failure to correctly understand the true nature of happiness?
Daisaku Ikeda
When one takes action for others, one's own suffering is transformed into the energy that can keep one moving forward; a light of hope illuminating a new tomorrow for oneself and others is kindled.
Daisaku Ikeda
Faced with stress, too many people feel they have nowhere to turn to, that they don't have access to the kind of friendships or communities where they can easily and openly share their problems and worries.
Daisaku Ikeda
Men and women who know the brutal reality of war, who know that war strips people of their very humanity, must unite in a new global partnership for peace.
Daisaku Ikeda
No one can live entirely on their own, nor can any country or society exist in isolation.
Daisaku Ikeda
A healthy vision of the future is not possible without an accurate knowledge of the past.
Daisaku Ikeda
Leadership that exploits and sacrifices young people on the altar of its goals is nothing more than raw, demonic power. Genuine leadership is found in ceaseless efforts to foster young people, to pave the way forward for them.
Daisaku Ikeda
Extreme poverty threatens people's right to life itself and makes impossible the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms essential to a humane way of life.
Daisaku Ikeda
All people have a natural desire to be needed, to have their importance to others tangibly confirmed.
Daisaku Ikeda
Likewise, education can direct people toward good or evil ends. When education is based on a fundamentally distorted worldview, the results are horrific.
Daisaku Ikeda
The problems of aging present an opportunity to rethink our social and personal lives in order to ensure the dignity and welfare of each individual.
Daisaku Ikeda
Human rights will be a powerful force for the transformation of reality when they are not simply understood as externally defined norms of behavior but are lived as the spontaneous manifestation of internalized values.
Daisaku Ikeda
In the past, human society provided encouragement and opportunity for people to extend support to each other, especially in highly stressful situations.
Daisaku Ikeda
But I think we need to remember that democracy everywhere is by its nature incomplete, a work in progress.
Daisaku Ikeda
Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings.
Daisaku Ikeda
It is crucial that we develop real awareness of ourselves as citizens of Earth, linked by mutual and indissoluble bonds. When we clearly recognize this reality and ground ourselves in it, we are compelled to take a strict accounting of our way of life.
Daisaku Ikeda
I believe that we must maintain pride in the knowledge that the actions we take, based on our own decisions and choices as individuals, link directly to the magnificent challenge of transforming human history.
Daisaku Ikeda
Japan learned from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the tragedy wrought by nuclear weapons must never be repeated and that humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.
Daisaku Ikeda
Women are, in my view, natural peacemakers. As givers and nurturers of life, through their focus on human relationships and their engagement with the demanding work of raising children and protecting family life, they develop a deep sense of empathy that cuts through to underlying human realities.
Daisaku Ikeda
Divorced from the cosmos, from nature, from society and from each other, we have become fractured and fragmented.
Daisaku Ikeda
The crucial thing is to arouse the awareness that as a matter of human conscience we can never permit the people of any country to fall victim to nuclear weapons, and for each individual to express their refusal to continue living in the shadow of the threat they pose.
Daisaku Ikeda
The effects of human rights education can be dramatic in awakening people to the value and power of their own lives, as shown in the following stories.
Daisaku Ikeda