In short: the Buddha's best-known words on love are Dhammapada 5, "never is hatred laid to rest by hate, it's laid to rest by love", and the Discourse on Love (Snp 1.8), which asks us to love all beings the way a mother protects her only child. Here are eight genuine quotes, each with its source.
1. Dhammapada 5
"For never is hatred laid to rest by hate, it's laid to rest by love: this is an ancient teaching."
The most famous verse on love in Buddhism: hatred only ends when someone stops answering it with hatred.
2. Snp 1.8
"Even as a mother would protect with her life her child, her only child, so too for all creatures unfold a boundless heart."
From the Discourse on Love, chanted daily: love as fierce and protective as a parent's, offered to everyone.
3. Dhammapada 223
"Defeat anger with kindness, villainy with virtue, stinginess with giving, and lies with truth."
Love isn't passive: it is how you win against anger.
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4. Dhammapada 197
"Let us live so very happily, loving among the hostile. Among hostile humans, let us live with love."
Love that doesn't depend on being loved back.
5. Ud 5.1
"Having explored every quarter with the mind, one finds no one dearer than oneself. Likewise for others, each holds themselves dear; so one who desires self-knowledge would harm no other."
Self-love, rightly understood, leads straight to kindness for others.
6. Iti 27
"Mendicants, of all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart's release by love."
Love outshines every other good deed, the way the moon outshines the stars.
7. AN 11.15
"You sleep at ease. You wake happily. You don't have bad dreams."
The first three of the eleven benefits the Buddha promised for a heart developed in love.
8. Snp 2.3
"One on whom you rest, like a child on the breast, is a true friend, not split from you by others."
The Buddha's picture of loving friendship.
All quotes are from the early Buddhist texts in Bhikkhu Sujato's translation on SuttaCentral, copied exactly. Last checked: 17 October 2026.
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Questions people ask
What did the Buddha say about love?
He taught a boundless, protective love for all beings (mettā): 'Even as a mother would protect with her life her child, her only child, so too for all creatures unfold a boundless heart' (Snp 1.8). And: 'never is hatred laid to rest by hate, it's laid to rest by love' (Dhammapada 5).