I– like an elephant in battle,
enduring an arrow shot from a bow–
will endure a false accusation,
for the mass of people
have no principles.

The tamed is the one
they take into assemblies.
The tamed is the one
the king mounts.
The tamed who endures a false accusation
is, among human beings,
the best.
-Dhammapada [23]

Don’t associate with lowly qualities.
Don’t consort with heedlessness.
Don’t associate with wrong views.
Don’t busy yourself with the world.

Get up! Don’t be heedless.
Live the Dhamma well.
One who lives the Dhamma
sleeps with ease
in this world & the next.
-Dhammapada [13]

Attentiveness is the path to true life;
Indifference is the path to death.
The attentive do not die;
The indifferent are as if they are dead already.
-Dhammapada

But I say and I protest—don’t stop your quest while anything further remains to be discovered or done. What further needs to be done? You must train yourselves, saying: ‘We will become unsullied in our conduct, brilliant and pure. We will neither exalt ourselves nor look down on anyone else.’
-Digha Nikaya

Different winds come from all directions. Some are clear, some carry dust, some are cold or hot, fierce gales or gentle breezes. In the same way sensations arise in the body–pleasant or unpleasant or neutral. When a meditator sees sensations as he does the winds, coming and going, clear or dust laden, fierce or gentle, he will fully understand them and be free from dependence on them. When he understands sensations perfectly, he will see beyond this conditioned world.
-Samyutta Nikaya

Ajita asked: “What is it that smothers the world and makes it so hard to see? What is it that pollutes the world and seems to threaten it?”
The Buddha answered: “It is ignorance that smothers, and it is carelessness and greed that make it invisible. The hunger of craving pollutes the world, and the pain of suffering causes the greatest fear.”
-Sutta Nipata

Monks, in giving a meal, a giver gives five things to an almsman. What five?
He gives life, beauty, ease, strength and wit; but in giving these he becomes a partaker in each quality, in heaven and among men.
-Anguttara Nikaya

Most people fail to see this reality, for they are attached to what they cling to, to pleasures and delights. Since all the world is so attached to material things, it’s very difficult for people to grasp how everything originates in conditions and causes. It’s a hard job for them to see the meaning of the fact that everything, including ourselves, depends on everything else and has no permanent self-existence.
-Majjhima Nikaya

Of slight account, monks, is the loss of such things as reputation. Miserable indeed among losses is the loss of wisdom.
Of slight account, monks, is the increase of such things as reputation. Chief of all the increases is that of wisdom.
-Anguttara Nikaya

Riches ruin the man
weak in discernment,
but not those who seek
the beyond.

Through craving for riches
the man weak in discernment
ruins himself
as he would others.
-Dhammapada [24]