Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
A jug fills drop by drop.
Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.
To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.
The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.
There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.
Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.
The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.
To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.
A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.
The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.
Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.
Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering.
If a man going down into a river, swollen and swiftly flowing, is carried away by the current – how can he help others across?
The world is afflicted by death and decay. But the wise do not grieve, having realized the nature of the world.
The calmed say that what is well-spoken is best; second, that one should say what is right, not unrighteous; third, what’s pleasing, not displeasing; fourth, what is true, not false.
When watching after yourself, you watch after others. When watching after others, you watch after yourself.
He who can curb his wrath as soon as it arises, as a timely antidote will check snake’s venom that so quickly spreads, – such a monk gives up the here and the beyond, just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin.
Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever’s not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet.
Don’t give way to heedlessness or to intimacy with sensual delight – for a heedful person, absorbed in jhana, attains an abundance of ease.