Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings--that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

This saying is a modern paraphrase of counsel attributed to the Buddha in the Pali Canon, most closely associated with the Kalama Sutta. In that discourse, the Buddha addresses the Kalamas, a community troubled by competing teachers and doctrines, and advises them not to accept claims on the basis of hearsay, tradition, scripture, or reverence for a teacher. Instead, he urges them to examine teachings in light of experience and their ethical consequences—especially whether they lead away from greed, hatred, and delusion and toward welfare and benefit. The quote condenses that pragmatic, inquiry-based guidance into a single admonition about critical examination and compassionate outcomes.

This popular “Buddha quote” expresses a core Buddhist emphasis on personal verification: teachings should be tested in experience and evaluated by their ethical consequences rather than accepted on authority, tradition, or hearsay. Its thrust is pragmatic and moral: a doctrine is worth adopting insofar as it reduces harm and promotes welfare for oneself and others. In modern usage it is often invoked as a Buddhist endorsement of skepticism or free inquiry; more precisely, it aligns with the tradition’s encouragement to examine teachings carefully and to commit to those that conduce to wholesome states and compassionate action.