As water collected in a tank gets pure by filtration, so accumulated wealth is preserved by being employed in charity.
It is better to have only one son endowed with good qualities than a hundred devoid of them. For the moon though one, dispels the darkness, which the stars, though numerous, do not.
A wicked wife, a false friend, a saucy servant and living in a house with a serpent in it are nothing but death.
Do not put your trust in rivers, men who carry weapons, beasts with claws or horns, women, and members of a royal family.
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.
Trees on a riverbank, a woman in another man's house, and kings without counselors go without doubt to swift destruction.
Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, comes of Her own accord where fools are not respected, grain is well stored up, and the husband and wife do not quarrel.
The Goddess of wealth is unsteady, and so is the life breath. The duration of life is uncertain, and the place of habitation is uncertain; but in all this inconsistent world religious merit alone is immovable.
A father who is a chronic debtor, an adulterous mother, a beautiful wife, and an unlearned son are enemies in one's own home.
Do not pass between two brahmanas, between a brahmana and his sacrificial fire, between a wife and her husband, a master and his servant, and a plough and an ox.
Beauty is spoiled by an immoral nature; noble birth by bad conduct; learning, without being perfected; and wealth by not being properly utilised.
There are three gems upon this earth; food, water, and pleasing words -- fools consider pieces of rocks as gems.
If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.
If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week.
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.
The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith?
Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God.
To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary … These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution!
If any person has a good word for the previous government that is good enough for me to have him shot.
There is no other definition of socialism valid for us than that of the abolition of the exploitation of man by man.
Many will call me an adventurer, and that I am... only one of a different sort: one who risks his skin to prove his truths.
Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world.
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.
The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!
People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.
Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.
The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.
It's the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.
Love a man, even in his sin, for that love is a likeness of the divine love, and is the summit of love on earth.