Quotes from bhartrhari ii

Cowards shrink from toil and peril, Vulgar souls attempt and fail; Men of mettle, nothing daunted, Persevere till they prevail.

Kindness can turn the bad man's heart, and fools convert to wise, Make poison into nectar-juice, and friends of enemies.

Man is but a beast without it: such a glorious god is Learning.

Like as our outworn garments we discard, And other new ones don; So doth the Soul these bodies doff when marred And others new put on.

Three courses open lie to wealth, to give, enjoy, or lose, Who shrinketh from the former two, perforce the third doth choose.

Let cunning statesmen praise or blame, Let Fortune turn or go her way, Come instant death, or lingering shame, Firm souls from virtue will not stray.

Our mind is but a lump of clay That Fate, grim potter, holds On sorrow's wheel that rolls away, And, as he pleases, moulds.

Life is flowing away like water running out from a leaky vessel.

It imprisons Brahm? in the universe like a potter in his own giant urn. It tosses Vishnu into the dark tangle of his ten avatars. Rudra it forces to beg roaming with a skull in his cupped palms, and it makes S?rya circle the sky endlessly. I bow my head to karma.

An ignorant man is easily pleased, learned man even easier, but a man distorted by little knowledge, even Brahma can not please.

Honour the worthy, love thy foes, Hide thy own virtues, cheer the faint, Pursue renown till life doth close, Such conduct marks the perfect saint.

Fate's sentence written on the brow no hand can e'er efface.

We become decrepit with age, but not so Desire. Infirmity assails us, the skin wrinkles, The hair whitens, the body becomes crooked, Old age comes on. Desire alone grows younger every day.

The moth unwitting rushes on the fire, Through ignorance the fish devours the bait, We men know well the foes that lie in wait, Yet cannot shun the meshes of desire.

Apathy is ascribed to the modest man, Fraud to the devout, Hypocrisy to the pure, Cruelty to the hero, Hostility to the anchorite, Fawning to the courteous man, Arrogance to the majestic, Garrulity to the eloquent, Impotence to the faithful. Does there exist any virtue Which escapes The slander of wicked men?

When they are absent, we aspire to see them; when we have seen them, we have only one desire, that of enjoying their embrace; when we are in the arms of beautiful women with elongated eyes, we would no longer want to tear ourselves away from them.

The sun opens the lotuses; the moon illuminates the beds of water-lilies; the cloud pours forth its water unasked: even so the liberal of their own accord are occupied in benefiting others.

In opulence the heart of great men is as soft as that of a lotus flower, but in adversity the same hardens like a rock of a big mountain.

Some generous souls forbear their own, and seek another's gain; Most men, neglecting not their own, their neighbour's cause maintain; Those are mere demons who would build their wealth on other's loss, But what are those who profitless their neighbour's interest cross?