| Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourselves. |
| Conciliate a covetous man by means of a gift, an obstinate man with folded hands in salutation, a fool by humoring him, and a learned man by truthful words. |
| Brass is polished by ashes; copper is cleaned by tamarind; a woman, by her menses; and a river by its flow. |
| Among men the barber is cunning; among birds the crow; among beasts the jackal; and among women, the malin (flower girl). |
Rain which falls upon the sea is useless;
so is food for one who is satiated;
in vain is a gift for one who is wealthy;
and a burning lamp during the daytime is useless. |
| There is no disease like lust; no enemy like infatuation; no fire like wrath; and no happiness like spiritual knowledge. |
| He who is only partially educated cannot speak agreeably, and he who speaks out plainly, cannot be a deceiver |
| When one is consumed by the sorrows of life, three things give him relief: offspring, a wife, and the company of the Lord's devotees. |
| Charity puts an end to poverty; righteous conduct to misery; discretion to ignorance; and scrutiny to fear. |
| A single son endowed with good qualities is far better than a hundred devoid of them. |
| He who runs away from a fearful calamity, a foreign invasion, a terrible famine, and the companionship of wicked men is safe. |
| The beauty of a cuckoo is in its notes, that of a woman in her unalloyed devotion to her husband, that of an ugly person in his scholarship, and that of an ascetic in his forgiveness. |
| He who befriends a man whose conduct is vicious, whose vision impure, and who is notoriously crooked, is rapidly ruined. |
| Fondle a son until he is five years of age, and use the stick for another ten years, but when he has attained his sixteenth year treat him as a friend. |
