Nagarjuna Quotes
Nagarjuna was a 2nd or 3rd-century AD Indian Mahayana Buddhist philosopher and the founder of the Madhyamaka or Middle Way school, regarded as one of the most important philosophers in the Indian Buddhist tradition. His central work, the Mulamadhyamakakarika or Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, develops the doctrine of emptiness, arguing that all phenomena lack inherent existence and exist only in relations of dependent origination. The quotes below are attributed to Nagarjuna, organized by topic.
Browse Nagarjuna by topic
Nagarjuna on God
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Attributed to Nagarjuna:
“I bow down to the Buddha, the supreme teacher, who has taught dependent origination.”
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“Due to having faith one relies on the practices, Due to having wisdom one truly knows. Of these two wisdom is the chief, Faith is its prerequisite.”
The Precious Garland, 5 | trans. by Jeffrey Hopkins, "Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation: Nagarjuna's Precious Garland" (1998), ISBN 1559398515
Nagarjuna on Knowledge
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Attributed to Nagarjuna:
“Emptiness wrongly grasped is like seizing a snake by the wrong end.”
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“No suffering is self-caused. Nothing causes itself. If another is not self-made, How could suffering be caused by another? If suffering were caused by each, Suffering could be caused by both. Not caused by self or by other, How could suffering be uncaused?”
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 14.8–9 | trans. Jay Garfield, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (1995), ISBN 0195093364 -
“Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 14.8–9”
No suffering is self-caused. Nothing causes itself. If another is not self-made, How could suffering be caused by another? If suffering were caused by each, Suffering could be caused by both. Not caused by self or by other, How could suffering be uncaused? -
“I, without grasping will pass beyond sorrow, And I will attain nirvāṇa," one says. Whoever grasps like this Has great grasping.”
§ 16.9 -
“If you think you see both Destruction and becoming, Then you see destruction and becoming Through impaired vision.”
§ 20.11 -
“The Precious Garland, 5”
Due to having faith one relies on the practices, Due to having wisdom one truly knows. Of these two wisdom is the chief, Faith is its prerequisite. -
“I am not, I will not be. I have not, I will not have." That frightens all the childish And extinguishes fear in the wise.”
§ 26 -
“If you desire ease, forsake learning. If you desire learning, forsake ease. How can the man at his ease acquire knowledge, And how can the earnest student enjoy ease?”
Misc | The Tree of Wisdom
Nagarjuna on Life
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Attributed to Nagarjuna:
“Samsara is nothing essentially different from nirvana; nirvana is nothing essentially different from samsara.”
Nagarjuna on Nature
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Attributed to Nagarjuna:
“Nothing whatsoever has ever existed in itself.”
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Attributed to Nagarjuna:
“Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness.”
Nagarjuna on Truth
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Attributed to Nagarjuna:
“Without dependence on conventional truth, the meaning of the ultimate cannot be taught.”
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Attributed to Nagarjuna:
“If I had any thesis, that fault would apply to me; but I have no thesis at all.”
Nagarjuna on Virtue
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“Even if you seek to harm an enemy, You should remove your own defects and cultivate good qualities. Through that you will help yourself, And the enemy will be displeased.”
§ 132