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Dhammapada quotes
The Dhammapada is a text from the Buddhist tradition, a collection of 423 verses in Pali gathered in the Theravada canon and traditionally treated as sayings of the Buddha. It has no single author in the modern sense. Quill quotes the English translation by F. Max Müller, the Oxford scholar, published in the Sacred Books of the East series.
The verses are arranged by theme and often in pairs, and they were made for memorising. Müller's English is Victorian and can sound stiff. Reading one verse slowly suits it, and for many Buddhists it's a religious text as well as a literary one.
31 lines shown, from the 32 in Quill. Only lines checked against a public-domain text appear on this page.
Dhammapada
Read Dhammapada on Project Gutenberg
Beware of the anger of the mind, and control thy mind!
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Beware of the anger of the mind, and control thy mind! Leave the sins of the mind, and practise virtue with thy mind!
Let us live happily then, though we call nothing our own!
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Let us live happily then, though we call nothing our own! We shall be like the bright gods, feeding on happiness!
By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified.
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By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself, no one can purify another.
From greed comes grief, from greed comes fear; he who is free from greed knows neither grief nor fear.
Draw yourself out of the evil way, like an elephant sunk in mud.
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Be not thoughtless, watch your thoughts! Draw yourself out of the evil way, like an elephant sunk in mud.
Rouse thyself! do not be idle!
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Rouse thyself! do not be idle! Follow the law of virtue! The virtuous rests in bliss in this world and in the next.
Death subdues a man who is gathering flowers, and whose mind is distracted, before he is satiated in his pleasures.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
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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 a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way.
Let each man direct himself first to what is proper, then let him teach others; thus a wise man will not suffer.
The world does not know that we must all come to an end here;—but those who know it, their quarrels cease at once.
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 does what is good, let him do it again; let him delight in it: happiness is the outcome of good.
Wise people, after they have listened to the laws, become serene, like a deep, smooth, and still lake.
Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us! among men who hate us let us dwell free from hatred!
The fool who knows his foolishness, is wise at least so far.
Be not thoughtless, watch your thoughts!
The wise who control their body, who control their tongue, the wise who control their mind, are indeed well controlled.
Not a mother, not a father will do so much, nor any other relative; a well-directed mind will do us greater service.
You yourself must make an effort.
The wise man keeps earnestness as his best jewel.
A man is not learned because he talks much; he who is patient, free from hatred and fear, he is called learned.
If anything is to be done, let a man do it, let him attack it vigorously!
A man who has learnt little, grows old like an ox; his flesh grows, but his knowledge does not grow.
Like a well-guarded frontier fort, with defences within and without, so let a man guard himself.
Earnest among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepers, the wise man advances like a racer, leaving behind the hack.
Make thyself an island, work hard, be wise!
Why do you not seek a light, ye who are surrounded by darkness?
Purity and impurity belong to oneself, no one can purify another.
Whatever a hater may do to a hater, or an enemy to an enemy, a wrongly-directed mind will do us greater mischief.
Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.
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