What ought to be done is neglected, what ought not to be done is done; the desires of unruly, thoughtless people are always increasing
Great, it passes on (in constant flow) Passing on, it becomes remote Having become remote, it returns Therefore the Tao is great; Heaven is great; Earth is great; and the (sage) ki...
If heaven were not thus pure, it soon would rend; If earth were not thus sure, 'twould break and bend; Without these powers, the spirits soon would fail; If not so filled, the drou...
All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter. All men tremble at punishment, all men love life; rem...
Earnest among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepers, the wise man advances like a racer, leaving behind the hack
He who destroys life, who speaks untruth, who in this world takes what is not given him, who goes to another man's wife;
Look upon the world as a bubble, look upon it as a mirage: the king of death does not see him who thus looks down upon the world
There was a descendant of the Ikshvaku family, an invincible Sakya monarch, pure in mind and of unspotted virtue, called therefore Pure-rice, or Suddhodana. Joyously reverenced by...
A creature's pleasures are extravagant and luxurious; sunk in lust and looking for pleasure, men undergo (again and again) birth and decay
That deed is not well done of which a man must repent, and the reward of which he receives crying and with a tearful face
He who, though dressed in fine apparel, exercises tranquillity, is quiet, subdued, restrained, chaste, and has ceased to find fault with all other beings, he indeed is a Brahmana,...
Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing This is called the Fo...
Therefore the (ruling) sage acts without claiming the results as his; he achieves his merit and does not rest (arrogantly) in it:--he does not wish to display his superiority
They who know truth in truth, and untruth in untruth, arrive at truth, and follow true desires
Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing (of humility), and manifests it to all the world He is free from self- display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion,...
When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their manifestation; when the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal ministers appeared
If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure, let a wise man leave the small pleasure, and look to the great. He who, by causing pain to others, wishes to obtain pleasu...
Even though a Gatha (poem) be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of a Gatha is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet
A man is not a mendicant (Bhikshu) simply because he asks others for alms; he who adopts the whole law is a Bhikshu, not he who only begs
(Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness:--he is the noblest man under heaven
He who is thoughtful, blameless, settled, dutiful, without passions, and who has attained the highest end, him I call indeed a Brahmana
He who knows that this body is like froth, and has learnt that it is as unsubstantial as a mirage, will break the flower-pointed arrow of Mara, and never see the king of death
Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared; honour and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions (of the same kind)
He whose boldness appears in his daring (to do wrong, in defiance of the laws) is put to death; he whose boldness appears in his not daring (to do so) lives on Of these two cases t...
If a man offend a harmless, pure, and innocent person, the evil falls back upon that fool, like light dust thrown up against the wind
If one man conquer in battle a thousand times thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors
He who lives without looking for pleasures, his senses well controlled, moderate in his food, faithful and strong, him Mara will certainly not overthrow, any more than the wind thr...
If a man hold himself dear, let him watch himself carefully; during one at least out of the three watches a wise man should be watchful
The foolish man who scorns the rule of the venerable (Arahat), of the elect (Ariya), of the virtuous, and follows false doctrine, he bears fruit to his own destruction, like the fr...
0 Governing a great state is like cooking small fish