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Perform action, O Arjuna, being steadfast in Yoga, abandoning attachment and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of mind is called Yoga.

He attains peace into whom all desires enter as waters enter the ocean which, filled from all sides, remains unmoved; but not the man who is full of desires.

Having made pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat the same, engage thou in battle for the sake of battle; thus thou shalt not incur sin.

That man attains peace who, abandoning all desires, moves about without longing, without the sense of mine and without egoism.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

Never say of anything, I have lost it; but, I have returned it. Has your child died? It is returned.

When about to undertake any action, remind yourself what nature the action is — so that, if hindrances arise, you can say, this too is part of it.

Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike. Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the Tao.

Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.

The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty, full; the worn out, new. He whose (desires) are few gets them; he whose (desires) are many goes astray.

There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it;⁠—for there is nothing (so effectual) for which it can be changed.

Thy right is to work only, but never with its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction.

Endowed with wisdom (evenness of mind), one casts off in this life both good and evil deeds; therefore, devote thyself to Yoga; Yoga is skill in action.

Therefore without attachment, do thou always perform action which should be done; for by performing action without attachment man reaches the Supreme.

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work — as a human being.

Let it make no difference to you whether you are cold or warm, if you are doing your duty; and whether you are drowsy or satisfied with sleep.

Be not perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the whole; and in a little time you will be no one and nowhere.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.

(It is the way of the Tao) to act without (thinking of) acting; to conduct affairs without (feeling the) trouble of them; to taste without discerning any flavour; to consider what is small as great, and a few as many; and to recompense injury with kindness.

The contacts of the senses with the objects, O son of Kunti, which cause heat and cold, pleasure and pain, have a beginning and an end; they are impermanent; endure them bravely, O Arjuna.

On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.

Sickness is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses.

There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

Set aside a certain number of days during which you shall be content with the scantiest fare, and say, Is this the condition that I feared?

From anger comes delusion; from delusion loss of memory; from loss of memory the destruction of discrimination; from the destruction of discrimination he perishes.

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

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

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

The Master said, 'The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.'

The Master said, 'The superior man wishes to be slow in his speech and earnest in his conduct.'

The Master said, 'The superior man is affable, but not adulatory; the mean man is adulatory, but not affable.'

Better is one's own duty, though devoid of merit than the duty of another well discharged. Better is death in one's own duty; the duty of another is fraught with fear (is productive of danger).

Whatsoever a great man does, that the other men also do; whatever he sets up as the standard, that the world (mankind) follows.

Speech which causes no excitement, truthful, pleasant and beneficial, the practice of the study of the Vedas, are called austerity of speech.

One should not abandon, O Arjuna, the duty to which one is born, though faulty; for, all undertakings are enveloped by evil, as fire by smoke.

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.

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

On no occasion call yourself a philosopher, and do not talk much among the uninstructed about theorems, but do that which follows from them.

The condition of a proficient: he censures no one, praises no one, blames no one, accuses no one; says nothing concerning himself as being anybody or knowing anything.

Every habit and faculty is maintained and increased by the corresponding actions.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

A present opinion founded on understanding, present conduct directed to the common good, a present disposition content with all that happens — that is enough.

He who is brave is free.

Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, and against other misfortunes.

He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches his legs does not walk (easily). (So), he who displays himself does not shine; he who asserts his own views is not distinguished; he who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged; he who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him. Such conditions, viewed from the standpoint of the Tao, are like remnants of food, or a tumour on the body, which all dislike. Hence those who pursue (the course) of the Tao do not adopt and allow them.60

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion — in a word, whatever are our own actions.

You can be invincible if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your own power to conquer.

Aversion has for its object the things which are not in our power; and whoever is averse to what is not in his power will be wretched.

If you wish to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things.

If you wish your loved ones to live for ever, you are unwise; for you wish to control things you cannot.

Things that are not in our power must be treated as nothing to us.

The Master said, 'Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.'

