If a guest doesn’t want to stay, it’s better to let him go.
Who do I to sue for my own faults?
If the boss is full, no one will care if the slave is hungry.
The hunter who is tracking an elephant does not stop to throw stones at birds.
The laughter of a child is the light of a house.
No matter how hard you try, a bull will never give milk.
One should acquire valuable knowledge, and avoid what is worthless.
Like an untrained steed who needs a lash, seek not guidance again and again. Like the trained who sees the whip [and avoids danger/pitfall], avoid sin.
One must conquer one’s own self. It is difficult to conquer it. One who does so is fortunate/blissed in this world and will be so in the next.
Better is that I should subdue my Self by self-control and penance, than be subdued by others with fetters and corporal punishment.
There are four things of paramount value that are difficult to obtain here by a living being: human birth, instruction in the Law, belief/faith in it, and energy in self-control.
Having been born as a man, having heard the Law, believing in it, and fulfilling it strenuously, an ascetic should restrain himself and shake of sinfulness.
Though others sleep [i.e. are unvigilant], be awake! Like a wise man, trust nobody, but always be on the alert; for time is dangerous, and the body is weak. Be ever watchful, like the [two-headed] Bharunda bird.
“If he does not get it [victory] early, he will get it afterwards”—such reasoning assumes that the eternity of human life. But such a person will despair when his life draws to its close, and the dissolution of his body approaches.
A wise man, having weighed and chosen the better one—the Law of compassion—will become calm through patience, with an undisturbed mind.
Mother, father, daughter in law, brother, wife, and sons will not be able to help me when I suffer for my own deeds.
Everything that happens to somebody affects him personally; therefore, knowing the creatures’ love of their own self, do not deprive them of their life, but cease from endangering and combating them.
Here some are of opinion that they will be delivered from all misery merely by attending the teacher without abstaining from sins.
Acknowledging the truth about bondage and liberation, but only talking and not acting, they seek comfort for themselves in mighty words.
Clever talking will not work salvation; how should philosophical instruction do it? Fools, though sinking lower and lower through their sins, believe themselves to be wise men.
They are [going] a long way in the endless samsara; therefore looking out carefully, one should wander about carefully [conducting oneself to commit no sin]
Choosing what is beyond and above [this world; i.e. liberation], one should never desire [worldly objects], but sustain one’s body only to be able to annihilate one’s karman.
Even so are human pleasures compared with the pleasures of the gods; divine life and pleasures surpass [the former] a thousand times and more.
What water is at the kusa grass tip, compared to an ocean deep, so are the pleasures of human life, compared to the life divine.
Even if the whole world of wealth is given to a man, he will not be contented, for it is very difficult to satisfy the desires of a greedy man.
Victory over one’s self is greater than conquering thousands and thousands of enemies on the battlefield. A true conqueror is he who conquers his own self.
Fight the fight within—why fight external foes? He who conquers himself through himself obtains supreme joy.
It is difficult to conquer oneself—but when that is conquered, everything is conquered.
It indeed is very difficult to acquire human birth. One acquires it after a very long span of time for the karmas that bind the soul are very powerful. Therefore Oh Gautama, be not careless even for a while!
Place your self on the right path … be careful all the while.
The days and nights that pass will never return. They bear no fruit for him who does not abide by dharma.
The days and nights that pass will never return. They bear fruit only for him who abides by dharma.
He who can call death his friend, who can escape from its clutches, and who is sure to never die—he only can decide to postpone his duties to tomorrow.
I have cut off all my fetters, these are destroyed by right means. Now I am wholly free from these, being light, I move and happily live.
The mind is that fierce/bad, unruly and dreadful horse that runs hither and thither in all directions. I control it by the discipline of righteousness, so that it becomes a well-trained kanthaka-steed [horse of the Buddha].
Just as a threaded [sasutra] needle is secure from being lost, in the same way a person given to self-study [sasutra] cannot be lost.
A great monk eats to sustain life, and not for the pleasure of it.
Have breakfast yourself; share lunch with your friend; and give dinner to your enemy.