Wisdom of the ages.
Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada (Dover Thrift …
“They who imagine truth in untruth and see truth in untruth, never arrive at truth but follow vain desires”
“As rain does not break through a well thatched house, passion will not break through a well reflected 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 with or acts with pure thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him”
On Earnestness
“Earnestness is the path to 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 follow after vanity”
“Earnest among the thoughtfulness, awake among the sleepers, the wise man advances like a racer, leaving behind the hack”
“A well directed mind will do us a greater service”
On Thought
“As a Fletcher makes straight his arrow, a wise man makes straight his trembling and unsteady thought, which is difficult to guard, difficult to hold back”
“The wise do not have evil doers for friends, do not have low people for friends; they have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men”
“As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, wise people falter not amidst blame and praise”
“His thought is quiet, quiet are his words and deeds, when he has obtained freedom by true knowledge, when he has thus become a quiet man”
“Even though a speech be a thousand words, but made up of senseless words, one words of sense is better which if man hears, he becomes quiet”
“He who lives 1oo years, ignorant and unrestrained, a life of one day is better if a man is wise and reflecting”
On Evil
“Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, it will not come nigh time”
“Even by the falling of water drops a water pot is filled. The fool becomes full of evil, even if he gathered it little by little.”
“Well makers lead the water where ever they like, fletchers bend the arrow, carpenters bend wood. Good people fashion themselves”
Old Age
“The virtue of good people never approaches destruction.”
Self
“Let each man direct himself first to what is proper, then let him teach others, this a wise man will not suffer”
“Bad deeds and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do’ what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do”
The World
“Do not follow the evil law. Do not live on in thoughtlessness. Do not follow the false doctrines”
Pleasure
“He who possesses the virtue of intelligence, who is just, speaks the truth, and does what is his own business, him the world will hold dear”
Impurity
“Let a wise man blow off the impurities of himself, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver, one by one, little by little, and from time to time”
The Just
“A man is not an elder because his hair is gray, his age may be ripe, but he is called “old-in-vain”
“A man is not learned because he talks much, he who is patient, free from hatred and fear, he is called learned”
The Way
“Those who do not rouse themselves when it is time to rise, who though, young and strong, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle person never finds the way to knowledge”
“Cut down the forest of desires, not a tree only”
“Through zeal knowledge is gained, through a lack of zeal knowledge is lost”
Miscellaneous
“If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a small pleasure , let a wise man leave the small pleasure and look to the great”
“What ought to be done is neglected, what ought not to be done is done; the desires of unruly, thoughtless people are always increasing”
Thirst
“Those who are slaves to passions, run down the stream of desires, as a spider runs down the web which he has made himself”
“Give up what is before, give up what is behind, give up what is between”
The Bhikshu
“Good is restraint in all things”
“Control your mouth, speak wisely and calmly”
“Empty your boat, if emptied it will move quickly”
“Without knowledge there is no meditation, without meditation there is no knowledge, he who has knowledge and mediation is near unto Nirvana”
The Brahmana
“Woe to him who flies at his aggressors”
“When you have understood the truth must you ask, how?