Chanakya
Chanakya
Chanakya; flourished c. 4th century BCE) was an Indian teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and royal advisor. He is traditionally identified as Kauṭilya or Vishnu Gupta, who authored the ancient Indian political treatise, the Arthashastra. As such, he is considered the pioneer of the field of political science and economics in India, and his work is thought of as an important precursor to classical economics. His works were lost near the end of the Gupta Empire and not rediscovered until 1915...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionPolitician
CountryIndia
By means of hearing one understands dharma, malignity vanishes, knowledge is acquired, and liberation from material bondage is gained.
The poor wish for wealth; animals for the faculty of speech; men wish for heaven; and godly persons for liberation.
Learning is a friend on the journey; a wife in the house; medicine in sickness; and religious merit is the only friend after death.
At the time of the pralaya (universal destruction) the oceans are to exceed their limits and seek to change, but a saintly man never changes.
He who befriends a man whose conduct is vicious, whose vision impure, and who is notoriously crooked, is rapidly ruined.
A debt should be paid off till the last penny; An enemy should be destroyed without a trace
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.
He is a pandit (man of knowledge) who speaks what is suitable to the occasion, who renders loving service according to his ability, and who knows the limits of his anger.
Do not say, What what fear has a rich man of calamity.
If the bees which seek the liquid oozing from the head of a lust-intoxicated elephant are driven away by the flapping of his ears, then the elephant has lost only the ornament of his head. The bees are quite happy in the lotus filled lake.
As a whole forest becomes fragrant by the existence of a single tree with sweet-smelling blossoms in it, so a family becomes famous by the birth of a virtuous son.
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.
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.
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.