Most “Buddha quotes” on the internet cannot be checked. They arrive without a text, without a chapter, and often without any source at all — a sentence in quotation marks under a photograph. This page collects the ones that can be traced: verses of the Dhammapada, in a translation that is public domain, with the verse number attached so you can look each one up.
The most quoted verses in the book
These are the lines that show up again and again in anthologies, talks and feeds. Every one of them is a verse of the Dhammapada, and the number is the citation.
“Intention is the leader of things; intention is first, they’re made by intention. If with corrupt intent you speak or act, suffering follows you, like a wheel, the ox’s foot.”
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā; Manasā ce paduṭṭhena, bhāsati vā karoti vā; Tato naṁ dukkhamanveti, cakkaṁva vahato padaṁ.
“Intention is the leader of things; intention is first, they’re made by intention. If with pure intent you speak or act, happiness follows you like a shadow that never leaves.”
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā; Manasā ce pasannena, bhāsati vā karoti vā; Tato naṁ sukhamanveti, chāyāva anapāyinī.
“For never is hatred laid to rest by hate, it’s laid to rest by love: this is an ancient teaching.”
Na hi verena verāni, sammantīdha kudācanaṁ; Averena ca sammanti, esa dhammo sanantano.
“Not to do any evil; to embrace the good; to purify one’s mind: this is the instruction of the Buddhas.”
Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṁ, kusalassa upasampadā; Sacittapariyodapanaṁ, etaṁ buddhāna sāsanaṁ.
“Defeat anger with kindness, villainy with virtue, stinginess with giving, and lies with truth.”
Akkodhena jine kodhaṁ, asādhuṁ sādhunā jine; Jine kadariyaṁ dānena, saccenālikavādinaṁ.
“All conditions are impermanent— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”
“Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā”ti, yadā paññāya passati; Atha nibbindati dukkhe, esa maggo visuddhiyā.
Verse 1 is the book’s opening line, and it is the one most often quoted in a shortened form — “the mind is everything” is not in the text, and neither is “what you think you become”. What the verse actually says is that intention comes first, and that what a person intends shapes what they say and do, and that this follows them the way a wheel follows the foot of the ox. That is a narrower claim, and a more demanding one.
Verse 5 is the line that ends the argument begun in verses 3 and 4. Verses 3 and 4 are the same sentence twice — the person who carries a grudge has not laid hatred to rest, the person who does not carry it has — and verse 5 gives the reason. It is the most reproduced passage in the book.
Where the rest of them are
The Dhammapada is 423 verses across 26 chapters, and it is organised by subject rather than by how quotable the lines are. If you want the quotes on a particular subject, these pages collect the verses and nothing else:
- Buddha quotes on life — the working verses on intention, and what a life is measured by
- Buddha quotes on peace — stillness, and verse 5 again
- Buddha quotes on anger — verses 3–5 and the whole chapter on anger
- Buddha quotes on death — the flood, the mirage, the city built of bones
- Buddha quotes on love — and the difference between love and goodwill
- Buddha quotes on happiness — the chapter that argues happiness follows from what is given up
- Buddha quotes on suffering — the mechanism, and what follows its end
- Buddha quotes on impermanence — anicca, and verses 277–279
- Buddha quotes on karma — action, and why the ripening is slow
- Buddha quotes on the mind — the opening verses and the chapter on mind
- Buddha quotes on attachment — craving, and the house-builder
- Buddha quotes on fear — including all trembling at the rod
- Buddha quotes on self-discipline — restraint and training
- Short Buddhist quotes — sixty verses short enough to fit on a card
- Buddhist sayings — why “sayings” and “quotes” are not the same list
How to check a Buddha quote in four steps
- Ask for the text and the number. A real citation names a collection, a chapter and a verse. “Buddha said” is not a citation.
- Search the number. If someone quotes verse 183, the verse is one line and can be read in a minute. If no number is offered, that is the answer.
- Watch for the three-word tell. Quotes that begin “The mind is…”, “Peace comes from…”, or “In the end, only three things…” are almost never in the canon.
- Check whether the line needs the word “Buddha” at all. A great many of them are modern self-help sentences that would be unremarkable without the attribution.
A separate page works through the ones that fail this test, with what the Dhammapada actually says on the same subject.
Why this page only quotes one book
Because a checkable list has to stop somewhere. The Dhammapada is a single, bounded collection — 423 verses, 26 chapters, one public-domain translation here — which makes it possible to say “this is the whole of it” rather than “this is what I found”. The wider Pali canon is many times larger and much of it is not translated into English at all, so a quote from outside the Dhammapada can be genuine and still be impossible to verify quickly.
For the same reason, this page does not include quotes from later teachers — Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Ajahn Chah — however good they are. They are traceable to their authors, and they are not the Buddha.
Using these quotes
The English translation is Bhikkhu Sujato’s, released CC0 through SuttaCentral: you can copy it, print it, put it on a poster, and no attribution is legally required. If you want a card, every verse page has a button that draws one on your own device — a 1080×1080 square or a 1080×1920 wallpaper, paper and ink, no watermark.