Knower of the means makes impossible tasks also possible.
Task performed by an unintelligent person should not be rated high.
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.
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.
There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.
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.
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.
The man who remains a fool even in advanced age is really a fool, just as the Indra-Varuna fruit does not become sweet no matter how ripe it might become.
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.
He who gives up shyness in monetary dealings, in acquiring knowledge, in eating and in business, becomes happy.
Time perfects all living beings as well as kills them; it alone is awake when all others are asleep. Time is insurmountable.
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.
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.
He who has wealth has friends and relations; he alone survives and is respected as a man.
A wicked wife, a false friend, a saucy servant and living in a house with a serpent in it are nothing but death.
Constant travel brings old age upon a man; a horse becomes old by being constantly tied up; lack of sexual contact with her husband brings old age upon a woman; and garments become old through being left in the sun.
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.
Swans live wherever there is water, and leave the place where water dries up; let not a man act so – he should not simply come and go as he pleases.