Panchatantra

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

1. Scholarship is less than sense. Seek intelligence.

   In the fable, three learned brothers use their science to bring a dead lion back to life, and it eats them; the fourth, who had only common sense, climbs a tree and lives. Ryder's rhyme carries the moral. Credentials are not judgment. Before you show off what you can do, ask whether you should.

   Panchatantra, Book V, 'The Lion-Makers' (Ryder 1925), Arthur W. Ryder, 1925

2. Intelligence is power.

   The verse introduces the story of a small rabbit who tricks a tyrant lion into leaping at his own reflection in a well. Strength without wits can be beaten by wits without strength. When you cannot overpower a problem, outthink it.

   Panchatantra, Book I, 'The Loss of Friends' (Ryder 1925), Arthur W. Ryder, 1925

3. Leave a job unbegun, or if begun, see it done.

   The crow minister who says this has gone deep into enemy territory and will not leave the job half finished. A half-done task is often worse than an untouched one: it costs the effort and returns nothing. Think hard before you start, then do not stop.

   Panchatantra, Book III, 'Crows and Owls' (Ryder 1925), Arthur W. Ryder, 1925

4. Whatever you mean to do, do quickly. Wait, and time sucks out the juice.

   Delay drains the life out of good opportunities. The verse urges speed especially when circumstances are favorable, because favorable moments do not last. When the window is open, climb through.

   Panchatantra, Book III, 'Crows and Owls' (Ryder 1925), Arthur W. Ryder, 1925

5. Fortune comes to the doers, not to those who wait and see.

   To people made of discipline, courage and drive, the verse says, the ocean looks no bigger than a puddle and the Himalaya no taller than an anthill. Luck runs toward them, not toward the spectators. Waiting for good fortune before acting gets the order backwards.

   Panchatantra, Book II, 'The Winning of Friends' (Ryder 1925), Arthur W. Ryder, 1925

6. To the man of vigor, no mountain is too high, no sea shoreless.

   Meru is the world-mountain of Indian cosmology, the highest thing there is, and the verse shrinks it along with the depths and the endless sea. For someone with enough energy, even the extremes of the world become crossable. Scale comes from the eye that is looking.

   Panchatantra, Book II, 'The Winning of Friends' (Ryder 1925), Arthur W. Ryder, 1925

7. It is not the sword that destroys a foe. It is wit.

   After the crows win their war through a spy's cunning rather than force, the minister explains that valor alone does not end a contest. Weapons reach only the body; strategy reaches everything the enemy depends on. Win the thinking and the fighting gets short.

   Panchatantra, Book III, 'Crows and Owls' (Ryder 1925), Arthur W. Ryder, 1925