Quotes - Apad Dharma Parva

These are selected quotes from the Apad Dharma Parva of the Mahabharata. The quotes are taken from Vol.8 of Bibek Debroy's unabridged English translation of the Mahabahrata. I have reviewed all ten volumes, and quotes from previous volumes are also available on my blog or on the Mahabharata blog.

• "Progress on the journey does not take place along a single branch of dharma."
  
  
• "If the root cannot be taken out, nothing must be dug up." 

• "A debt that is not repaid, a fire that has not gone out and an enemy that has not been eliminated, repeatedly keep on growing." 

• "Before striking, he must speak pleasantly. After striking, it should be even more pleasant." 

• "He should be blind when it is best to be blind and he can even resort to being deaf." 

• "There is a time for allying with enemies. There is a time for fighting with friends." 

• "Friendship and enmity result from a specific objective. ... Self-interest is the most important." 

• One should not trust someone who should not be trusted. One should not even trust someone who should be trusted. 

• "No one is born as an enemy. No one is born as a friend....There is no friendship that is permanent. There is no enmity that is permanent." 

• "There are are well-wishers in the form of enemies. There are enemies in the form of well-wishers." 

• "Friends must be examined. Enemies must also be examined." 

• "When a task has been completed, no one looks to see who did it.That is the reason all tasks should be left with a little bit still undone."

• "There is no one who is truly an enemy.There is no one who is truly a well-wisher. Interests are bound to interests" 

• "If someone wishes to cross a deep and great river with a piece of wood, the wood takes him across, and he takes the wood across too." 

• "A learned enemy is superior to a stupid friend." 

• "Dharma results from strength. Dharma is established on strength." 

• "Just as smoke is controlled by the wind, dharma follows strength." 

• "For the strong, everything is pure." 

© 2014, Abhinav Agarwal (अभिनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.