If you are afraid of pain,
if you don’t like it,
do nothing evil,
either openly or in secret.
For if you do,
even if you get up and run away
you won’t escape its pain.
If you are afraid of pain,
if you don’t like it,
take refuge in the Buddha,
the Dharma and the Sangha.
Train in the precepts.
This is good.
-Theri Gatha

The brahman Dona saw the Buddha sitting under a tree and was impressed by his peaceful air of alertness and his good looks. He asked the Buddha:

“Are you a god?”
“No, brahman, I am not a god.”

“Then an angel?”
“No, indeed, brahman.”

“A spirit, then?”
“No, I am not a spirit.”

“Then what are you?”
“I am awake.”
-Anguttara Nikaya

Dwelling in kindness, a monk
with faith in the Awakened One’s teaching,
would attain the good state,
the peaceful state:
stilling-of-fabrications ease.

Monk, bail out this boat.
It will take you lightly when bailed.
Having cut through passion, aversion,
you go from there to Unbinding.
-Dhammapada

Abandon wrongdoing. It can be done. If there were no likelihood, I would not ask you to do it. But since it is possible and since it brings blessing and happiness, I do ask of you: abandon wrongdoing.
Cultivate doing good. It can be done. If it brought deprivation and sorrow, I would not ask you to do it. But since it brings blessing and happiness, I do ask of you: cultivate doing good.
-Anguttara Nikaya

For whom, in name & form
in every way,
there’s no sense of mine,
& who doesn’t grieve
for what’s not:
he’s deservedly called a monk.
-Dhammapada

Even if for a lifetime
the fool stays with the wise,
he knows nothing of the Dhamma–
as the ladle,
the taste of the soup.

Even if for a moment,
the perceptive person stays with the wise,
he immediately knows the Dhamma–
as the tongue,
the taste of the soup.
-Dhammapada

Whoever does no wrong
in body, speech, heart;
is restrained in these three ways:
he’s what I call a brahmin.
-Dhammapada

They awaken, always wide awake:
Gotama’s disciples
whose mindfulness, both day & night,
is constantly immersed
in the Buddha.

They awaken, always wide awake:
Gotama’s disciples
whose mindfulness, both day & night,
is constantly immersed
in the Dhamma.
-Dhammapada

Real peace will arise spontaneously
When your mind becomes free of attachments,
When you know that the objects of the world
Can never give you what you really want.
-Theragatha

Just as vessels made of clay by a potter all have breaking as their end, so is the life of mortals.
-Sutta Nipata