Kautilya Quotes

Those who seek to achieve things should show no mercy. Kautilya, Indian philosopher third century B.C. OBSERVANCE

The arrow shot by the archer may or may not kill a single person. But stratagems devised by wise men can kill even babes in the womb.

Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.

Every neighbouring state is an enemy and the enemy’s enemy is a friend.

Just as it is impossible to know when a swimming fish is drinking water, so it is impossible to find out when a government servant is stealing money

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?

for in the absence of a magistrate (dandadharabhave), the strong will swallow the weak; but under his protection, the weak resist the strong.

Kautilya makes Machiavelli look like Mother Teresa

The straight trees are cut down, the crooked ones are left standing. Kautilya, Indian philosopher, third century B.C. KEYS

Dharma is law in its widest sense—spiritual, moral, ethical and temporal. Every individual, whether the ruler or the ruled, is governed by his or her own dharma. To the extent that society respected dharma, society protected itself; to the extent society offended it, society undermined

mentioned only in the two lists and his duties are not spelt out anywhere. It is possible that this designation is a retention from earlier texts and, in the Arthashastra, is used only to represent a higher grade for salary and

Kautilya advises, “Just as an elephant, blinded by intoxication and mounted by an intoxicated driver, crushes whatever it finds (on the way), so the king, not possessed of the eye of science, and (hence) blind, has risen to destroy the citizens and the country people.” (1.14.7)

not be treated as the main one at a given time; only one of the neighbours is the main enemy. The other difference is that, in {7.6.1}, the enemy is to be outmanoeuvred but in {7.7.1} a neighbour’s help is to be accepted.

The arrow shot by the archer may or may not kill a single person. But stratagems devised by a wise man can kill even babes in the womb.

كتاب شاناق الهندي في الآداب خمسة أبواب وكتاب شاناق الهندي في أمرتدبير الحرب وما ينبغي للملك أن يتخذ من 4 الرجال وفي أمر الأساورة والطعام والسم (Chanakya Kautilya)

The arrow shot by the archer may or may not kill a single person. But stratagems devised by a wise man can kill even babes in the womb. KAUTILYA, INDIAN PHILOSOPHER, THIRD CENTURY B.C.

है, उसे मोक्ष की प्राप्ति होती है। यदि वर्णों के धर्मों

Those who seek to achieve things should show no mercy. Kautilya, Indian philosopher third century B.C.

To many he was known as Kautilya—the crooked one; to his childhood acquaintances he was Vishnugupta; but to most he was Chanakya—illustrious son of the great and learned Chanak, the most renowned teacher in all of Magadha. He

A king will come under the power of as many people as he reveals a secret to, becoming powerless because of that act.

An arrow unleashed by an archer may kill a single man or not kill anyone; but a strategy unleashed by a wise man kills even those still in the womb (10.6.51)

NO ONE CAN BECOME A GOOD POLITICIAN WITHOUT RESORTING TO DIPLOMACY.

what exactly was the point of extracting the gold, stamping one’s picture on it, causing it to circulate among one’s subjects—and then demanding that those same subjects give it back again? This does seem a bit of a puzzle. But if money and markets do not emerge spontaneously, it actually makes perfect sense. Because this is the simplest and most efficient way to bring markets into being. Let us take a hypothetical example. Say a king wishes to support a standing army of fifty thousand men. Under ancient or medieval conditions, feeding such a force was an enormous problem. Such a force would likely consume anything edible within ten miles of their camp in as many days; unless they were on the march, one would need to employ almost as many men and animals just to locate, acquire, and transport the necessary provisions.18 On the other hand, if one simply hands out coins to the soldiers and then demands that every family in the kingdom was obliged to pay one of those coins back to you, one would, in one blow, turn one’s entire national economy into a vast machine for the provisioning of soldiers, since now every family, in order to get their hands on the coins, must find some way to contribute to the general effort to provide soldiers with things they want. Markets are brought into existence as a side effect. This is a bit of a cartoon version, but it is very clear that markets did spring up around ancient armies; one need only take a glance at Kautilya’s Arthasasatra, the Sassanian “circle of sovereignty,” or the Chinese “Discourses on Salt and Iron” to discover that most ancient rulers spent a great deal of their time thinking about the relation between mines, soldiers, taxes, and food.

Such brave desperados of the country who, reckless of their own life, confront elephants or tigers in fight mainly for the purpose of earning money are termed fire-brands or fiery spies (tíkshna).

The same rule shall apply to women with shaved head (munda), as well as to those of súdra caste. All these are wandering spies (sancháráh).

the mind of the valiant, though naturally kept steadfast, may not, when once vitiated and repelled under the four kinds of allurements, return to and recover its original form.