Did the Buddha really say this?

“in the war of the ego, the loser always wins.”
----- the Buddha
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DCZdnSk4W/?mibextid=xfxF2i

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No. Almost none of the Buddha “quotes” on FB are real. Unless of course it’s an account dedicated to suttas.

@Bodhipaksa, doesn’t look like you have this one.

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Thanks. Not having a Facebook account I’m not able to see the original source, which I’d prefer to do when I write these things up. If it’s an image (and it usually is) can someone download it and post it here? [Added: if it’s a text post, then it would be good to have confirmation of that.]

Thanks!

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“Be careful with random quotes found on the internet.” - Albert Einstein

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I couldn’t access the link as well, but searching for it gave multiple versions, for example:

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I can’t think of any translator of the suttas who uses the term “ego” as a translation of a Pali word. So it’s likely that most, if not all, quotes that use that word and are attributed to the Buddha are fake.

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Watch for ananchronistic words or idiems. Got it.

There’s so many fake Buddha quotes, there’s a whole website dedicated to them. Run by our very own @Bodhipaksa as Snowbird pointed out :pray:.

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Also, fun fact, not even Freud used the word “ego”. He just referred to das ich, “the I”, and his English translator thought it needed something more weighty, so used the Latin.

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This is a fascinating fact! It is really amazing how the history of translation effects or impedes understanding of source materials across generations, even if only in minor ways like this. “The I” is not jargon. It has a more immediate, everyday register than “ego.”

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Thank you for this. I’m still curious to know what the original post on Facebook looked like, so if anyone has access to it and can share it here I’d be grateful.

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No. Buddha not said such statement. (I translated every sutta, I may not remember all, but which is not said by the Buddha or great disciples I know for sure). There are many quotes for decades, that look great and noble, but they are all fake, not the Buddha’s words).

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