Hitopadesa Quotes

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there.

The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction.

Some will always be above others. Destroy the inequality today, and it will appear again tomorrow.

If you are with five successful people, then you are the sixth successful person. The reverse of this is true as well, so who are you hanging out with?

To strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.

Well, you sort of get out of the pool room, you get out of the Marine Corps, you get out and read some literature, you become involved with people who also want to know and are ready to share some ideas about literature and thoughts, and it becomes nourished that way.

I try to not be or associate with elitists.

As equality increases, so does the number of people struggling for predominance.

I put myself on the same level as everyone else around me - from the directrice to the workman, everyone. Except my pets - they are the Kings; you must treat them like royalty.

When we consider how nearly equal all men are in their bodily force, and even in their mental powers and faculties, till cultivated by education, we must necessarily allow that nothing but their own consent could at first associate them together and subject them to any authority.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent.

The preposterous distinctions of rank, which render civilization a curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, every class of people, because respectability is not attached to the discharge of the relative duties of life, but to the station…

All men are created equal in one respect, at least, and that is their desire to be unequal.

Order is Heaven's first law, and this confessed, Some are, and must be greater than the rest -

All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with a mighty urge to become otherwise.

As social animals we humans are very sensitive to our rank and position within any group. We can measure our status by the attention and respect we receive.

There is no good in living in a society where you are merely the equal of everybody else. The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.

Court the society of a superior, and make much of the opportunity; for in the company of an equal thy good fortune must decline.

The mind makes the nobleman, and uplifts the lowly to high degree.

As far as mental development is concerned, we should never be complacent. We can develop our minds infinitely - there is no limitation.

Superiority and inferiority are individual, not racial or national.

In the hierarchy, the artist faces outward. Meeting someone new he asks himself, What can this person do for me? How can this person advance my standing? In the hierarchy, the artist looks up and looks down. The one place he can't look is that place he must: within.

Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach.

I set it down as a maxim, that it is good for a man to live where he can meet his betters, intellectual and social.

The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.