Chanakya

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Chanakya

(c.350 - c.275 BC) Indian Political strategist and writer

• 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.
• An egoist can be won over by being respected, a crazy person can be won over by allowing him to behave in an insane manner and a wise person can be won over by truth.
• A human being should strive for four things in life - dharma (losely means spirituality), arth (money), kaam (desires/work) and moksha (salvation). A person who hasn't strived for even one of these things has wasted life.
• A man is great by deeds, not by birth.
• A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.
• A rich man has many friends.
• As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.
• As centesimal droppings will fill a pot so also are knowledge, virtue and wealth gradually obtained.
• A woman is four times as shy, six times as brave and eight times as libidinous as a man.
• 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.
• 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.
• Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.
• Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.
• Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
• He who befriends a man whose conduct is vicious, whose vision impure, and who is notoriously crooked, is rapidly ruined.
• If you get to learn something even from the worst of creatures, don't hesistate.
• In a state where the ruler lives like a common man, the citizens live like kings do. And in the state where the ruler lives like a king, the citizens live like beggers do.
• Jealousy is another name for failure.
• Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.
• Once you start working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
• One who is in search of knowledge should give up the search of pleasure and the one who is in search of pleasure should give up the search of knowledge.
• The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.
• There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.
• The four greatest enemies of a man are - the father who has taken a loan, the characterless mother, the beautiful but promiscuous wife and the stupid child.
• The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.
• The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.
• 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.
• Whores don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak administration and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits.
• Never go on a long journey alone.
• Wise men should never go into a country where there are no means of earning one's livelihood, where the people have no dread of anybody, have no sense of shame, no intelligence, or a charitable disposition.