If one holds oneself dear, one should diligently watch oneself. Let the wise man keep vigil during any of the three watches of the night.
If you truly value yourself, watch over yourself with care. Stay awake and attentive through at least one part of your life; don't sleepwalk through all of it.
One should first establish oneself in what is proper; then only should one instruct others. Thus the wise man will not be reproached.
First get yourself rightly settled, and only then set out to guide others; that way the wise person gives no one cause to fault them.
One should do what one teaches others to do; if one would train others, one should be well controlled oneself. Difficult, indeed, is self-control.
Do yourself what you tell others to do; once you are well-trained yourself, then you can train another. Mastering oneself, though, is the hardest thing of all.
One truly is the protector of oneself; who else could the protector be? With oneself fully controlled, one gains a mastery that is hard to gain.
You are your own true refuge. Who else could it be? With yourself well-mastered, you gain a protector that very few ever find.
The evil a witless man does by himself, born of himself and produced by himself, grinds him as a diamond grinds a hard gem.
The harm a foolish person does is born of himself and bred by himself, and it grinds him down, the way a diamond grinds away a hard gem.
Just as a single creeper strangles the tree on which it grows, even so, a man who is exceedingly depraved harms himself as only an enemy might wish.
Just as a creeping vine strangles the tree it climbs, a deeply corrupt person does to himself exactly what an enemy would wish.
Easy to do are things that are bad and harmful to oneself. But exceedingly difficult to do are things that are good and beneficial.
Things that are bad and harmful to yourself are easy to do. What is good and truly beneficial is the hardest thing of all.
Whoever, on account of perverted views, scorns the Teaching of the Perfected Ones, the Noble and Righteous Ones — that fool, like the bamboo, produces fruits only for self destruction. [14]
Whoever, out of warped views, scorns the teaching of the awakened, the noble and the righteous, is like the bamboo that flowers only to die; that fool bears fruit for his own undoing.
By oneself is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself is one made pure. Purity and impurity depend on oneself; no one can purify another.
By yourself the wrong is done, and by yourself you are defiled; by yourself the wrong is left undone, and by yourself you are made pure. Purity and impurity rest on you alone; no one can purify another.
Let one not neglect one’s own welfare for the sake of another, however great. Clearly understanding one’s own welfare, let one be intent upon the good.
Don't neglect your own true good for someone else's, however great theirs may be. Once you clearly understand where your own good lies, give yourself fully to that.