Verbal instructions can be understood by all, even by irrational animals, but to understand a hint, is a mark of real wisdom.

The thoughts of the heart may be gathered from the appearance of the body, from gestures, the motions of the eyes and feet, habits, words, and the countenance.

A wise man confines his anger within the bounds of his ability to defend himself; regulates his friendship by the excellence of his friends; and returns to each an answer suited to his question.

Attachments are founded neither on beauty nor on deformity, but on a taste perfectly unaccountable.

He who is free from covetousness, who is not soon angry, who possesses learning, who is ever constant at his post, and fearless in the execution of commands, is a proper person to abide in the houses of the great.

Kings, women, and climbing plants, love those who are near them.

Affection is known by these signs: by stretching the eyes to meet the person when afar off; by smiling at his approach; by kind and respectful enquiries; by praising him in his absence; by affectionate conversation, and by gifts.

He who speaks out of season, subjects himself to be despised or insulted.

A faithful servant must, even unasked, offer his advice in a moment of danger.

A wise and prudent man is not thrown into confusion by reproach; but is like the flame, which, when stirred, ascends higher and higher.

The lustre of a virtuous character cannot be defaced, nor the vices of the vicious ever become lucid: a jewel preserves its lustre though trodden in the dirt; but a brass pot, though placed on the head, still remains brass.

The excellency or the faults of conversation, of a horse, of an edge-tool, of a shastră, of a musical instrument, and of an individual, depend upon those into whose hands they fall. A wise hearer is not influenced by the speaker, but by the oration.

He whose friendship can bestow kingdoms, whose frown is death, and whose power is synonymous with victory, will preserve the splendour of his name.

Let no human being be despised, for who can tell how soon even the lowest may be

raised.

He who breaks the command of the king, who offends a prostitute, or a cruel person, has embraced his own destruction.

The strong proclaim their power before their equals, not before the weak: the lion

is incensed at the sound of the thunder, but not at the cry of the jackall; the storm tears up the lofty pine, yet spares the tender reed.

Be not afraid of sounds till thou hast ascertained their cause.

Let not a servant, without permission, appropriate to himself the smallest trifle belonging to his master, except for self-preservation.

Riches obtained unjustly, or laid out improperly, soon vanish.

Let not a person be employed who delays to give an account of that which is entrusted to him; nor a kshŭtriyŭ who carries a sword, nor an intimate friend, nor he who can offend without fear; nor a person to whom the employer is under obligation; nor the ambitious; nor the deceitful though their words are kind; nor those who, though they safely preserve what is acquired, are indifferent respecting the acquisition of more wealth; nor he who secretly exchanges his master's property; nor one destitute of wisdom; nor the greedy. Let a servant be first tried, and then employed.

A person of harsh speech is never loved: the deceitful have no friends.

He whose passions are not under controul, can never be virtuous; the covetous are destitute of all religion; the niggardly have no happiness.

The king whose counsellors are wine-bibbers, cannot retain his kingdom.

A king as a father must preserve his subjects from thieves, from his own officers, from their enemies, from his head-servants, and from his own rapacity.

Let not a virtuous man give himself up to sorrow on account of accidental mistakes. A woman cannot be kept in due subjection, either by gifts, or kindness, or correct conduct, or the greatest services, or the laws of morality, or by the terror of punishment, for she cannot discriminate between good and evil.

An unchaste woman, a false friend, an insolent servant, and sleeping in a house 'containing a serpent, are death itself.

Let not him who has fallen into the hands of the cruel, trust to soothing measures, but rather put forth all his energy.

Let not a king invest his whole power, nor all his wealth, in the hands of any individual, so as to omit his own rigorous inspection.

It is of the essence of riches to corrupt the heart.

Let not the accidental faults of a real friend interrupt your friendship: the body, though it may contain sores, cannot be abandoned, and fire though it may have burnt. down your house, is still necessary.

As medicine, though nauseous, must not be rejected, so a real friend, though unamiable must not be discarded; but a vicious person, though ever so dear, as a limb in a state of mortification, must be renounced.

He is a wise man who is able to deliver another from misfortunes.

That employment is to be preferred by which a person may become more virtuous. She deserves the name of wife who always approaches her husband with affectionate and submissive words.

He is a wise man whom the pious praise; we call those riches which do not puff up the mind; he is a happy man who has no thirst; we call that friendship which is not bought or influenced by outward circumstances; we call him an eminent person who is not subject to his passions.

He who never exercises his own judgment, but rests on the opinions of others, is a worthless person.

Secrecy is essentially necessary to the success of all counsel. It is difficult to accomplish counsels or plans which have been discovered.

Reunion to a person who has once violated the laws of friendship, resembles the birth of the crab, in which the parent dies.

