Great Throughts Treasury

"To establish ourselves amid perfect emptiness in a single flash is the essence of wisdom."

"A day's life of a virtuous man is better than a hundred years' life of the fool."

"A man does not become a Brahmana by his platted hair, by his family, or by birth; in whom there is truth and righteousness, he is blessed, he is a Brahmana."

"A man is not learned because he talks too much."

"A man who has learned little grows old like an ox: his flesh grows, but not his mind."

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage... If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him."

"All tremble at the rod, all are fearful of death. Drawing the parallel to yourself, neither kill nor get others to kill."

"As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind."

"As the fletcher makes straight his arrow, a wise man makes straight his trembling and unsteady thought, which is difficult to guard, difficult to hold back."

"As the herdsman drives cattle by the rod to the pen, so does time drive man to death."

"Behold this body — a painted image, a mass of heaped up sores, infirm, full of hankering — of which nothing is lasting or stable!"

"All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter."

"All conditioned things are impermanent — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification."

"Better it is to live one day wise and meditative than to live a hundred years foolish and uncontrolled."

"Better than a thousand meaningless words is one word of sense, which brings the hearer peace."

"Both the young and the old, both the wise and the foolish, end up in death."

"Cling to nothing for its loss is pain."

"Death carries off a man who is gathering flowers and whose mind is distracted, as a flood carries off a sleeping village."

"Earnest among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepers, the wise man advances like a racer, leaving behind the hack."

"Earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already."

"Fools of poor understanding have themselves for their greatest enemies, for they do evil deeds which bear bitter fruits."

"Greater in battle than the man who would conquer a thousand-thousand men, is he who would conquer just one — himself."

"Hard to hold down, nimble, alighting wherever it likes: the mind. Its taming is good. The mind well-tamed brings ease."

"Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule."

"He who has no wound may touch poison with his hand, and it will not harm him. There is no evil for one who does no evil."

"He who injures or kills another who longs for happiness will not find it for himself."

"He who pays homage to those who are worthy of homage, be they the Enlightened Ones or Their Disciples — those who have overcome the host of evil and crossed beyond the stream of sorrow — he who pays homage to the Fearless and Peaceful Ones, his merit cannot be measured by any."

"Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful die not. The heedless are as if dead already."

"How is there laughter, how is there joy, as this world is always burning? Why do you not seek a light, ye who are surrounded by darkness?"

"If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool."

"It is better to live alone than with a fool."

"It is easy to see the faults of others, but hard to see one's own. Men point out the faults of others but cover their own as a dishonest gambler hides a losing throw of the dice."

"It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it listeth; a tamed mind brings happiness."

"Just as a fletcher straightens an arrow shaft, even so the discerning man straightens his mind — so fickle and unsteady, so difficult to guard."

"Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame."

"Just as the paths of the birds or the fish are invisible, so is the path of the possessors of wisdom."

"Let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present, and cross over to the farther shore of existence. With mind wholly liberated, you shall come no more to birth and death."

"Let no one forget his own duty for the sake of another's, however great; let a man, after he has discerned his own duty, be always attentive to his duty."

"Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us! among men who hate us let us dwell free from hatred!"

"Like beautiful flowers, full of colors but without scent, are the well-spo-ken words of the man who does not practice what he preaches."

"Long for the wakeful is the night. Long for the weary, a league. For fools unaware of True Dhamma, samsara is long."

"Looking for the maker of this tabernacle, I shall have to run through a course of many births, so long as I do not find (him); and painful is birth again and again. But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the Eternal (visankhara, nirvana), has attained to the extinction of all desires."

"No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path."

"Of paths, the eightfold is best. Of truths, the four sayings. Of qualities, dispassion. Of two-footed beings, the one with the eyes to see."

"One truly is the protector of oneself; who else could the protector be? With oneself fully controlled, one gains a mastery that is hard to gain."

"Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a corrupted heart, then suffering follows you — as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it."

"The Buddhas do but tell the Way; it is for you to swelter at the task."

"The Four Noble Truths: Suffering, the origins of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path which leads to the cessation of suffering."

"The heedless are as if dead already."

"The wise man will not look for the faults of others, nor for what they have done or left undone, but will look rather to his own misdeeds."