The Master said, 'When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them.'

From whatever cause the restless and unsteady mind wanders away, from that let him restrain it and bring it under the control of the Self alone.

The Blessed Lord said Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed Arjuna, the mind is difficult to control and restless; but by practice and by dispassion it may be restrained.

Verily Yoga is not possible for him who eats too much, nor for him who does not eat at all, nor for him who sleeps too much, nor for him who is (always) awake, O Arjuna.

Let a wise man blow off the impurities of his self, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver one by one, little by little, and from time to time.

It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.

True joy is a serious matter. It is not won from things outside us, but rises from within.

Whenever there is decline of righteousness, O Arjuna, and rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself.

In this there is no loss of effort, nor is there any harm (production of contrary results or transgression). Even a little of this knowledge (even a little practice of this Yoga) protects one from great fear.

It is not born, nor does It ever die; after having been, It again ceases not to be; unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, It is not killed when the body is killed.

Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible, be daily before your eyes; and you will never entertain any abject thought.

Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to live. While it is in your power, be good.

Since it is possible that you may depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.

Study death always. He who has learned to die has unlearned to be a slave.

Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.

Every thing has two handles, the one by which it may be borne, the other by which it may not.

Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is your opinion about these things as being insulting.

When another is in misfortune we say it is according to nature; but when it happens to ourselves we cry, Alas! Wretched that I am!

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.

Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint. Take away the complaint, and the hurt is gone.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

He whose mind is not shaken by adversity, who does not hanker after pleasures, and is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady wisdom.

There is no knowledge of the Self to the unsteady and to the unsteady no meditation is possible, and to the unmeditative there can be no peace, and to the man who has no peace, how can there be happiness?

As a lamp placed in a windless spot does not flicker to such is compared the Yogi of controlled mind, practising Yoga in the Self (or absorbed in the Yoga of the Self).

Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.

Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not assemble in your mind the many and varied troubles which have come to you in the past and will come again in the future.

Do every act of your life as if it were the last, freeing yourself from all aimlessness and passion.

Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.

How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks.

Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.

Let us prepare our minds as if we had come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing.

He who hates no creature, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving.

He who, through the likeness of the Self, O Arjuna, sees eality everywhere, be it pleasure or pain, he is regarded as the highest Yogi.

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

When you see anyone weeping in grief, do not be overpowered by the appearance; yet be ready to sympathise, and even to weep with him.

Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.

It is a man's special gift to love even those who stumble against him.

Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters.

Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided, welcome him with all your heart.

In the highest antiquity, (the people) did not know that there were (their rulers). In the next age they loved them and praised them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them. Thus it was that when faith (in the Tao) was deficient (in the rulers) a want of faith in them ensued (in the people).

The Master said, 'When we see men of worth, we should think of equalling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.'

The Master said, 'I will not be afflicted at men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men.'

The Master said, 'To have faults and not to reform them,-- this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.'

One should raise oneself by one's Self alone; let not one lower oneself; for the Self alone is the friend of oneself, and the Self alone is the enemy of oneself.

The Self is the friend of the self of him by whom the self has been conered by the Self, but to the unconered self, this Self stands in the position of an enemy, like an (external) foe.

He who does actions, offering them to Brahman, and abandoning attachment, is not tainted by sin, just as a lotus-leaf is not tainted by water.

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.

Not the perversities of others, not their sins of commission or omission, but his own misdeeds and negligences should a sage take notice of.

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

The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the gambler.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.

If any man can convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever injured.

How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you out.

The wise man is content with himself; he is his own friend.

He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty. He who is satisfied with his lot is rich; he who goes on acting with energy has a (firm) will.

Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. Is anything brought to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation.

Do less, but better. Most of what we say and do is not necessary; remove it, and you will have more time and more tranquillity.

Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession.

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough if you know how to use it.

Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.

You live as if destined to live for ever; your own frailty never occurs to you; you do not notice how much time has already passed.