Incorrect conduct, or a breach of friendship, or combating with a person of superior strength, is the high road to death.

He is mistaken who supposes that the king is ever his friend.

Who is there that has not suffered from the sex?

Whose honour has ever continued after he has become dependent on others?

Who has ever escaped the net of the injurious?

The goddess of prosperity seldom remains in the house of an ignoble person, or the goddess of learning in the house of the wicked; the wife of the man incapable of procuring riches, seldom continues faithful.

He who is never angry but through the excitation of some outward cause, is pacified as soon as the cause ceases, but not so the man who is naturally choleric.

Benefits, though heaped on the vicious, are fruitless; but the smallest benefit, bestowed on the virtuous, produces a rich reward.

There is no happiness unmixed with misery.

A vicious, deceitful person, though at the approach of a friend he raises his hands as

with joy, embraces him in his arms on his arrival, gives to him half his seat, weeps for joy, and makes the most moving and affectionate professions of respect and attachment, is like the hook baited with sweet paste: he has poison in his heart.

God has opened a way to the knowledge of every thing, except the heart of the vicious. Who is not irritated by excessive importunity?

Who is not pleased with riches? Who is not learned in vice?

The vicious have no friends.

An ascetic ought to treat both friends and enemies alike; but it is a great fault when the rich forgive injuries.

He ought to expiate his crime by death who desires the office of his employer.
Advice to the stupid produces anger.

As long as a person remains silent, he is honoured, but as soon as he opens his mouth, men sit in judgment on his capacity.

Let the traveller fainting on his journey take rest under a tree which contains both fruit and shade.

A person possessing both parts and power, receives no credit for either if he associate with the mean.

A king destroys his enemies even when flying; and the touch of an elephant, as well as the breath of a serpent, are fatal; but the wicked destroy even while laughing.

A foolish king, a weak child, and a person puffed up by riches, desire that which cannot be procured.

Should the virtuous remain near the vicious, the effects of the deeds of the vicious will fall upon the virtuous: the sea was put in chains, on account of its vicinity to the wicked Ravănů.

The sweet words of the vicious, like fruit out of season, excite fear.

A person of low origin, by kind words, is soon persuaded to forgive an injury.

The learned say, Bear a thousand injuries rather than quarrel once; but if a quarrel be begun, use every possible means to gain the victory.

A propensity to begin groundless quarrels marks the ignorant.

Wicked ministers and servants are the first to advise unnecessary war, and the first to run away from the field of action.

We call that excellent counsel by which great things can be accomplished by small

means.

Let every thing be done in its season, for to every thing there is a reaping time. In the time of weakness, even under great injuries, shut up thyself like the turtle; but when a fair opportunity is given, shew thyself terrible as the all-devouring serpent (kală-surpů).

A council destitute of old men is unworthy of the name; but that wisdom is to be preferred which makes the young old.

Youth, beauty, life, prosperity, and love, are inconstant as the union of straws on a rapid current.

As a thief when seized is beaten all the way to prison, so the strokes of death fall on men in perpetual succession.

The allotted days and nights of human life, like a current down the sides of a mountain, pass away not to return.

Union even with the body is a broken one: need we wonder then, that no union on earth is indissoluble?

Our stay on earth resembles that of a traveller for the night: therefore sorrow for any thing on earth is unreasonable. The best remedy for worldly anxiety is indifference.

He who is subject to his passions will find the world even in a hermitage; but he who is free from worldly desire, finds a hermitage even in the city.

He who purifies himself in the river of a subdued spirit, the waters of which are truth, its waves compassion, and its shores excellent temper and conduct, will be liberated from this world; but liberation cannot be obtained by any outward observances.

Human life is made up of birth, death, decrepitude, disease, pain, fear, calamity; in liberation from this, consists true happiness; but deliverance from earth [earthly care] is excessively difficult, and only to be obtained by union to the pious [ascetics].*

* Mr. Colebrooke, in his very ingenious Introductory Remarks to the Sungskritŭ edition of the Hitopŭdésbŭ, printed at the Serampore press, has these Remarks on the Pŭnchă-Tuntră: "In the concluding line of the poetical preface to the Hitopŭdéshů, it is expressly declared to have been drawn from the PunchŭTuntru and other writings. The book, thus mentioned as the chief source from which that collection of fables was taken, is divided into five chapters, as its name imports: it consists, like the Hitopŭdéshŭ, of apologues recited by a learned bramhŭn named Vishnoo Shŭrma, for the instruction of his pupils, the sons of an Indian Monarch; but it contains a greater variety of fables, and a more copious dialogue, than the work which has been chiefly compiled from it; and, on comparison with the Persian translations now extant, it is found to agree with them more nearly than that compilation, both in the order, and the manner, in which the tales are related."