Do not set your heart on things that cannot be attained except through great and painful effort, or by forsaking righteousness, or by bowing down before an enemy. A man without knowledge is to be pitied; a union that bears no fruit is to be pitied; a people deprived of food are to be pitied; and a kingdom without a king is to be pitied. They are a source of pain and weakness for embodied beings: rains, and the wearing away of hills and mountains; the absence of pleasure; the longing of women; and the many-worded arrows of the heart. The taint of the Vedas is want of study; of a brahmin, the abandonment of his vows; of the earth, the Vahlikas; of man, falsehood; of a chaste woman, curiosity; of women, banishment from the home. The dross of gold is silver; of silver, tin; of tin, lead; and of lead, worthless slag. Sleep cannot be conquered by lying down; a woman, by mere desire; fire, by fuel; nor wine, by drinking. Indeed, life is crowned with success for one who has won his friends through gifts, his enemies in battle, and his wife through food and drink; those who possess thousands live on, and those who possess hundreds live on as well.