Dhammapada Quotes: 32 Real Buddha Sayings With Verse Numbers

The best Dhammapada quotes are short, clear and practical: “hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule” (verse 5), “a tamed mind brings happiness” (verse 35), and “if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors” (verse 103). Below are thirty-two real verses from the Dhammapada, the most loved collection of the Buddha’s sayings, each quoted in F. Max Müller’s public-domain translation of 1881 with its verse number so you can check it for yourself. They are grouped by theme, with a few notes on reading them well.

What is the Dhammapada?

The Dhammapada (“verses on the Dhamma”, or “path of the teaching”) is a collection of 423 verses arranged in 26 chapters, with titles such as The Twin-Verses, Thought, Anger, Happiness and The Way. It sits in the Khuddaka Nikaya, a section of the Pali Canon, and Buddhist tradition attributes the verses to the Buddha himself. For more than a century it has been the first Buddhist text many Western readers meet.

Max Müller’s English translation appeared in 1881 in the Sacred Books of the East series. Its language is a little old-fashioned in places (“thou”, “listeth”), but it is careful, close to the Pali, and free for anyone to quote. Where Müller adds words for clarity, he puts them in brackets, and we have kept them.

A note on fake Buddha quotes

A large share of the “Buddha quotes” shared online are not from the Buddha at all. Some are modern self-help lines; some are loose paraphrases of later commentaries. “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal”, for example, is not in the Dhammapada.

A simple test: a real Dhammapada quote can be traced to a verse number and a named translation. Every quote on this page can be. If a “Buddha quote” comes without a source, treat it as a nice thought by somebody, not as scripture.

Quotes on the mind and thought

The Dhammapada opens with the mind, and keeps coming back to it.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.

Dhammapada 1, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

Dhammapada 2, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

These first two are “twin verses”: the same opening, then a different ending. The first chapter is built entirely from such pairs, so that a harmful path and a helpful one sit side by side.

As a fletcher makes straight his arrow, a wise man makes straight his trembling and unsteady thought, which is difficult to guard, difficult to hold back.

Dhammapada 33, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it listeth; a tamed mind brings happiness.

Dhammapada 35, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Let the wise man guard his thoughts, for they are difficult to perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they list: thoughts well guarded bring happiness.

Dhammapada 36, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Not a mother, not a father will do so much, nor any other relative; a well-directed mind will do us greater service.

Dhammapada 43, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like); fletchers bend the arrow; carpenters bend a log of wood; wise people fashion themselves.

Dhammapada 80, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Quotes on anger and hatred

For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.

Dhammapada 5, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Verse 5 may be the most quoted line in the whole collection. Notice the last phrase: “this is an old rule”. It is presented not as a new commandment but as something people have always known and keep forgetting.

Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful, blows for blows will touch thee.

Dhammapada 133, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us! among men who hate us let us dwell free from hatred!

Dhammapada 197, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

He who holds back rising anger like a rolling chariot, him I call a real driver; other people are but holding the reins.

Dhammapada 222, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth!

Dhammapada 223, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Beware of the anger of the tongue, and control thy tongue! Leave the sins of the tongue, and practise virtue with thy tongue!

Dhammapada 232, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Quotes on self-mastery

By rousing himself, by earnestness, by restraint and control, the wise man may make for himself an island which no flood can overwhelm.

Dhammapada 25, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

If one man conquer in battle a thousand times thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors.

Dhammapada 103, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Self is the lord of self, who else could be the lord? With self well subdued, a man finds a lord such as few can find.

Dhammapada 160, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself, no one can purify another.

Dhammapada 165, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Rouse thyself by thyself, examine thyself by thyself, thus self-protected and attentive wilt thou live happily, O Bhikshu!

Dhammapada 379, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

A bhikshu (Pali bhikkhu) is a monk, literally “one who lives on alms”. Many verses are addressed to monks, but their advice reaches well beyond the monastery.

Quotes on wisdom and speech

Even though a speech be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of sense is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.

Dhammapada 100, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

The fool who knows his foolishness, is wise at least so far. But a fool who thinks himself wise, he is called a fool indeed.

Dhammapada 63, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Wise people, after they have listened to the laws, become serene, like a deep, smooth, and still lake.

Dhammapada 82, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

A man is not learned because he talks much; he who is patient, free from hatred and fear, he is called learned.

Dhammapada 258, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Quotes on desire and contentment

As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind.

Dhammapada 13, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Health is the greatest of gifts, contentedness the best riches; trust is the best of relationships, Nirvana the highest happiness.

Dhammapada 204, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.

Dhammapada 251, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Him I call indeed a Brahmana who does not cling to pleasures, like water on a lotus leaf, like a mustard seed on the point of a needle.

Dhammapada 401, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

The last chapter of the Dhammapada redefines the word Brahmana, a member of the priestly class. Again and again it says: I call someone a Brahmana not because of birth, but because of how they live.

Quotes on impermanence and death

Death carries off a man who is gathering flowers and whose mind is distracted, as a flood carries off a sleeping village.

Dhammapada 47, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Look upon the world as a bubble, look upon it as a mirage: the king of death does not see him who thus looks down upon the world.

Dhammapada 170, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

There never was, there never will be, nor is there now, a man who is always blamed, or a man who is always praised.

Dhammapada 228, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Quotes on goodness

The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor (that of) sandal-wood, or of Tagara and Mallika flowers; but the odour of good people travels even against the wind; a good man pervades every place.

Dhammapada 54, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the fool becomes full of evil, even if he gather it little by little.

Dhammapada 121, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

The very next verse, 122, turns the same image around: the wise person fills up with good in the same way, drop by drop. Small daily acts, in both directions, add up.

Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one’s mind, that is the teaching of (all) the Awakened.

Dhammapada 183, tr. F. Max Müller (1881)

Verse 183 is often called a summary of the whole of the Buddha’s teaching in a single line.

Key terms that help

• Dhamma (Sanskrit Dharma): the teaching, and the truth it points to.
• Nirvana (Pali Nibbana): the “blowing out” of greed, hatred and delusion; peace beyond craving.
• Mara: the tempter, a personification of whatever pulls the mind away from freedom.
• Bhikshu: a monk or mendicant.
• Brahmana: in the Dhammapada, a person made noble by conduct rather than birth.

How to read the Dhammapada

The Dhammapada was made to be learned by heart, a verse at a time. You do not need to read it straight through. Three approaches work well:

1. One verse a day. Choose a verse in the morning and notice where it shows up in your day.
2. One chapter a week. The chapters are short and each circles one theme: Thought, Anger, Happiness, Old Age.
3. A guided plan. Soulfeed’s The Dhammapada in 21 days plan takes one verse from each of the early chapters, with a plain explanation and a reflection question each day. See our guide to choosing a daily reading plan.

If you like these verses, the Buddha’s teaching also appears in the older Sutta-Nipata, and the same insistence on watching the mind runs through the Stoics. Compare Dhammapada 1 with Marcus Aurelius on how “the soul is dyed by the thoughts” in our Marcus Aurelius quotes, or with Laozi’s muddy water in Tao Te Ching quotes.

Read the Dhammapada in Soulfeed

All 26 chapters of the Dhammapada are in Soulfeed’s library, in a clear modern rendering with Müller’s 1881 wording a tap away, plus the meaning of each verse, key terms and a question to reflect on. You can read it in order in the Library tab, or let verses arrive one by one in your feed. Learn more in What is Soulfeed? or visit the Soulfeed home page.