Who really said it

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection

Q: Did Gautama Buddha say "You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection"?

No. This exact wording is not found anywhere in the Pali Canon. It was popularized by meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, who presented it as a Buddha quote in her 1995 book "Lovingkindness" (an even earlier version appeared in "Woman of Power" magazine in 1989). It is a loose paraphrase of Udāna 5.1 — whose actual verse carries a different emphasis: because no one finds anyone dearer than themselves, one should not harm others.

Not the Buddha — a modern paraphrase by Sharon Salzberg Sharon Salzberg b. 1952 · American meditation teacher & co-founder, Insight Meditation Society

Disputed In copyright

This exact wording is not found anywhere in the Pali Canon. It was popularized by meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, who presented it as a Buddha quote in her 1995 book “Lovingkindness” (an even earlier version appeared in “Woman of Power” magazine in 1989). It is a loose paraphrase of Udāna 5.1 — whose actual verse carries a different emphasis: because no one finds anyone dearer than themselves, one should not harm others.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection” Not a Buddha quote — a modern paraphrase popularized by meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg in her 1995 book "Lovingkindness," loosely derived from Udana 5.1, which actually emphasizes not harming others rather than self-love.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Gautama Buddha. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Sharon Salzberg / Shambhala Publications). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Sharon Salzberg — American meditation teacher & author. Theme: "You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

What the Buddha actually said (Udāna 5.1)

Popularized in: Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
By: Sharon Salzberg (1995); earlier in Woman of Power magazine, 1989
Loosely based on: Udāna 5.1 (Rājan Sutta / Pasenadi), Khuddaka Nikāya
Translation shown: Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Access to Insight)

Searching all directions with your awareness, you find no one dearer than yourself. In the same way, others are thickly dear to themselves. So you shouldn’t hurt others if you love yourself. Udāna 5.1

The canonical verse from Udāna 5.1 in Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation. Its point is the opposite emphasis of the popular quote: because each being holds itself dearest, one should extend care outward and not harm others — not that you should turn love toward yourself.

Read Udana 5.1 at Access to Insight

How we verified this

Buddhist teacher and author Bodhipaksa traces the line to Sharon Salzberg’s 1995 Lovingkindness and an earlier 1989 appearance in Woman of Power, calling it a paraphrase rather than a genuine quote (Fake Buddha Quotes).
In Tricycle (Fall 2013) Bodhipaksa notes Salzberg likely adapted the wording from Mahasi Sayadaw’s 1983 booklet, which translated the Udāna using the word “deserves” (Tricycle).
The genuine source verse, Udāna 5.1, actually urges non-harming of others because each being holds itself dearest — a different emphasis from self-love (Access to Insight).
Quote aggregators such as Goodreads file the line under Sharon Salzberg, not the Buddha.

In copyright

The popular English wording is a modern paraphrase first widely printed in Sharon Salzberg’s Lovingkindness (Shambhala, 1995), so it is in copyright. The ancient Udāna text is long in the public domain, but the specific modern translations shown (Thanissaro Bhikkhu; Mahasi Sayadaw) are themselves under copyright to their translators.

Fact-check

How a self-love slogan got pinned on the Buddha

The Buddha is one of the internet’s biggest magnets for uplifting quotes he never spoke. This one is a genuine modern insight dressed up as an ancient sutta.

Sharon Salzberg (popularizer) paraphrase

Meditation teacher and scholar Bodhipaksa traces the phrasing to Salzberg’s 1995 book Lovingkindness, where it is offered as if it were a Buddha quote; a near-identical version appeared even earlier in Woman of Power magazine in 1989 (Fake Buddha Quotes).

Mahasi Sayadaw (1983) translation seam

Bodhipaksa suggests Salzberg drew on Burmese monk Mahasi Sayadaw’s 1983 booklet Brahmavihara Dhamma, which rendered the Udāna using “deserves” — a word absent from most other translations of the verse (Tricycle).

Gautama Buddha reversed

The real source verse, Udāna 5.1, uses the observation that everyone holds themselves dearest to argue for not harming others — not for turning affection inward. The popular quote inverts that emphasis (Access to Insight).

Verdict: not a Buddha quote. It’s a modern paraphrase popularized by Sharon Salzberg (1995), loosely built from Udāna 5.1 — a verse whose point is compassion for others, not self-love (Fake Buddha Quotes).

Context

Why the mix-up is understandable

The line is not a cynical fabrication — it grows out of a real Buddhist text. Udāna 5.1 recounts King Pasenadi and Queen Mallikā each admitting they hold no one dearer than themselves; the Buddha turns that honest observation outward: since everyone feels the same, no one should harm anyone else.

Sharon Salzberg, teaching metta in the West, distilled that idea into a warm, first-person affirmation about deserving one’s own love. The thought is defensible as a gloss on metta practice; the trouble is only that it circulates as a verbatim Buddha quote, which it is not.

A real teaching, honestly reworded — then mis-stamped as scripture.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Love Kindness

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Fake Buddha Quotes: full investigationfakebuddhaquotes.com

Bodhipaksa’s detailed trace to Salzberg (1995), Woman of Power (1989), and the Udana.

Tricycle: ‘You Deserve Your Love and Affection’tricycle.org

Bodhipaksa’s Fall 2013 essay on the quote and the Mahasi Sayadaw translation seam.

Udana 5.1 (Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)accesstoinsight.org

The genuine canonical verse the quote is loosely based on.

Goodreads: quote filed under Sharon Salzberggoodreads.com

Aggregator record crediting Salzberg, not the Buddha.

Lovingkindness (Sharon Salzberg, 1995)sharonsalzberg.com

The book where the phrasing was popularized as a teaching on metta.

Who popularized the line

Sharon Salzberg

b. 1952 · American meditation teacher & author

Sharon Salzberg is an American Buddhist teacher and a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She is best known for popularizing metta (lovingkindness) practice in the West, above all through her 1995 book Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, where this now-famous phrasing was presented as words of the Buddha. She studied under Burmese teachers including Mahasi Sayadaw, whose 1983 rendering of the Udāna using the word “deserves” appears to be the seed of the modern wording.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Bodhipaksa, “You Deserve Your Love and Affection,” Tricycle, Fall 2013; cf. Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (Boston: Shambhala, 1995). Source verse: Udāna 5.1, trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-yourself-as-much-as-anybody-in-the-entire-universe