Hindu Literature (with The Book of Good Counsels) quotes

"One wise son makes glad his father, forty fools avail him not:— One moon silvers all that darkness which the silly stars did dot."

"That which will not be, will not be—and what is to be, will be:— Why not drink this easy physic, antidote of misery?"

"Twofold is the life we live in—Fate and Will together run:— Two wheels bear life's chariot onward—will it move on only one?"

"Look! the clay dries into iron, but the potter moulds the clay:— Destiny to-day is master—Man was master yesterday."

"Worthy ends come not by wishing. Wouldst thou? Up, and win it, then! While the hungry lion slumbers, not a deer comes to his den."

"For a thousand thoughts of sorrow, and a hundred things of dread, By the wise unheeded, trouble day by day the foolish head."

"Good things come not out of bad things; wisely leave a longed-for ill. Nectar being mixed with poison serves no purpose but to kill."

"Be second and not first!—the share's the same If all go well. If not, the Head's to blame."

"Passion will be Slave or Mistress: follow her, she brings to woe; Lead her, 'tis the way to Fortune. Choose the path that thou wilt go."

'Small things wax exceeding mighty, being cunningly combined:— Furious elephants are fastened with a rope of grass-blades twined.'

'Bar thy door not to the stranger, be he friend or be he foe, For the tree will shade the woodman while his axe doth lay it low,'

'Pity them that ask thy pity: who art thou to stint thy hoard, When the holy moon shines equal on the leper and the lord!'

'Foe is friend, and friend is foe, As our actions make them so,'

'That friend only is the true friend who is near when trouble comes; That man only is the brave man who can bear the battle-drums; Words are wind; deed proveth promise: he who helps at need is kin; And the leal wife is loving though the husband lose or win,'

'Absent, flatterers' tongues are daggers—present, softer than the silk; Shun them! 'tis a jar of poison hidden under harmless milk; Shun them when they promise little! Shun them when they promise much! For, enkindled, charcoal burneth—cold, it doth defile the touch.'

'Anger comes to noble natures, but leaves there no strife or storm: Plunge a lighted torch beneath it, and the ocean grows not warm.'

'Good men's friendships may be broken, yet abide they friends at heart; Snap the stem of Luxmee's lotus, and its fibres will not part.'

'Golden gift, serene Contentment! have thou that, and all is had; Thrust thy slipper on, and think thee that the earth is leather-clad.'

'True Religion!—'tis not blindly prating what the priest may prate, But to love, as God hath loved them, all things, be they small or great; And true bliss is when a sane mind doth a healthy body fill; And true knowledge is the knowing what is good and what is ill.'

'Poisonous though the tree of life be, two fair blossoms grow thereon: One, the company of good men; and sweet songs of Poet's, one.'

'Give, and it shall swell thy getting; give, and thou shalt safer keep: Pierce the tank-wall; or it yieldeth, when the water waxes deep.'

'He whose coins are kept for counting, not to barter nor to give, Breathe he like a blacksmith's bellows, yet in truth he doth not live.'

'Sentences of studied wisdom, nought avail they unapplied; Though the blind man hold a lantern, yet his footsteps stray aside.'

'Be not haughty, being wealthy; droop not, having lost thine all; Fate doth play with mortal fortunes as a girl doth toss her ball.'

'Looking down on lives below them, men of little store are great; Looking up to higher fortunes, hard to each man seems his fate.'

'Drops of water falling, falling, falling, brim the chatty o'er; Wisdom comes in little lessons—little gains make largest store.'

'Men their cunning schemes may spin— God knows who shall lose or win.'

'Robes were none, nor oil of unction, when the King of Beasts was crowned:— 'Twas his own fierce roar proclaimed him, rolling all his kingdom round.'

'By their own deeds men go downward, by them men mount upward all, Like the diggers of a well, and like the builders of a wall.'

'Rushes down the hill the crag, which upward 'twas so hard to roll: So to virtue slowly rises—so to vice quick sinks the soul.'

'Pitiful, that fearing failure, therefore no beginning makes, Who forswears his daily dinner for the chance of stomach-aches?'

'Not disparagement nor slander kills the spirit of the brave; Fling a torch down, upward ever burns the brilliant flame it gave.'

'Wisdom from the mouth of children be it overpast of none; What man scorns to walk by lamplight in the absence of the sun?'

'He that hath sense hath strength; the fool is weak:— The Lion proud died by the Hare so meek,'

'Long-tried friends are friends to cleave to—never leave thou these i' the lurch:— What man shuns the fire as sinful for that once it burned a church?'

'Even as one who grasps a serpent, drowning in the bitter sea, Death to hold and death to loosen—such is life's perplexity.'

'Where the azure lotus[15] blossoms, there the alligators hide; In the sandal-tree are serpents. Pain and pleasure live allied.'

