To guard your home by mysterious ceremonies is not enough, you must guard it by good deeds. With good deeds you should turn to your parents in the east, your teachers in the south, your wife and children in the west and your friends in the north. Above you, worship the spirit, and below you, honour all that serve you.
- Majjhima Nikaya

Turn away from mischief.
Again and again, turn away,
Before sorrow befalls you.

Set your heart on doing good.
Do it over and over again,
And you will be filled with joy.
- Dhammapada [117, 118]

Hunger: the foremost illness.
Fabrications: the foremost pain.
For one knowing this truth
As it actually is,
Unbinding
Is the foremost ease.

Freedom from illness: the foremost good fortune.
Contentment: the foremost wealth.
Trust: the foremost kinship.
Unbinding: the foremost ease.
- Dhammapada [15]

‘I have sons, I have wealth’–
the fool torments himself.
When even he himself
doesn’t belong to himself,
how then sons?
How wealth?

A fool with a sense of his foolishness
is–at least to that extent–wise.
But a fool who thinks himself wise
really deserves to be called a fool.
- Dhammapada [5]

“In every direction,” said the Buddha, “above, below, around, and within, you see things you know and recognize. Put them down. Do not let consciousness dwell on the products of existence and things that come and go, for there is no rest of relief there. When you understand that by taking the objects of the world for granted as total reality, you are tied to the world, then this understanding will release you from your dependence on objects and will stop your craving and your desire for constant becoming. Then you can let go your hold and engage with things as they are, instead.”
- Sutta Nipata

Hostilities aren’t stilled
through hostility,
regardless.
Hostilities are stilled
through non-hostility:
this, an unending truth.
- Dhammapada [1]

From craving is born grief,
from craving is born fear.
For one freed from craving
there’s no grief
—so how fear?
- Dhammapada [216]

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, “The Connected Discourses of the Buddha”

If you would like to be with me and to find comfort that way, the first thing for you to learn is the right behaviour. Go back to your home and learn to do as your parents want, continue to recite your prayers, and work hard in your daily life. At the same time, clean yourself up, put on proper clothes, and don’t neglect yourself again. When you’ve learned this, come back to me and you may be allowed to become one of my followers.
- Dhammapada

Love yourself and be awake-
Today, tomorrow, always.

First establish yourself in the way,
Then teach others,
And so defeat sorrow.

To straighten the crooked
You must first do a harder thing-
Straighten yourself.

You are your only master.
Who else?
Subdue yourself,
And discover your master.

- from the Dhammapada