Ashoka Quotes

“However, the most striking evidence of Brahmanical hostility towards Buddhism comes in the form of silence: the way in which India’s Buddhist history, extending over large parts of the country and lasting for many centuries, was excised from the historical record.”
― Charles Allen, Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor

“who feared God, but not death … who thought none below him but the base and unjust, none above him but the wise and virtuous’.”
― Charles Allen, Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor

“My only intention is that they live without fear of me, that they may trust me and that I may give them happiness, not sorrow. Furthermore, they should understand that the king will forgive those who can be forgiven, and that he wishes them to practise Dharma so that they can attain happiness in this world and the next. I am telling you this so that I may discharge the debts I owe, and that in instructing you, you may know that my vow and my promise will not be broken … Assure them [the people of the unconquered territories] that: ‘The king is like a father. He feels towards us as he feels towards himself. We are to him like his own children.”
― Charles Allen, Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor