Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do.
Just as a flower, which seems beautiful has color but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of a man who speaks them but does them not.
— Dhammapada
Famous Quotes
Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox. (Verse 1)
"He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed me" — for those who brood on this, hostility isn't stilled. "He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed me" — for those who don't brood on this, hostility is stilled. Hostilities aren't stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth. (Verses 3-5)
Some do not understand that we must die, But those who do realize this settle their quarrels. (Verse 6)
As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind. (Verse 13)
Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful die not. The heedless are as if dead already. (Verse 21)
Earnest among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepers, the wise man advances like a racer, leaving behind the hack. (Verse 29)
Just as a fletcher straightens an arrow shaft, even so the discerning man straightens his mind — so fickle and unsteady, so difficult to guard. (Verse 33)