DHAMMA QUOTES

Some Sayings of the Buddha

Better than a thousand useless words
is one useful word,
hearing which one attains peace.
Dhammapada 100

 You are your own master,
you make your future.
Therefore discipline yourself
as a horse-dealer trains a thoroughbred.
Dhammapada 380

Make an island of yourself,
make yourself your refuge;
there is no other refuge.
Make truth your island,
make truth your refuge;
there is no other refuge.
Digha Nikaya, 16

 Just as a mountain of rock,
is unwavering, well-settled,
so the monk whose delusion is ended,
like a mountain, is undisturbed.
Udana III, 4

 Think not lightly of good, saying, "It will not come to me."
Drop by drop is the water pot filled.
Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little,
fills himself with good.
Dhammapada 122

 Irrigators direct the water,
Fletchers fashion the shaft,
Carpenters bend the wood,
The wise control themselves.
Dhammapada 80

 Be capable, upright, & straightforward,
easy to instruct, gentle, & not conceited,
content & easy to support,
with few duties, living lightly,
with peaceful faculties, masterful,
modest, & no greed for supporters.
Do not do the slightest thing
that the wise would later censure.
Sutta Nipata I, 8

Live without covetous greed,
fill your mind with benevolence.
Be mindful and one-pointed,
inwardly stable and concentrated.
Anguttara Nikaya II, 29

One who has crossed over the mire,
crushed the thorn of sensuality,
reached the ending of delusion,
is a monk undisturbed by bliss & pain.
Udana III, 2

 Difficult to detect and very subtle,
the mind seizes whatever it wants;
so let a wise man guard his mind,
for a guarded mind brings happiness.
Dhammapada 36

 Mind precedes all things;
mind is their chief, mind is their maker.
If one speaks or does a deed
with a mind that is pure within,
happiness then follows along
like a never departing shadow.
Dhammapada 1

 Consort only with the good,
come together with the good.
To learn the teaching of the good
gives wisdom like nothing else can.
Samyutta Nikaya I, 17

 In every virtue all-accomplished,
with wisdom full and mind composed,
looking within and ever mindful-
thus one crosses the raging flood.
Sutta Nipata 174

 By love they will quench the fire of hate,
by wisdom the fire of delusion.
Those supreme ones extinguish delusion
with wisdom that breaks through to truth.
Itivuttaka 93

 How short this life!
You die this side of a century,
but even if you live past,
you die of old age.
Sutta Nipata IV, 6

 Wisdom springs from meditation;
without meditation wisdom wanes.
Having known these two paths of progress and decline,
let a man so conduct himself that his wisdom may increase.
Dhammapada 282

 If by renouncing a lesser happiness
one may realize a greater happiness,
let the wise one renounce the lesser,
having regard for the greater.
Dhammapada 290

 Entangled by the bonds of hate,
he who seeks his own happiness
by inflicting pain on others,
is never delivered from hatred.
Dhammapada 291

The Dhammapada consists of 423 verses in Pali uttered by the Buddha on some 305 occasions for the benefit of a wide range of human beings. These sayings were selected and compiled into one book as being worthy of special note on account of their beauty and relevance for molding the lives of future generations of Buddhists. They are divided into 26 chapters and the stanzas are arranged according to subject matter.