War & Peace Quote by Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon isn’t trying to be clever here; he’s trying to confer legitimacy. By presenting the Dalai Lama as “very wise,” “of great inner peace,” and committed to the idea that “happiness is the purpose of our lives,” Sheldon is stitching together a flattering portrait that functions like a cultural shorthand: this is the kind of figure modern secular audiences want spirituality to look like - gentle, therapeutic, nonthreatening, broadly affirming.

The phrasing matters. “Inner peace” is less a doctrinal claim than a credential, the emotional résumé line that makes religious authority feel safe. “Believes that happiness is the purpose of our lives” translates Buddhism into a universal self-help thesis, smoothing over the harder edges of tradition - discipline, suffering, renunciation - in favor of a message that plays well in bookstores, talk shows, and late-20th-century Western moral imagination. It’s not that the Dalai Lama hasn’t spoken about happiness; it’s that Sheldon’s framing pulls the idea into the language of personal fulfillment, where spirituality becomes a kind of lifestyle upgrade.

Then comes the public-facing pivot: “Through his teachings and leadership, he continues to make this world a better place.” That’s praise with geopolitical shadows. The Dalai Lama isn’t just a teacher; he’s a symbol of nonviolent resistance and exile, a leader whose moral authority travels precisely because it’s not backed by state power. Sheldon’s intent is admiration, but the subtext is aspiration: a longing for leadership that persuades rather than coerces, and for goodness that can be described without requiring you to sign onto a creed.