Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense
Not the Buddha — a modern paraphraseGautama Buddhac. 5th century BCE · founder of Buddhism
This exact wording appears in no Buddhist scripture. It is a loose, distorted paraphrase of the Kalama Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 3.65) — so distorted that it reverses the sutta’s actual point — and its earliest documented appearance is in “John Galt”’s libertarian book Dreams Come Due (1986), not in any canonical text. Treat it as a modern rewording, not the Buddha’s words.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense” Not the Buddha. This is a modern paraphrase of the Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65), first documented in "John Galt," Dreams Come Due (Simon & Schuster, 1986).
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Gautama Buddha. Use the credit shown above instead.
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? We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.
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In context
Evoking the world of Gautama Buddha — founder of Buddhism · northern India. Theme: "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
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Provenance
Where the wording actually comes from
Attributed to
Gautama Buddha (falsely)
Genuine root
Kalama Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 3.65)
Earliest documented
“John Galt,” Dreams Come Due (Simon & Schuster, 1986)
Verdict
Modern paraphrase — not scripture
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Popular wording as circulated online and on merchandise; it is not a translation of any Pali passage. The genuine sutta instead lists ten grounds — report, legend, tradition, scripture, logical conjecture, inference, analogy, agreement-through-pondering, probability, and deference to a teacher — that are not by themselves sufficient grounds for belief.
The specialist site Fake Buddha Quotes traces this version no earlier than the pseudonymous “John Galt,” Dreams Come Due, and calls it a paraphrase so bad it contradicts the sutta it claims to render.
The genuine Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65, trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu) says “Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture…” — it does not endorse trusting your own reason.
The phrase “no matter where you read it” is an anachronism: the Buddha’s teachings were transmitted orally, not read.
Dreams Come Due is catalogued as a 1986 Simon & Schuster libertarian title in the Open Library record.
The wording is a modern paraphrase, not the words of the Buddha, so it carries no ancient public-domain status. Its earliest documented appearance is a 1986 in-copyright book, and it is not established who first coined this exact phrasing, so no clear rights status can be asserted. It is certainly not public domain by virtue of being “a Buddha quote.”
Fact-check
Why this one spreads
This is one of the most widely shared “Buddha” quotes on the internet — on posters, mugs, and social media — yet it is a modern rewrite that inverts the teaching it borrows from.
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The wording“John Galt” (pseudonym), Dreams Come Due (1986) Earliest source
The specialist blog Fake Buddha Quotes finds the earliest instance of this exact version in this libertarian book, and suggests the author reshaped the sutta to fit an ideological point about trusting individual reason.
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The ideaThe Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65) Distorted from
The real discourse tells the Kalamas not to rely on any single ground — including ‘logical conjecture’ and ‘inference’ — whereas the fake makes ‘your own reason and your own common sense’ the test, the opposite of the sutta’s caution.
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The tell“No matter where you read it” Anachronism
The Buddha’s teachings were transmitted orally for centuries; a 5th-century-BCE teacher would not frame belief around what you ‘read.’
✓The impulse to test teachings is genuinely Buddhist, but this crisp, reason-first slogan is a modern paraphrase first documented in 1986 — not the Buddha’s words.
Context
The genuine teaching behind the meme
The Kalama Sutta is often called the Buddhist ‘charter of free inquiry,’ and that reputation is what makes this fake so plausible. But the real discourse is more subtle than ‘trust your own reason.’ The Buddha lists ten grounds — report, legend, tradition, scripture, logical conjecture, inference, analogy, agreement through pondering, probability, and deference to a teacher — and says none of them, on its own, settles what is true.
The genuine test the sutta offers is experiential and social: see for yourself whether a course of action, when undertaken, leads to harm or to welfare, and weigh it against the judgment of the wise. The popular quote quietly swaps that for a tidy appeal to ‘common sense’ — which the sutta never endorses.
The sutta warns against trusting logic alone; the fake quote makes logic the whole point.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
c. 5th century BCE · founder of Buddhism · northern India
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was a wandering teacher of northern India whose discourses were transmitted orally for centuries before being written down in the Pali Canon. His much-cited Kalama Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 3.65) does counsel the Kalamas not to accept a teaching merely on the strength of report, tradition, scripture, logic, or a revered speaker — but it does not tell them to trust ‘reason and common sense’ instead; it points to direct experience tested alongside the counsel of the wise.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented source
“John Galt” [pseud.]. Dreams Come Due: Government and Economics As If Freedom Mattered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986. (Earliest documented appearance of this wording, per Fake Buddha Quotes.) Genuine root text: Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya 3.65, trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/believe-nothing-no-matter-where-you-read-it-or-who-has-said