Chanakya

Give up a member to save a family, a family to save a village, a village to save a country, and the country to save yourself.

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment's grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one's life.

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.

Do not inhabit a country where you are not respected, cannot earn your livelihood, have no friends or cannot acquire knowledge.

Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.

As long as your body is healthy and under control, and death is distant, try to save your soul, when death is immanent what can you do?

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.

For the moon, though one, dispels the darkness, which the stars, though numerous, can not.

As the man who digs obtains underground water by use of a shovel, so the student attains the knowledge possessed by his preceptor through his service.

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.

He who desires sense gratification must give up all thoughts of acquiring knowledge, and he who seeks knowledge must not hope for sense gratification.

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.

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.

Learn one thing from a lion, one from a crane, four a cock, five from a crow, six from a dog, and three from an ass.

We should not fret for what is past nor should we be anxious about the future, men of discernment deal only with the present moment.

O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.

Religion is preserved by wealth, knowledge by diligent practice, a king by conciliatory words, and a home by a dutiful housewife.

O see what a wonder it is! The doings of the great are strange: they treat wealth as light as a straw yet when they obtain it they bend under its weight.

Poverty disease sorrow imprisonment and other evils are the fruits borne by the tree of one's own sins.

(Through the night) a great many kinds of birds perch on a tree, but in the morning they fly in all the ten directions. Why should we lament for that?