Early Buddhist discourse · AN 5.198
Five qualities of well-spoken speech: timely, true, gentle, beneficial, and loving.
“Mendicants, speech that has five factors is well spoken, not poorly spoken. It’s blameless and is not criticized by sensible people. What five? It is speech that is timely, true, gentle, beneficial, and loving. Speech with these five factors is well spoken, not poorly spoken. It’s blameless and is not criticized by sensible people.”
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · CC0 1.0
Read at SuttaCentral ↗SuttaCentral · Bilara translations · Bhikkhu Sujato · CC0 1.0
Introductions, reflection questions and added section headings are editorial material, separate from the attributed translation.
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Broader context: the Buddha and the early Buddhist community in which this text is transmitted.
Collection context: this text is transmitted in the Pāli canon.
Study context: this text is included in the Atlas guide to Theravāda.
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