Nāgārjuna Quotes

Due to having faith one relies on the practices,
Due to having wisdom one truly knows.
Of these two wisdom is the chief,
Faith is its prerequisite.

Even if you seek to harm an enemy,
You should remove your own defects and cultivate good qualities.
Through that you will help yourself,
And the enemy will be displeased.

The accomplishments of a teacher of ants
Are but accomplishments for earning a living.
But the study of the termination of earthly incarnation—
Why should that not be the accomplishment?

No suffering is self-caused.
Nothing causes itself.
If another is not self-made,
How could suffering be caused by another? If suffering were caused by each,
Suffering could be caused by both.
Not caused by self or by other,
How could suffering be uncaused?

There is pleasure when a sore is scratched,
But to be without sores is more pleasurable still.
Just so, there are pleasures in worldly desires,
But to be without desires is more pleasurable still.

I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have."
That frightens all the childish
And extinguishes fear in the wise.

Without hope of reward
Provide help to others.
Bear suffering alone,
And share your pleasures with beggars.

If you think you see both
Destruction and becoming,
Then you see destruction and becoming
Through impaired vision.

Even three times a day to offer
Three hundred cooking pots of food
Does not match a portion of the merit
In one instant of love.

I, without grasping will pass beyond sorrow,
And I will attain nirvāṇa," one says.
Whoever grasps like this
Has great grasping.

Gautama Buddha

To those possessed of breeding, learning, handsome looks,
Who have no wisdom, neither discipline, you need not bow.
But those who do have these two qualities,
Though lacking other virtues, you should revere.