Kautilya: Arthashastra
Acquire wisdom by keeling company with the aged teachers
See through your spies.
Maintain subjects by punishing when fair.
Endear yourself to the people by bringing them in contact with wealth and doing good to them.
Three pursuits of life: Charity, wealth, and desire. Any one of these three, when enjoyed to an excess, hurts not only the other two, but also itself.
Wealth comes first, as charity and desire depend on wealth for their realization.
A single wheel can never move. A King shall employ ministers and hear their opinion.
Know your ministers secrets, and they will never hurt you in fear of you betraying their secrets.
Encourage a spy with honor (titles) and money rewards.
Set them to inform on the wickedness they find in others.
When the trader falls from his profession, but is of pure character, you can turn him into a spy by allotting him land. Allow him to continue in exchange for service.
A King is to singly deliberate over secret matters, for ministers have their own ministers, and so on. This successive line of ministers leads to the disclosure of counsels.
For important decisions, the perfect numbers is 3-4 ministers.
To raise a prince: he shall be taught only of righteousness and wealth, but not of unrighteousness and of non-wealth. For those will stain the mind.
When fond of liquor, he shall be made terrified by making him drink liquor adulterated with narcotics
When desirous of attacking his own father, he shall, under the pretense of compliance, be gradually persuaded of the evil consequences of such attempts (showing that an unsuccessful attempt will bring about thy own death, a successful attempt will make thee fall into hell and the people to turn against you)
When a prince has proven his good qualities, he may be made commander-in-chief or installed as heir apparent.
Nurture his sharp intelligence. Do this by encouraging him to carry his knowledge into practice
A King shall divide the day into eight 1.5 hour divisions.
Interesting how bathing and supper and study come together (each meal is written this way).
One-eighth is allowed for your favorite amusements or self-deliberation.
A King shall never cause his petitioners to wait at the door.
Causing disaffection makes you vulnerable to your enemies.
All urgent calls he shall hear at once, but never put off; for when postponed, they will prove too hard to accomplish.
The root of wealth is activity, and of evil its reverse.
A wise collector-general increases income and decreases expenditure.
Dangerous people are punished privately.
Abstain from talking about things the King hates.
People become powerful when they tell their superiors good things. Turn everything into good news through “get to yes” thinking.
A King commends the qualities of another man beside him.
He plays sports with his court members. He consults them when they are in trouble.
This is reward.
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