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Quotations By Nagarjuna


Action
He who knoweth the precepts by heart, but faileth to practice them, is like unto one who lighteth a lamp and then shutteth his eyes.

Death
Property is unstable, and youth perishes in a moment. Life itself is held in the grinning fangs of Death, Yet men delay to obtain release from the world. Alas, the conduct of mankind is surprising.

Enemy
Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads.

Enemy
Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man's enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion.

Excellence
A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

Family
When your eyes are fixed in the stare of unconsciousness, and your throat coughs the last gasping breath - as one dragged in the dark to a great precipice - what assistance are a wife and child?

Fate
This body, full of faults, Has yet one great quality: Whatever it encounters in this temporal life Depends upon one's actions. -- Nagarjuna

Fear
An anthill increases by accumulation. Medicine is consumed by distribution. That which is feared lessens by association. This is the thing to understand.

Fool
The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable. -- Nagarjuna

Life
Those who speak ill of the spiritual life, Although they come and go by day, Are like the smith's bellows: They take breath but are not alive. -- Nagarjuna

Purity
Although a cloth be washed a hundred times, how can it be rendered clean and pure if it be washed in water which is dirty?

Sage
The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

Science
The science which teacheth arts and handicrafts is merely science for the gaining of a living; but the science which teacheth deliverance from worldly existence, is not that the true science?

Virtue
Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.