Ramayana

"मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगमश्शाश्वतीस्समा: । यत्क्रौञ्चमिथुनादेकमवधी: काममोहितम् ।।"

"You will find no rest for the long years of Eternity For you killed a bird in love and unsuspecting."

"यदाचरति कल्याणि शुभं वा यदि वाऽशुभम्। तदेव लभते भद्रे कर्ता कर्मजमात्मनः।।"

"O, blessed lady! O gracious one! A doer reaps surely the fruit of his own deeds corresponding to the nature of work either good or bad, of that which he does!"

"अत्येति रजनी या तु सा न प्रतिनिवर्तते"

"The night that has passed, does not return."

"सत्यवादी हि लोकेऽस्मिन्परमं गच्छति क्षयम्"

"The one who speaks truth obtains the highest position in this world."

"उद्विजन्ते यथा सर्पान्नरादनृतवादिनः"

"People fear of a person, who speaks untruth, as one fears a snake."

"धर्मादर्थः प्रभवति धर्मात्प्रभवते सुखम्। धर्मेण लभते सर्वं धर्मसारमिदं जगत्।।"

"Interest springs from righteousness; and happiness also results therefrom. One attains everything through righteousness—in this world the only substantial thing."

"न चिरं पापकर्माणः क्रूरा लोकजुगुप्सिताः। ऐश्वर्यं प्राप्य तिष्ठन्ति शीर्णमूला इव द्रुमाः।।"

"Like unto trees whose roots have been reduced, cruel persons, execrated of men, who perpetrate iniquitous acts, do not exist long."

"सुलभाः पुरुषा राजन्सततं प्रियवादिनः। अप्रियस्य तु पथ्यस्य वक्ता श्रोता च दुर्लभः।।"

"O king, the speaker of soft words is common, but the speaker and the listner of unwelcome though beneficial words are rarities."

"न विषादे मनः कार्यम् विषादो दोषवत्तरः | विषादो हन्ति पुरुषम् बालम् क्रुद्ध इव उरगः ||"

"We should not indulge in grief. Grief is injurious.— Grief destroys a person even as a wrathful serpent doth a boy."

"She was lovely like an indistinct lunar disc, like a streak of gold covered with dust, like a golden reed broken by the wind, like a scar left by an arrow!"

"The husband enhances the beauty of a woman more than her ornaments."

"उत्साहो बलवानार्य नस्त्युत्साहात् परं बलं। सोत्साहस्यहि लोकेषु न किञ्चिदपि दुर्लभं ॥"

"No ancient story, not even Homer's Iliad or Odyssey, has remained as popular through the course of time. The story of Rama appears as old as civilization and has a fresh appeal for every generation."

"The general spirit of India was most vividly reflected in the Ramayana."

"References to the story of Rama occur in the earliest part of the Sangama literature of Tamil Nadu, dating back to a period almost as old as the Ramayana of Valmiki."

"The year 1863 will remain cherished and blessed. It was the first time I could read India’s great sacred poem, the divine Ramayana.... This great stream of poetry carries away the bitter leaven left behind by time and purifies us. Whoever has his heart dried up, let him drench it in the Ramayana. Whoever has lost and wept, let him find in it a soothing softness and Nature’s compassion. Whoever has done too much, willed too much, let him drink a long draught of life and youth from this deep chalice.... Everything is narrow in the Occident. Greece is small — I stifle. Judea is dry — I pant. Let me look a little towards lofty Asia, towards the deep Orient. There I find my immense poem, vast as India’s seas, blessed and made golden by the sun, a book of divine harmony in which nothing jars. There reigns a lovable peace, and even in the midst of battle, an infinite softness, an unbounded fraternity extending to all that lives, a bottomless and shoreless ocean of love, piety, clemency. I have found what I was looking for: the bible of kindness. Great poem, receive me!… Let me plunge into it! It is the sea of milk."

"By Indra! how beautiful this is and how much better than the Bible, the Gospel and all the words of the Fathers of the Church!"

"Well, what is the Ramayana? The conquest of the savage aborigines of Southern India by the Aryans! Indeed! Ramachandra is a civilised Aryan king and with whom, is he fighting? With King Ravana of Lanka. Just read the Ramayana, and you will find that Ravana was rather more and not less civilised than Ramachandra. The civilisation of Lanka was rather higher, and surely not lower, than that of Ayodhya."

"Since more than 2000 years the poem of Rama has remained alive in India, and it continues to live in all strata and classes of folk. High and low, princes and peasants, landlords and artisans, princesses and shepherdesses, are well versed with the characters and stories of the great epic."