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]

You could, month by month,
at a cost of thousands,
conduct sacrifices a hundred times
or
pay a single moment’s homage
to one person, self-cultivated.
Better than a hundred years of sacrifices
Would that act of homage be.
-Dhammapada [8]

There’s no trail in space,
no outside contemplative.
People are smitten
with complications,
but devoid of complication are
the Tathagatas.

There’s no trail in space,
no outside contemplative,
no eternal fabrications,
no wavering in the Awakened.
-Dhammapada [254-255]

A sage does not speak in terms of being equal, lower or higher. Calmed and without selfishness he neither grasps nor rejects.
-Sutta Nipata

Sitting there the venerable Ananda said to the Lord, “Half of this holy life, Lord, is good and noble friends, companionship with the good, association with the good.”
“Do not say that, Ananda. Do not say that, Ananda. It is the whole of this holy life, this friendship, companionship and association with the good.”
-Samyutta Nikaya

If your heart has blossomed & given birth to a wish
for what can’t be expressed,
your mind not enmeshed in sensual passions:
you’re said to be in the up-flowing stream.
-Dhammapada [16]

Luminous is this mind, brightly shining, but it is coloured by the attachments that visit it. This unlearned people do not really understand, and so do not cultivate the mind. Luminous is this mind, brightly shining, and it is free of the attachments that visit it. This the noble follower of the way really understands; so for them there is cultivation of the mind.
-Anguttara Nikaya

They’re easy to do things of no good
& no use to yourself.
What’s truly useful & good
is truly harder than hard to do.
-Dhammapada [7]

But those who know
essence as essence,
and non-essence as non-,
get to the essence,
ranging about in right resolves.
-Dhammapada [12]

When you contemplate the body by being within the body, you should not engage in all sorts of ideas about it; the same when you contemplate feelings by being within feelings, you should enter in without ideas; the same applies to contemplating the mind by being within the mind and contemplating thoughts by being within thoughts.

The thoughts should be just the objects of mind and you should not apply yourself to any train of ideas connected with them. In this way, by putting ideas aside, your mind will become tranquil and fixed on one point. It will then enter into a meditation that is without discursive thought and is rapturous and joyful.
-Majjhima Nikaya