Dhammapada on Greed

Let us live happily then, free from greed among the greedy! among men who are greedy let us dwell free from greed!

From greed comes grief, from greed comes fear; he who is free from greed knows neither grief nor fear.

An envious greedy, dishonest man does not become respectable by means of much talking only, or by the beauty of his complexion.

Him I call indeed a Brahmana who, leaving all longings, travels about without a home, and in whom all covetousness is extinct.

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

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

When the learned man drives away vanity by earnestness, he, the wise, climbing the terraced heights of wisdom, looks down upon the fools, serene he looks upon the toiling crowd, as one that stands on a mountain looks down upon them that stand upon the plain.

That deed is not well done of which a man must repent, and the reward of which he receives crying and with a tearful face.

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.

Come, look at this glittering world, like unto a royal chariot; the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.

This world is dark, few only can see here; a few only go to heaven, like birds escaped from the net.

Let no man ever look for what is pleasant, or what is unpleasant. Not to see what is pleasant is pain, and it is pain to see what is unpleasant.

If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure, let a wise man leave the small pleasure, and look to the great.

Four things does a wreckless man gain who covets his neighbour's wife,--a bad reputation, an uncomfortable bed, thirdly, punishment, and lastly, hell.

He whose thirst running towards pleasure is exceeding strong in the thirty-six channels, the waves will carry away that misguided man, viz. his desires which are set on passion.

A creature's pleasures are extravagant and luxurious; sunk in lust and looking for pleasure, men undergo (again and again) birth and decay.

If a man is tossed about by doubts, full of strong passions, and yearning only for what is delightful, his thirst will grow more and more, and he will indeed make his fetters strong.

Pleasures destroy the foolish, if they look not for the other shore; the foolish by his thirst for pleasures destroys himself, as if he were his own enemy.