Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 169
wisdom, he will never rise from his seat, just as the sun does not rise,
without dispelling the darkness.
60. ‘One who rubs the two pieces of wood obtains the fire, one who
digs the earth finds at last the water, – and to him in his perseverance
there is nothing unattainable, – all things to him are reasonable and
possible.
61. ‘Pitying the world lying distressed amidst diseases and passions,
he, the great physician, ought not to be hindered, who undergoes all
his labours for the sake of the remedy knowledge.
62. ‘He who toilsomely pursues the one good path, when all the world
is carried away in devious tracks, – he the guide should not be
disturbed, like a right informant when the caravan has lost its way.
63. ‘He who is made a lamp of knowledge when all beings are lost in
the great darkness, – it is not for a right-minded soul to try to quench
him, – like a lamp kindled in the gloom of night.
64. ‘He who, when he beholds the world drowned in the great flood of
existence and unable to reach the further shore, strives to bring them
safely across, – would any right-minded soul offer him wrong
65. ‘The tree of knowledge, whose roots go deep in firmness, and
whose fibres are patience, – whose flowers are moral actions and
whose branches are memory and thought, – and which gives out the
law as its fruit, – surely when it is growing it should not be cut down.