‘There is no spot, O king, where Nirvâna is situate, and yet Nirvâna is, and he who orders his life right will, by careful attention, realize Nirvâna. Just as fire exists, and yet there is no place where fire (by itself) is stored up. But if a man rubs two sticks together the fire comes; just so, O king, Nirvâna exists, though there is no spot where it is stored up. And he who orders his life aright will, by careful attention, realize Nirvâna.
- Milindapanha

The world’s end can never be reached
by means of travelling through the world,
Yet without reaching the world’s end
there is no release from suffering.

Therefore, truly, the world-knower, the wise one,
gone to the world’s end, fulfiller of the holy life,
having known the world’s end, at peace,
longs not for this world or another.
- Buddha

They, the enlightened, intent on jhana,
delighting in stilling
& renunciation,
self-awakened & mindful:
even the devas
view them with envy.
-Dhammapada [14]

Blinded this world—
how few see clearly!
Just as birds who’ve escaped
from a net are few,
few are the people
who make it to heaven.
- Dhammapada [13]

The Lord taught a holy life
Not based on tradition,
For restraint and abandoning,
Leading to and merging in Nibbana.

This is the path followed by the great,
Pursued by the lofty sages.
Those who enter that course
As taught by the Enlightened One,
Heeding the Teacher’s instruction,
Will make an end of suffering.
- Itivuttaka

Just as in the autumn a farmer, ploughing with a large plough cuts through all the spreading rootlets as he ploughs; in the same way, bhikkhus, the perceiving of impermanence, developed and frequently practised, removes all sensual passion…removes and abolishes all conceit of ‘I am’.
-Samyutta Nikaya

The one who beholds that which has become as become
Passes beyond that becoming
And is released from craving for sensation.
In that which really is, he understands becoming.
Free from longing for birth or death,
He finds the true meaning of the end of becoming.
-Itivuttaka Sutta

Let us rise up and be thankful,
for if we didn’t learn a lot today,
at least we learned a little,
and if we didn’t learn a little,
at least we didn’t get sick,
and if we got sick,
at least we didn’t die;
so, let us be thankful.
-The Buddha

The teaching about the way things are is not a way to enlightenment for someone who is still filled with desires or who still longs to be this or that. But those who do understand it will become beings of distinction, dispersing all the forces of confusion.
-Sutta Nipata

When the ear hears, observe the mind. Does it get caught up and make a story out of the sound? Is it disturbed? You can know this, stay with it, be aware. At times you may want to escape from the sounds, but that is not the way out. You must escape through awareness.
- Ajahn Chah, “Still Forest Pool”