each quote is followed by the list of chapter numbers it prefixes
“Today, Candragupta, your education is complete. Only rituals remain – chief among them being guru dakṣiṇā (tuition fee payment). But for the education I have given you, your fee will not be monetary.” “Name your price, Professor.” Kautilya turned to face his student and dearest friend. “Entire India.”
(0.2)
“I am asking you to defeat not one, but two great empires: the Magadhas and the Greeks, each the largest to have existed in their respective realms, neither of which have lost two thirds of an inch of territory in the entire history of their existence.”
(1.1)
“To keep a value more sacred than the truth is to dishonour the Goddess Sarasvati; to cut off a man's tongue is to point a sword at her throat.”
(1.8)
“It was as if, in response to the relentless oppression against men’s lives and economy by wicked emperors, a voice had sounded from the heavens, and its words were: Neti Kautilyaḥ!”
(1.10)
“The hand dexterous in grasping the halfa grass, fuel and stones, ladle, melted butter and the oblation vessel, unsheathed a flaming sword, eager to conquer the earth.”
(2)
“Archers are fielded against infantry, cavalry against foot archers, and spies against conspirers.”
(2.4)
“It is a natural tendency to view the world as governed by large things controlling small ones: large kingdoms dominating small ones, major cities ruling over satellite forts, men atop elephants and chariots directing regular cavalry and infantry. Yet machines may be designed so that a light touch to a thin string causes an entire palace to collapse.”
(2.5)
“Let it be known, for centuries forth: that Magadha, after her conquest of Mathura, found herself conquered by her.”
(3)
“The wounds of battle quickly healed, and the ravaged fields smiled again … The East bowed low before the blast, in patient, deep disdain; she let the legions thunder past, and plunged in thought again.” — VA Smith, quoting Matthew Arnold.
(3.4)
“Seven are the elements of sovereignty; six are the forms of foreign policy; five are the institutions of espionage; four are the sciences and the methods of manipulation; and three are the goals of human pursuit.”
(3.7)
“You have the right to work only but never to its fruit; Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.” —quoted to Kr̥ṣṇa, Bhagavad Gītā 2.47
(3.10)
One thing had become very clear to the people of Magadha:
Their way of life was dying.
The Brāhmaṇas were winning.
The light of the Vedas was burning through the country—
—for the Sun had risen in the West.
(4)
