Sayings of the Buddha: The Classic Guide to His Teachings

by F. Max Müller

128 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2025

About the author

Friedrich Max Müller, K.M. (Ph.D., Philology, Leipzig University, 1843)—generally known as Max Müller or F. Max Müller—was the first Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University, and an Orientalist who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology and the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set of English translations, was prepared under his direction.

Müller became a naturalized British citizen in 1855. In 1869, he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as a foreign correspondent. He was awarded the Pour le Mérite (civil class) in 1874, and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art the following year. In 1888, he was appointed Gifford Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, delivering the first in what has proved to be an ongoing, annual series of lectures at several Scottish universities to the present day. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in 1896.

His wife, Georgina Adelaide Müller was also an author. After Max's death, she deposited his papers at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Reviews

[Luciano Elementi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A plentiful collection of thought-provoking messages in a compact, readable, and approachable format. I suggest making the time not to read through all in one bite, but to read-meditate-repeat for each of the multitude of paragraphs.
Nothing we haven't heard before, but just thinking about the timeless messages these verses bring assists our entrance into the land of plenty

[Logan Macnair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially just an early (as in, late 19th century) English translation of The Dhammapada. While there have certainly been better translations to come in the 100+ years since, this remains an important development in the westward spread of Buddhism.

3.5 stars (this based on the translation, not the content itself)