- 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.
- One should first establish oneself in what is proper; then only should on instruct others. Thus the wise man will not be reproached.
- 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.
- 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.
- The evil a witless man does by himself, born of himself and produced by himself, grinds him as a diamond grinds a hard gem.
- Just as a single creeper strangles the tree on which it grows, even so a man who is exceeding depraved harms himself as only an enemy might 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.
- Whoever, on account of perverted views, scorns the Teaching of the Perfect Ones, the Noble and Righteous ones - that fool, like the bamboo, produces fruits only for self destruction.
- 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 depended on one-self; 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.

Dhammapada Chapter 12:137-166