Come, look at this glittering world, like unto a royal chariot; the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.

About this quote

This is verse 171 of the Dhammapada, from the chapter called The World — seeing the world as bubble and mirage, and rising above it.

The Dhammapada is a collection of 423 verses in Pali, among the oldest and most widely read records of the Buddha’s teaching. This English translation is by F. Max Müller (1881), the pioneering Oxford scholar of Indian texts; the verse number is cited with this quote.