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.
– Chanakya
The world’s biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.
– Chanakya
Virtuous persons and fruit-laden trees bow, but fools and dry sticks break because they do not bend.
– Chanakya
Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.
– Chanakya
A human being should strive for four things in life – dharma (duty), artha (money), kama
(pleasure) and moksha (salvation). A person who hasn’t striven for even one of these things has wasted life.
– Chanakya
The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.
– Chanakya
Test a servant while on his duty, and a relative in difficulty, test a friend in adversity, and a
wife in misfortune.
– Chanakya
A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are
screwed first.
– Chanakya
Avoid him who talks sweetly before you but tries to ruin you behind your back, for he is like a pitcher full of poison with milk on top.
– Chanakya
He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.
– Chanakya
The earth is supported by the power of truth; it is the power of truth that makes the sun
shine and the winds blow; indeed all things rest upon truth.
– Chanakya
Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
– Chanakya
A man is great by deeds, not by birth.
– Chanakya
Beauty is spoiled by an immoral nature; noble birth by bad conduct; learning without being perfected; and wealth by not being properly utilized.
– Chanakya
As a single dried tree, if fired, sets a whole forest on fire, so does a bad son destroy a whole family.
– Chanakya
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.
– Chanakya
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.
– Chanakya
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.
– Chanakya
A person who cannot decide his goal, simply cannot win.
– Chanakya
It is the mind of man alone that is the cause of his bondage or freedom.
– Chanakya
If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the
value of other ornamentation?
– Chanakya
Those parents who do not educate their sons are their enemies; for as is a crane among
swans, so are ignorant sons in a public assembly.
– Chanakya
Whoever imposes severe punishment becomes repulsive to the people; while he who awards mild punishment becomes contemptible. But whoever imposes punishment as deserved becomes respectable.
– Chanakya
Whores don’t live in company of poor men, birds don’t build nests on a tree that doesn’t bear fruits and citizens never support a weak administration.
– Chanakya
There is no disease so destructive as lust.
– Chanakya
A person becomes great not be sitting on some high seat, but through higher qualities. Can a crow become an eagle by simply sitting on the top of a palatial building?
– Chanakya
There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-
interests. This is a bitter truth.
– Chanakya
Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
– Chanakya
The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a
person spreads in all direction.
– Chanakya
He who has wealth has friends.
– Chanakya
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 bite of insects.
– Chanakya
It is unwise to advice a fool, caring for a woman of loose character, and to be in company of a sad fellow.
– Chanakya
Save your wealth against future calamity. Do not say, “What fear has a rich man of
calamity?” Wealth sometimes vanishes away and large accumulations perish.
– Chanakya
Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.
– Chanakya
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.
– Chanakya
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?
– Chanakya
A reckless king will easily fall into the hands of his enemies. Hence the king shall ever be
wakeful.
– Chanakya
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.
– Chanakya
He shall despise none, but hear the opinions of all. A wise man shall make use of even a
child’s sensible utterance.
– Chanakya
Women eat double than men. They have four times more wisdom than men, they have six
times more courage, and eight times more sensual urge than men.
– Chanakya
There are three gems on this earth: food, water, and pleasing words – fools consider pieces of rocks as gems.
– Chanakya
A father who is a chronic debtor, an adulterous mother, a beautiful wife, and an unlearned son are enemies in one’s own home.
– Chanakya
We return evil for evil, in which there is no sin, for it is necessary to pay a wicked man in his own coin.
– Chanakya
Do not put your trust in rivers, men who carry weapons, beasts with claws or horns, women and members of a royal family.
– Chanakya
A reckless king will easily fall into the hands of his enemies. Hence the king shall ever be
wakeful.
– Chanakya
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.
– Chanakya
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 the heaven here on earth.
– Chanakya
He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.
– Chanakya
The king shall lose no time when the opportunity waited for arrives.
– Chanakya
Whoever helps you at the time of illness, misfortune, famines and invasion is your true
brother in real sense.
– Chanakya
Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.
– Chanakya
God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple.
– Chanakya
As water collected in a tank gets pure by filtration, so accumulated wealth is preserved by
being employed in charity.
– Chanakya
One should save money against hard times, save his wife against spending or sacrificing the money and one should save self at the cost of the wife and the riches.
– Chanakya
Time perfects men as well as destroys them.
– Chanakya
The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. If you can not keep
secret with you, do not expect that others will keep it? It will destroy you.
– Chanakya
One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others can use neither knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.
– Chanakya