Mahabharata 12.8.35

12.8.35

yeṣāṃ rājāśvamedhena yajate dakṣiṇāvatā |
upetya tasyāvabhṛthaṃ pūtāḥ sarve bhavanti te || 35 ||

When, the very gods have won their prosperity through internecine quarrels, what fault can there be in such quarrels? The gods, thou seest, act in this way. The eternal precepts of the Vedas also sanction it. To learn, teach, sacrifice, and assist at other's sacrifices,--these are our principal duties. The wealth that kings take from others becomes the means of their prosperity. We never see wealth that has been earned without doing some injury to others. It is even thus that kings conquer this world. Having conquered, they call that wealth theirs, just as sons speak of the wealth of their sires as their own. The royal sages that have gone to heaven have declared this to be the duty of kings. Like water flowing on every direction from a swollen ocean, that wealth runs on every direction from the treasuries of kings. This earth formerly belonged to king Dilipa, Nahusha, Amvarisha, and Mandhatri. She now belongs to thee! A great sacrifice, therefore, with profuse presents of every kind and requiring a vast heap of the earth's produce, awaits thee. If thou dost not perform that sacrifice, O king, then the sins of this kingdom shall all be thine. Those subjects whose king performs a horse-sacrifice with profuse presents, become all cleansed and sanctified by beholding the ablutions at the end of the sacrifice. Mahadeva himself, of universal form, in a great sacrifice requiring libations of all kinds of flesh, poured all creatures as sacrificial libations and then his own self.