Sourced and curated.

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

The Art of War · 475 BC

★ 8.3

Wisdom literature

Ahiqar

500 BC

★ 7.2

Political literature

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Kautilya

300 BC

★ 7.1

For hate is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is a law eternal.

Pali Tipitaka

100 BC

★ 7.0

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 5.8

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.

The Art of War · 490 BC

★ 5.7

When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao.

221 BC

★ 4.7

Moral force never dwells in solitude; it will always bring neighbors.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 4.1

To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

The Art of War · 500 BC

★ 4.0

I for my part am not one of those who have innate knowledge. I am simply one who loves the past and who is diligent in investigating it.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 4.0

Is Goodness indeed so far away? If we really wanted Goodness, we should find that it was at our very side.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 4.0

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Gautama Buddha

511 BC

★ 4.0

The sage does not accumulate for himself. The more he uses for others, the more he has himself. The more he gives to others, the more he possesses of his own. The Way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 4.0

If you desire what is good, the people will be good. The character of a ruler is like wind and that of the people is like grass. In whatever direction the wind blows the grass always bends.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 4.0

At fifteen my mind was set on learning. At thirty my character had been formed. At forty I had no more perplexities. At fifty I knew the Mandate of Heaven. At sixty I was at ease with whatever I heard. At seventy I could follow my heart's desire without transgressing moral principles.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 4.0

I am mighty Time, the source of destruction that comes forth to annihilate the worlds.

Krishna

Bhagavad Gita · 200 BC

★ 3.9

Even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.

Jianzhi Sengcan

606

★ 3.9

Poem

When a pair of magpies fly together They do not envy the pair of phoenixes.

Lady Ho

300 BC

★ 3.8

The great man is the one who does not lose his [originally good] child's heart.

300 BC

★ 3.8

The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards.

300 BC

★ 3.8

The root of the kingdom is the state. The root of the state is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its head.

300 BC

★ 3.8

And do thy duty, even if it be humble, rather than another's, even if it be great. To die in one's duty is life: to live in another's is death.

Bhagavad Gita

200 BC

★ 3.8

Leave all things behind, and come unto me for thy salvation. I will make thee free from this bondage of sins. Fear no more.

Bhagavad Gita

200 BC

★ 3.8

Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from the darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality!

The Upanishads

500 BC

★ 3.7

This noble eightfold path…right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation.

The Pali Canon

250 BC

★ 3.7

I am all-powerful Time which destroys all things, and I have come here to slay these men. Even if thou dost not fight, all the warriors facing thee shall die.

Krishna

Bhagavad Gita · 200 BC

★ 3.7

The Noble Truth of Suffering is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorror and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering-in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering.

Pali Tipitaka

100 BC

★ 3.6

The person who is searching for his own happiness should pull out the dart that he has stuck in himself, the arrow-head of grieving, of desiring, of despair.

Pali Tipitaka

100 BC

★ 3.6

The Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of suffering is this: It is simply the Noble Eightfold Path, namely right view; right thought; right speech; right action; right livelihood; right effort; right mindfulness; right concentration.

Pali Tipitaka

100 BC

★ 3.6

If a man should conquer in battle a thousand and a thousand more, and another man should conquer himself, his would be the greater victory, because the greatest of victories is the victory over oneself.

Pali Tipitaka

100 BC

★ 3.6

Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world: A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream; A flash of lightning in a summer cloud. A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

Nagarjuna

180

★ 3.6

Before heaven and earth had taken form all was vague and amorphous. Therefore it was called the Great Beginning. The Great Beginning produced emptines and emptiness produced the universe... The combined essences of heaven and earth became the yin and yang, the concentrated essences of the yin and yang became the four seasons, and the scattered essences of the four seasons became the myriad creatures of the world.

Huainanzi

139 BC

★ 3.5

The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities... It is best to win without fighting.

The Art of War · 490 BC

★ 3.3

A gentleman is ashamed to let his words outrun his deeds.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 3.3

He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

Have no friends who are not of equal (moral) caliber.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

Let people hold on to these: Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

The superior man understands righteousness; the inferior man understands profit.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

A young man's duty is to behave well to his parents at home and to his elders abroad.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

Does Heaven say anything? The four seasons run their course and all things are produced. Does Heaven say anything?

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

In the presence of a good man, think all the time how you may learn to equal him. In the presence of a bad man, turn your gaze within.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

If we are not yet able to serve man, how can we serve spiritual beings?... If we do not yet know about life how can we know about death?

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

He who will not worry about what is far off will soon find something worse than worry close at hand.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.4

If you find a man who points out faults and who reproves, follow such a wise person as you would a guide to hidden treasure.

Gautama Buddha

520 BC

★ 2.3

When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, There arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, There arises the recognition of evil.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.3

The pursuit of learning is to increase day after day. The pursuit of Tao is to decrease day after day. It is to decrease and further decrease until one reaches the point of taking no action. No action is undertaken, and yet nothing is left undone.

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.3

What is over and done with, one does not discuss. What has already taken its course, one does not criticize; what already belongs to the past, one does not censure.

Analects · 221 BC

★ 2.3

The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.

300 BC

★ 2.2

The universe and I exist together, and all things and I are one.

221 BC

★ 2.2

The people turn to a benevolent rule as water flows downwards, and as wild beasts fly to the wilderness.

300 BC

★ 2.1

When one by force subdues men, they do not submit to him in heart. They submit, because their strength is not adequate to resist.

300 BC

★ 2.1

People suppose that words are different from the peeps of baby birds, but is there any difference, or isn't there?

220 BC

★ 2.1

Invisible before birth are all beings and after death invisible again. They are seen between two unseens. Why in this truth find sorrow?

Bhagavad Gita

200 BC

★ 2.1

As the Spirit of our mortal body wanders on in childhood, and youth and old age, the Spirit wanders on to a new body: of this the sage has no doubts.

Bhagavad Gita

200 BC

★ 2.1

As a man leaves an old garment and puts on one that is new, the spirit leaves his mortal body and puts on one that is new.

Bhagavad Gita

200 BC

★ 2.1

Those who are contented and at ease when the occasion comes and live in accord with the course of Nature cannot be affected by sorrow or joy. This is what the ancients called release from bondage. Those who cannot release themselves are so because they are bound by material things.