Chanakya's Quotes!

Chanakya (Indian Politician, strategist and Writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

• The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.
• A man is great by deeds, not by birth.
• The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.
• Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
• As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.
• Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."
• God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple."
• There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.
• The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.
• Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
• A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.
• A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night.
• Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.
• Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.
• Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."
• Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.
• Whores don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak company and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits.
• Save your wealth against future calamity.
• Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.
• Do not put your trust in a bad companion nor even trust an ordinary friend, for if he should get angry with you, he may bring all your secrets to light.
• There is no disease (so destructive) as lust; no enemy like infatuation; no fire like wrath; and no happiness like spiritual knowledge.
• The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.
• Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and the of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.
• Water is the medicine for indigestion; it is invigorating when the food that is eaten is well digested; it is like nectar when drunk in the middle of a dinner; and it is like poison when taken at the end of a meal.
• Knowledge is lost without putting it into practice; a man is lost due to ignorance; an army is lost without a commander; and a woman is lost without a husband.
• The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.
• Even a pandit comes to grief by giving instruction to a foolish disciple, by maintaining a wicked wife, and by excessive familiarity with the miserable.
• One should save his money against hard times, save his wife at the sacrifice of his riches, but invariably one should save his soul even at the sacrifice of his wife and riches.
• Do not say, ""What fear has a rich man of calamity?"" When riches begin to forsake one even the accumulated stock dwindles away.
• Do not inhabit a country where you are not respected, cannot earn your livelihood, have no friends, or cannot acquire knowledge.
• A wise man should marry a virgin of a respectable family even if she is deformed. He should not marry one of a low-class family, through beauty. Marriage in a family of equal status is preferable.
• Do not put your trust in rivers, men who carry weapons, beasts with claws or horns, women, and members of a royal family.
• Avoid him who talks sweetly before you but tries to ruin you behind your back, for he is like a pitcher of poison with milk on top.
• Let not a single day pass without your learning a verse, half a verse, or a fourth of it, or even one letter of it; nor without attending to charity, study and other pious activity.
• Fondle a son until he is five years of age, and use the stick for another ten years, but when he has attained his sixteenth year treat him as a friend.
• For the moon, though one, dispels the darkness, which the stars, though numerous, can not."
• Consider again and again the following: the right time, the right friends, the right place, the right means of income, the right ways of spending, and from whom you derive your power.
• The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.
• To wake at the proper time; to take a bold stand and fight; to make a fair division (of property) among relations; and to earn one's own bread by personal exertion are the four excellent things to be learned from a cock.
• Union in privacy (with one's wife); boldness; storing away useful items; watchfulness; and not easily trusting others; these five things are to be learned from a crow."
• Although an ass is tired, he continues to carry his burden; he is unmindful of cold and heat; and he is always contented; these three things should be learned from the ass.
• A wise man should not reveal his loss of wealth, the vexation of his mind, the misconduct of his own wife, base words spoken by others, and disgrace that has befallen him.
• The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.
• By preparing a garland for a Deity with one's own hand; by grinding sandal paste for the Lord with one's own hand; and by writing sacred texts with one's own hand -- one becomes blessed with opulence equal to that of Indra.
• All the creatures are pleased by loving words; and therefore we should address words that are pleasing to all, for there is no lack of sweet words.
• One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.
• If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?
• There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.
• He whose son is obedient to him, whose wife's conduct is in accordance with his wishes, and who is content with his riches, has his heaven here on earth.
• Do not reveal what you have thought upon doing, but by wise council keep it secret being determined to carry it into execution.