Top 180 Chanakya Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “If a king is energetic, his subjects will be equally energetic. If he is reckless, they will not only be reckless likewise, but also eat into his works.”

— Chanakya

152. “Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.”

— Chanakya

153. “What good is a cow that neither gives milk nor conceives? Similarly, what is the value of the birth of a son if he becomes neither learned nor a pure devotee of the Lord?”

— Chanakya

154. “By means of hearing one understands dharma, malignity vanishes, knowledge is acquired, and liberation from material bondage is gained.”

— Chanakya

155. “One destitute of wealth is not destitute, he is indeed rich, but the man devoid of learning is destitute in every way.”

— Chanakya

156. “Learning is a friend on the journey; a wife in the house; medicine in sickness; and religious merit is the only friend after death.”

— Chanakya

157. “The power of a king lies in his mighty arms; that of a brahmana in his spiritual knowledge; and that of a woman in her beauty youth and sweet words.”

— Chanakya

158. “The poor wish for wealth; animals for the faculty of speech; men wish for heaven; and godly persons for liberation.”

— Chanakya

159. “What good can the scriptures do to a man who has no sense of his own? Of what use is as mirror to a blind man?”

— Chanakya

160. “A single son endowed with good qualities is far better than a hundred devoid of them.”

— Chanakya

161. “Eschew wicked company and associate with saintly persons. Acquire virtue day and night, and always meditate on that which is eternal forgetting that which is temporary.”

— Chanakya

162. “Sinfully acquired wealth may remain for ten years; in the eleventh year it disappears with even the original stock.”

— Chanakya

163. “He who runs away from a fearful calamity, a foreign invasion, a terrible famine, and the companionship of wicked men is safe.”

— Chanakya

164. “Task performed by an unintelligent person should not be rated high.”

— Chanakya

165. “Everynbody tries not to reveal his weaknesses, so that he may not be ridiculed. Specially before the enemy. One’s weakpoits shold not be revealed. Becaues ohe canstrike on those to ruin us. So one shold remain strong before the enemy.”

— Chanakya

166. “Foolishness is indeed painful, and verily so is youth, but more painful by far than either is being obliged in another person’s house.”

— Chanakya

167. “It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.”

— Chanakya

168. “It is better to live under a tree in a jungle inhabited by tigers and elephants, to maintain oneself in such a place with ripe fruits and spring water, to lie down on grass and to wear the ragged barks of trees than to live amongst one’s relations when reduced to poverty.”

— Chanakya

169. “It is narual for enemy to attack on the weaker side of the adversary.”

— Chanakya

170. “Save your wealth against future calamity. Do not say, “what fear has a rich man of calamity?” Wealth sometimes vanishes away and large accumulations perish.”

— Chanakya

171. “Whoever imposes severe punishment becomes repulsive to the people; while he who awards mild punishment becomes contemptible. But whoever imposes punishment as deserved becomes respectable.”

— Chanakya

172. “Constant travel brings old age upon a man; a horse becomes old by being constantly tied up; lack of sexual contact with her husband brings old age upon a woman; and garments become old through being left in the sun.”

— Chanakya

173. “There is no enemy like infatuation and fire like wrath.”

— Chanakya

174. “Wicked ones are like fire. Even if pu on hea, they burn only. They do not leave unhurt even their well – wishers and benefactors.”

— Chanakya

175. “The demerits of our own people bringh infamiy. Their disgrace is our own disgrace. That is why infamy os such people relly hurts. It is desifrable that the ruler or the administrator may work in a way that such disgraceful conduct may not occur.”

— Chanakya

176. “Chankaya is referring there to the probibition of entry of the untrustworthy in the counsel-room. Disloyal persons foolishly speak out the secrets of the counsel not knowing the harmful effects of the same. Disclosing the secrets of the counsel mars the welfare of the country.”

— Chanakya

177. “If one limb of the body is defected or inflicted with, disease, the whole feels tha pai. Some way if any department, minister or official of the state is faulty, the whole country is effected. An administrator should try hard to curb it.”

— Chanakya

178. “My dear child, if you desire to be free from the cycle of birth and death, then abandon the objects of sense gratification as poison. Drink instead the nectar of forbearance, upright conduct, mercy, cleanliness and truth.”

— Chanakya

179. “A still-born son os superior to a foolish son endowed with a long life. The first causes grief for but a moment while the latter like a blazing fire consumes his parents in grief for life.”

— Chanakya

180. “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.”

— Chanakya

181. “The king shall singly deliberate over secret matters; for ministers have their own ministers, and these latter some of their own; this kind of successive line of ministers tends to the disclosure of counsels.”

— Chanakya

182. “Offspring, friends and relatives flee from a devotee of the Lord: yet those who follow him bring merit to their families through their devotion.”

— Chanakya

183. “There is no water like rainwater; no strength like one’s own; no light like that of the eyes; and no wealth more dear than food grain.”

— Chanakya