Dhammapada · धम्मपद

Four hundred and twenty-three verses of the Pāli canon, the most-read Buddhist book there is and the plainest — no metaphysics, almost no cosmology, just the shape of a mind and what it does to a life. All that we are is the result of what we have thought. Hatred is never appeased by hatred; by love alone is hatred appeased. Its nearest Jewish shelf-mate is Pirkei Avot — likewise short, likewise practical, likewise a chain of teachers speaking in aphorism about how to hold a life. Both traditions produced, early, one small book you could give to anyone.