Lessons from Chanakya: Part I

Chanakya/kautilya/Vishnu Sharma/Vishnugupta has many pearls of wisdom relevant even after 2200 yrs. Some are given below...

• A young man who graduated yesterday and stops learning today will become uneducated tomorrow
• A man is great by deeds, not by birth
• A person should not be too honest. Just as straight trees are chopped-down first, honest people are taken advantage of first
• Variant: A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first
• A rich man has many friends
• 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
• God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple
• He who befriends a man whose conduct is vicious, whose vision impure, and who is notoriously crooked, is rapidly ruined
• 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, birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits and citizens never support a weak administration
• 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
• If you get to learn something even from the worst of creatures, don't hesitate

Part II will follow in a week's time.