Abstention

1. Abstention from cruelty is the highest Religion. 
2. Abstention from cruelty is the highest self-control. 
3. Abstention from cruelty is the highest gift. 
4. Abstention from cruelty is the highest penance. 
5. Abstention from cruelty is the highest sacrifice. 
6. Abstention from cruelty is the highest puissance. 
7. Abstention from cruelty is the highest friend. 
8. Abstention from cruelty is the highest happiness. 
9. Abstention from cruelty is the highest truth. 
10. Abstention from cruelty is the highest Sruti. 

Gifts made in all sacrifices, ablutions performed in all sacred waters, and the merit that one acquires from making all kinds of gifts mentioned in the scriptures,--all these do not come up to abstention from cruelty (in point of the merit that attaches to it). The penances of a man that abstains from cruelty are inexhaustible. The man that abstains from cruelty is regarded as always performing sacrifices. The man that abstains from cruelty is the father and mother of all creatures. Even these, O chief of Kuru's race, are some of the merits of abstention from cruelty. Altogether, the merits that attach to it are so many that they are incapable of being exhausted even if one were to speak for a hundred years."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b081.htm