Encyclopaedia of Sanskrit subhāṣitas 157

157

akṣṇorvipakṣa iti sānuśayaṃ lulāva nīlotpalaṃ yadabalā kalamasya goptrī /
bhūyastadeva śirasāvahadunnatānāṃ vairaṃ virodhiṣu dṛḍhaṃ na parājiteṣu //

Thinking it an enemy of her eyes, the young woman guarding the rice crop angrily plucked the blue lotus;
yet she carried that very flower on her head—for the enmity of the noble is firm toward rivals, not toward the defeated.