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.

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Creator: Traditional Buddhist verse
Nationality / cultural background: South Asian · early Buddhist tradition
Work / edition: 1881 translation

Translation: F. Max Müller · English

Historical public-domain text. Selected passage; line-end whitespace normalised. No generated quotation.

In the source: Chapter I. The Twin-Verses; paragraph 1 in the selected body section

Selected for the Brief on 8 Sep 2026. This date records our selection, rather than when the work was created.