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50 Best Meditation Quotes for Beginner Zen Masters

If you are seeking a bit more zen in your life, you’re not alone.  As our lives become crazier, more and more people are looking to slow down and create a little more peace in their lives.

These 50 meditation quotes will inspire you to slow down, become more in touch with your feelings, and just may make you start a meditation habit.

Women practicing meditation on a hill with the sun setting.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is a method of transforming and calming the mind. When you practice meditation, you develop concentration, clarity, positivity, and focus that can help you deal better with all the stuff that life throws at you.

You can even download an app on your phone to help you with your journey toward mindfulness.

Why Should I Meditate?

Meditation can be a great way to practice self-care in our crazy busy lives.

What used to seem all “woo woo” and far out is now mainstream.  

You don’t have to sit cross-legged on a mountaintop – you just need a quiet place and a few spare minutes.

I try to meditate a bit each day. Sometimes, it’s just 5 minutes before I fall asleep, or before I get out of bed.

I bought the Calm App to use on my iPhone because along with easy guided meditations, it also has bedtime stories that I listen to when I can’t sleep at night.

Insight Timer is a great free app with tons of guided meditations, tutorials, and more.

So without further ado, here are 50 of my favorite meditation quotes that inspire me to keep at it. Some are funny, some are wise, and some just remind me to slow down, stop and breathe.

Quote:  quiet the mind and the soul will speak.  By Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

Inspirational Meditation Quotes

“Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.”


-Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

“Meditation is a vital way to purify and quiet the mind, thus rejuvenating the body.”


Deepak Chopra

“The goal of meditation is not to get rid of thoughts or emotions. The goal is to become more aware of your thoughts and emotions and learn how to move through them without getting stuck.”

-Dr. P. Goldin

“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.”

-Sakyong Mipham

“When your attention moves into the Now, there is an alertness. It is as if you were waking up from a dream, the dream of thought, the dream of past and future. Such clarity, such simplicity. No room for problem-making. Just this moment as it is.”

-Eckhart Tolle
quote:  peace comes from within.  Do not seek it without.  By Buddha.

Quotes on Meditation, Peace, & Quiet

“Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.”  

-Dalai Lama

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

-Buddha

“Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.”


-Sr. Francis de Sales

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet.  It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.”  

-Deepak Chopra

“All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better or different, and to turn your attention inward to the awake silence that you are.”

-Adyashanti

Meditation Quotes for Stress and Anxiety

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”  

–Amit Ray

“Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.”


-Sr. Francis de Sales

“Meditation applies the brakes to the mind.”

–Ramana Maharshi

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded.”

-Buddha

“ Mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy.”

–Kabira
Funny meditation quote by Ellen DeGeneres.  Grassy meadow with pine trees in background.

Celebrity Meditation Quotes

“It feels good. Kinda like when you have to shut your computer down, just sometimes when it goes crazy, you just shut it down and when you turn it on, it’s okay again. That’s what meditation is to me.”

-Ellen DeGeneres

“It’s like having a charger for your whole body and mind. That’s what Meditation is!”

-Jerry Seinfeld

“The thing about meditation is…you become more and more you.”

-David Lynch

“At the end of the day, I can end up just totally wacky, because I’ve made mountains out of molehills. With meditation, I can keep them as molehills.”

-Ringo Starr

Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It’s like the ultimate rest. It’s better than the best sleep you’ve ever had. It’s a quieting of the mind.”

-Hugh Jackman

More Quotes to Inspire You

“Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake.”

-Thomas Merton

“The nature of illusion is that, when you see through it, it disappears.”

–Mooji

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

–Epictetus

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

–Blaise Pascal

“Put your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.”

–Swami Sivananda
quote:  Go within every day and find inner strength, so that the world cannot blow your candle out.  by Katherine Dunham.  Image showing a woman sitting on a cliff overlooking a city with the sun setting.

Funny Meditation Quotes

“So what is a good meditator? The one who meditates.”

-Allan Lokos

“If it weren’t for my mind, my meditation would be excellent. “

-Ani Pema Chodron

“To earn the trust of your meditation, you have to visit it every day. It’s like having a puppy.”  

-Chelsea Richer

“Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?”

-David M. Bader

“Meditation, because some questions can’t be answered by Google.”

-Unknown

Quotes about Meditation and Breath

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”  

–Amit Ray

“If you have time to breathe you have time to meditate. You breathe when you walk. You breathe when you stand. You breathe when you lie down.”

-Ajahn Amaro

“One conscious breath in and out is a meditation.”

-Eckhart Tolle

“This is universal. You sit and observe your breath. You can’t say this is a Hindu breath or a Christian breath or a Muslim breath.”

-Charles Johnson

Funny meditation quote:  Meditation:  because some questions can't be answered by Google.  by unknown.  Image showing a woman jumping up in silhouette with the setting sun.

Anonymous but Wise Quotes

“Be the master OF mind rather than mastered BY mind.”

–Japanese Proverb

“The quieter you become the more you can hear.”

-Anonymous

“To a mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.”

-Anonymous

“Silence is a fence around wisdom.”  

-German Proverb

“Meditation teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”

–Unknown

Quotes by Women

“Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.”

-Sharon Salzberg

“Thoughts are like birds in mind; some fly in, some fly out. Some stay at water hole to drink. Beware of birds that linger.”  

–Natalie Wright

“Go within every day and find the inner strength, so that the world cannot blow your candle out.”

 –Katherine Dunham

“Listen to the compass of your heart. All you need lies within you.”

–Mary Anne Radmacher

“The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.”

Caroline Myss

“Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God.”

-Diana Robinson

“The busier we are, the more we need that centering time – that time to actually be able to connect to our inner wisdom.”

-Arianna Huffington

“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view. When you flip the switch, it doesn’t matter whether it’s been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades. The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn’t see before. It’s never too late to take a moment to look.”  

-Sharon Salzberg
quote:  The quieter you become, the more you can hear.  by anonymous.  Setting sun on orange sky with silhouettes of trees.

Quotes On Meditation and Mindfulness

“You should not be carried away by the dictation of the mind, but the mind should be carried by your dictation.”

-A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami

“Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.”

-Ajahn Brahm

“The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation. In meditation, we divest ourselves of all material conditions and feel our divine nature. We do not depend upon any external help in meditation.”

-Swami Vivekananda

“When you have achieved a state of deep meditation, you unlock the door to your subconscious mind. That is where the power to create the life you desire lies.”

-Adrian Calabrese

Want to save these meditation quotes to read later? Pin them to your favorite Pinterest board and pass them on!

Woman sitting cross legged meditating outside using meditation quotes as the sun sets.