Nāgārjuna Quotes

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

We have been exceedingly busy ever since you went away. In the first place we have had to rejoice two or three times everyday at your having such very delightful weather for the whole of your journey...

In the never-ending battle you have all officially joined as of today, the difference is in how truly you believe, in how vociferously you promote, in how tightly you hold onto the truth that is self-evident: that of course we are all created equally yet differently, and of course we are all in this together.

The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.

Let us suppose that a man believes in eternal life on Christ's word. In that case he believes without any fuss about being profound and searching and philosophical and racking his brains.

Out of love, God becomes man. He says: Here you see what it is to be a human being; but he adds: Take care, for I am also God — blessed is he who takes no offense at me.

I have the wisdom of one condemned to death:
I own nothing for anything to own me

The wise man who has charge of governing the empire should know the cause of disorder before he can put it in order. Unless he knows its cause, he cannot regulate it.

Don't you know that a good and excellent person does nothing for the sake of appearances, but only for the sake of having acted right?

Don't gain the world and lose your soul
Wisdom is better than silver and gold.

There is nothing difficult about becoming a sage, and nothing false about transcending the world of appearances.

There will always be some people who think for themselves, even among the self-appointed guardians of the great mass who, after having thrown off the yoke of immaturity themselves, will spread about them the spirit of a reasonable estimate of their own value and of the need for every man to think for himself.

Li Yi-an was the greatest poetess of China. Once her husband asked one of his friends to pick out the best lines that he liked from a number of his poems, having, however, concealed in them some pieces by his wife. The friend picked out, to his dismay, only lines from her pen.

It is said that heaven does not create one man above or below another man. Any existing distinction between the wise and the stupid, between the rich and the poor, comes down to a matter of education.

The idol of your self is the mother of all idols. To regard the self as easy to subdue is a mistake.