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Books are endless, time is short: let a man, therefore, extract the substance, just as a swan extracts the milk which is mixed with water.

Nectar becomes poison if kept too long.

To obtain merit is like roiling a stone up a hill; to fall into evil, like rolling it down a mountain-side.

The repetition of idle words becomes an ox: it is like chewing the cud.

A Brahman can make what is not divine divine, and what is divine not divine.

A hungry snake devours its own eggs: a woman pinched by hunger may desert her own child.

The winkings of men's eyes are numbered all by him: he wields the universe as gamesters handle dice.