'Serving narrow-minded masters dwarfs high natures to their size:— Seen before a convex mirror, elephants do show as mice.'

'Kindly courtesies that issue from a smiling villain's mouth Serve to startle, like a flower blossoming in time of drouth.'

'Gems will no man's life sustain; Best of gold is golden grain.'

'Hard it is to conquer nature: if a dog were made a King, Mid the coronation trumpets, he would gnaw his sandal-string.'

'Kind is kin, howe'er a stranger—kin unkind is stranger shown; Sores hurt, though the body breeds them—drugs relieve, though desert-grown.'

'He is brave whose tongue is silent of the trophies of his sword; He is great whose quiet bearing marks his greatness well assured.'

'By the valorous and unskilful great achievements are not wrought; Courage, led by careful Prudence, unto highest ends is brought.'

'Wisdom answers all who ask her, but a fool she cannot aid; Blind men in the faithful mirror see not their reflection made.'

'Fellow be with kindly foemen, rather than with friends unkind; Friend and foeman are distinguished not by title but by mind.'

'Whoso setting duty highest, speaks at need unwelcome things, Disregarding fear and favor, such a one may succor kings.'

'Cheating them that truly trust you, 'tis a clumsy villainy! Any knave may slay the child who climbs and slumbers on his knee.'

'Hunger hears not, cares not, spares not; no boon of the starving beg; When the snake is pinched with craving, verily she eats her egg.'

'Halt, traveller! rest i' the shade: then up and leave it! Stay, Soul! take fill of love; nor losing, grieve it!'

'Seek not the wild, sad heart! thy passions haunt it; Play hermit in thine house with heart undaunted; A governed heart, thinking no thought but good, Makes crowded houses holy solitude.'

'Thunder for nothing, like December's cloud, Passes unmarked: strike hard, but speak not loud.'

'Minds deceived by evil natures, from the good their faith withhold; When hot conjee once has burned them, children blow upon the cold.'

From forth the sacrificial flame, Dark, robed in red, the being came.

A fickle thing is youth's brief span, And more than all is mortal man.

Patience is virtue, patience fame: Patience upholds this earthly frame.

The light of eve is fled: the skies, Thick-studded with their host of eyes, Seem a star-forest overhead, Where signs and constellations spread.

Earth, cleft asunder, groaned in pain, As emulous they plied amain— Sharp-pointed coulter, pick, and bar, Hard as the bolts of Indra are.

Serenest peace is in this calm retreat, By passion's breath unruffled; what portends My throbbing arm? Why should it whisper here Of happy love? Yet everywhere around us Stand the closed portals of events unknown.

In palaces such charms are rarely ours; The woodland plants outshine the garden flowers.

I really feel a sisterly love for these plants.

E'en the meanest garb Gives to true beauty fresh attractiveness.

Where'er the bee his eager onset plies, Now here, now there, she darts her kindling eyes: What love hath yet to teach, fear teaches now, The furtive glances and the frowning brow.

My limbs drawn onward leave my heart behind, Like silken pennon borne against the wind.

Ah! thus does the lover delude himself; judging of the state of his loved one's feelings by his own desires.

Sorrow shared with affectionate friends is relieved of half its poignancy.

How beautiful the movement of her brow, As through her mind love's tender fancies flow! And, as she weighs her thoughts, how sweet to trace The ardent passion mantling in her face!

Who would think of watering a tender jasmine with hot water?

In sorrow for thy loss, the herd of deer Forget to browse; the peacock on the lawn Ceases its dance; the very trees around us Shed their pale leaves, like tears, upon the ground.

The agony of parting Would wound us like a sword, but that its edge Is blunted by the hope of future meeting.

Excessive affection is too apt to suspect evil where none exists.

Not seldom in our happy hours of ease, When thought is still, the sight of some fair form, Or mournful fall of music breathing low, Will stir strange fancies, thrilling all the soul With a mysterious sadness, and a sense Of vague yet earnest longing. Can it be That the dim memory of events long past, Or friendships formed in other states of being, Flits like a passing shadow o'er the spirit?

Success doth only mitigate the fever Of anxious expectation; soon the fear Of losing what we have, the constant care Of guarding it doth weary.

And such is true benevolence; the good Are never rendered arrogant by riches.

When affliction has a mind to enter, she will find a crevice somewhere

Aught less than perfect is depicted falsely, And fancy must supply the imperfection.

The landscape lay in slumber's chain, E'en Echo slept within her cell.

I loved the lips from which it fell, So let it stand among my rhymes.

"The question is—not wealth or place, But gifts well used, or gifts abused."

None miss one bubble from a stream.

A calm, calm life, and it shall be Its own exceeding great reward!

If peace on earth was ever found 'Twas in that solitude.

The fireflies gemmed the bushes all, Like fiery drops of rain.