Dalai Lama (14th) — "I think the most important thing is to have compassion. Compassion is the founda…"
I think the most important thing is to have compassion. Compassion is the foundation of all good things.
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More from Dalai Lama (14th)
"Sometimes I feel very sad when I see so much suffering in the world. But then I remember that I have a responsibility to help."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Compassion—genuinely caring about others' suffering and wanting to reduce it—is identified here as the single most essential human quality. Not intelligence, wealth, or strength, but the capacity to feel with others forms the bedrock of all moral behavior, justice, and kindness. Every good thing people build in society or within themselves originates from this basic orientation: turning toward others rather than away from their pain.
Relevance to Dalai Lama (14th)
Tenzin Gyatso has lived this principle under direct pressure. After China's 1959 invasion drove him into exile in Dharamsala, he chose nonviolence over armed resistance—compassion applied to aggressors as much as victims. His 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recognized this stance. In Tibetan Buddhism, each Dalai Lama embodies Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion, making karuna not just a belief for Tenzin Gyatso but literally his spiritual identity and institutional purpose.
The era
Born 1935 and exiled in 1959 following China's military annexation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama has spoken across Cold War proxy conflicts, Mao's Cultural Revolution, nuclear brinkmanship, and rising 21st-century nationalism. His 1989 Nobel Peace Prize arrived the same year Tiananmen Square demonstrators were massacred and the Berlin Wall fell. In a century defined by ideological violence and authoritarian consolidation, his insistence on compassion as civilization's foundation offered a direct and deliberate counterpoint.
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