Quotes By Chanakya

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.

Learning is like a cow of desire. It, like her, yields in all seasons. Like a mother, it feeds you on your journey. Therefore learning is a hidden treasure.

Many a bad habit is developed through overindulgence, and many a good one by chastisement; therefore, beat your son as well as your pupil; never indulge them.

Moral excellence is an ornament for personal beauty; righteous conduct, for high birth; success for learning; and proper spending for wealth.

Swans live wherever there is water, and leave the place where water dries up; let not a man act so - and comes and goes as he pleases.

By means of hearing one understands dharma, malignity vanishes, knowledge is acquired, and liberation from material bondage is gained.

Sometimes coincidentally an unintelligent person can accomplish a task but that does not mean that he is a knower of means and device or is experienced. A ruler should be careful enough to designate other tasks to such persons.

A wise man should not divulge the formula of a medicine which he has well prepared; an act of charity which he has performed; domestic conflicts; private affairs with his wife; poorly prepared food he may have been offered; or slang he may have heard.

It is better to live under a tree in a jungle inhabited by tigers and elephants, to maintain oneself in such a place with ripe fruits and spring water, to lie down on grass and to wear the ragged barks of trees than to live amongst one's relations when reduced to poverty.

We should not feel pride in our charity, austerity, valour, scriptural knowledge, modesty, and morality, for the world is full of the rarest gems.

The king shall singly deliberate over secret matters; for ministers have their own ministers, and these latter some of their own; this kind of successive line of ministers tends to the disclosure of counsels.

For the protection of state and welfare of the people, a ruler should collect all types of wealth. By suing devices of sama, dama, danda, bheda, he should increase income of the state, strong administration helps in collecting different type of taxes from the exchequer.

The man who is praised by others is regarded as worthy though he may be really void of all merit. But the man who sings his own praises becomes disgraced though he should be Indra, the possessor of all excellencies.

When one is consumed by the sorrows of life, three things give him relief: offspring, a wife, and the company of the Lord's devotees.

The power of a king lies in his mighty arms; that of a brahmana in his spiritual knowledge; and that of a woman in her beauty youth and sweet words.

Punishment when awarded with due consideration, makes the people devoted to righteousness and to works productive of wealth and enjoyment.

A person or a ruler who executes his plans (of public welfare) after due consideration, the prosperity stands with him for a longer period.

Fate being unfavorable (or without God's grace, even an easy task becomes difficult to accomplish).

Svanaja includes in itself the whole subject, officials and ministers. If there is something wrong in the conduct of these people, it would be damaging the state. An administrator should strictly deal with it.

Beauty is spoiled by an immoral nature; noble birth by bad conduct; learning, without being perfected; and wealth by not being properly utilised.