Bhartrhari Quotes

#1. Let us keep a firm grip upon our money, for without it the whole assembly of virtues are but as blades of grass.

Bhartrhari

#2. The constant man loses not his virtue in misfortune. A torch may point towards the ground, but its flame will still point upwards.

Bhartrhari

#3. Trees bend low with ripened fruit; clouds hang down with gentle rain; noble people bow graciously. This is the way of generous things.

Bhartrhari

#4. The good man shuns evil and follows good; he keeps secret that which ought to be hidden; he makes his virtues manifest to all; he does not forsake one in adversity; he gives in season: such are the marks of a worthy friend.

Bhartrhari

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

Bhartrhari

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

Bhartrhari

#7. 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.

Bhartrhari

#8. Trees loaded with fruit are bent down; the clouds when charged with fresh rain hang down near the earth: even so good men are not uplifted through prosperity. Such is the natural character of the liberal.

Bhartrhari

#9. Knowledge is wonderful and truth serene But man in their service bleeds.

Bhartrhari

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

Bhartrhari

#11. Neither rings, bright chains, nor bracelets, perfumes, flowers, nor well-trimmed hair, Grace a man like polished language, th' only jewel he should wear.

Bhartrhari

#12. Our life is like th' unstable wave, Our bloom of youth decays. Our joys are brief as lightning flash In summer's cloudy days, Our riches fleet as swift as thought; Faith in the One Supreme Alone will bear us o'er the gulfs Of Being's stormy stream.

Bhartrhari

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

Bhartrhari

#14. Idleness is a great enemy to mankind. There is no friend like energy, for, if you cultivate that, it will never fail.

Bhartrhari

#15. Those from whom we were born have long since departed, and those with whom we grew up exist only in memory. We, too, through the approach of death, become, as it were, trees growing on the sandy bank of a river.

Bhartrhari

#16. There is no medicine to cure a fool!

Bhartrhari

#17. Even the severed branch grows again, and the sunken moon returns: wise men who ponder this are not troubled in adversity.

Bhartrhari

#18. Those who possess that treasure which no thief can take away, Which, though on suppliants freely spent, increaseth day by day, The source of inward happiness which shall outlast the earth
To them e'en kings should yield the palm, and own their higher worth.

Bhartrhari

#19. I've wandered over many lands, and reaped withal no fruit, I've laid my pride of rank aside, and pressed my baffled suit, At stranger boards, like shameless crow, I've eaten bitter bread, But fierce Desire, that raging fire, still clamours to be fed.

Bhartrhari

#20. The pearl on my beloved's neck, Afflicted sore the oyster!

Bhartrhari

#21. For a moment man is a boy, for a moment a lovesick youth, for a moment bereft of wealth, for a moment in the height of prosperity; then at life's end with limbs worn out by old age and wrinkles adorning his face, like an actor he retires behind the curtain of death.

Bhartrhari

#22. A good man may fall, but he falls like a ball [and rebounds]; the ignoble man falls like a lump of clay.

Bhartrhari

#23. I have not wasted life, but life hath wasted me.

Bhartrhari