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diff --git a/21130.txt b/21130.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbd404c --- /dev/null +++ b/21130.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7011 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Book of Wise Sayings, by W. A. Clouston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Book of Wise Sayings + Selected Largely from Eastern Sources + +Author: W. A. Clouston + +Release Date: April 18, 2007 [EBook #21130] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOOK OF WISE SAYINGS *** + + + + +Produced by Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + BOOK OF + + WISE SAYINGS + + _SELECTED LARGELY FROM EASTERN SOURCES_ + + BY + + W. A. CLOUSTON + + _Author of "Popular Tales and Fictions," "Literary + Coincidences, and other Papers," "Flowers + from a Persian Garden," etc._ + + + + "Concise sentences, like darts, fly abroad and make + impressions, while long discourses are tedious and not + regarded."--BACON. + + "Many are the sayings of the wise, + In ancient and in modern books enrolled."--MILTON. + + + + LONDON + PUBLISHED BY HUTCHINSON & CO. + + AT 34 PATERNOSTER ROW + 1893 + + + + + PRINTED AT NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) + BY H. C. A. THIEME OF NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) + + AND + + TALBOT HOUSE, ARUNDEL STREET + LONDON, W.C. + + + + + TO + + FRANCIS THORNTON BARRETT, + + CHIEF LIBRARIAN, + MITCHELL LIBRARY, GLASGOW, + + THIS LITTLE BOOK, + + WITH FRIENDLY GREETINGS, + + IS INSCRIBED. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Cynics may ask, how many have profited by the innumerable proverbs +and maxims of prudence which have been current in the world time out +of mind? They will say that their only use is to repeat them after +some unhappy wight has "gone wrong." When, for instance, a man has +played "ducks and drakes" with his money, the fact at once calls up +the proverb which declares that "wilful waste leads to woful want"; +but did not the "waster" know this well-worn saying from his early +years _downwards_? What good, then, did it do him? Again, how many +have been benefited by the saying of the ancient Greek poet, that +"evil communications corrupt good manners"?--albeit they had it +frequently before them in their school "copy-books." Are the maxims +of morality useless, then, because they are so much disregarded? + +When a man has reached middle-age he generally feels with tenfold +force the truth of those "sayings of the wise" which he learned in +his early years, and has cause to regret, as well as wonder, that he +had not all along followed their wholesome teaching. For it is to +the young, who are about to cross the threshold of active life, that +such terse convincing sentences are more especially addressed, and, +spite of the proverbial heedlessness of youth, there will be found +many who are not deaf to this kind of instruction, if their moral +environment be favourable. But, even after the spring-time of youth +is past, there are occasions when the mind is peculiarly susceptible +to the force of a pithy maxim, which may tend to the reforming of +one's way of life. There is commonly more practical wisdom in a +striking aphorism than in a round dozen of "goody" books--that is to +say, books which are not good in the highest sense, because their +themes are overlaid with commonplace and wearisome reflections. + +May we not find the "whole duty of man" condensed into a few brief +sentences, which have been expressed by thoughtful men in all ages +and in countries far apart?--such as: "Love thy neighbour as +thyself," "Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." +The chief themes of all teachers of morality are: benevolence and +beneficence; tolerance of the opinions of others; self-control; the +acquisition of knowledge--that jewel beyond price; the true uses of +wealth; the advantages of resolute, manly exertion; the dignity of +labour; the futility of worldly pleasures; the fugacity of time; +man's individual insignificance. They are never weary of inculcating +taciturnity in preference to loquacity, and the virtues of patience +and resignation. They iterate and reiterate the fact that true +happiness is to be found only in contentment; and they administer +consolation and infuse hope by reminding us that as dark days are +followed by bright days, so times of bitter adversity are followed +by seasons of sweet prosperity; and thus, like the immortal Sir +Hudibras, when "in doleful dumps", we may "cheer ourselves with ends +of verse, and sayings of philosophers." + +In the following small selection of aphorisms, a considerable +proportion are drawn from Eastern literature. Indian wisdom is +represented by passages from the great epics, the _Mahabharata_ and +the _Ramayana_; the _Panchatantra_ and the _Hitopadesa_, two +Sanskrit versions of the famous collection of apologues known in +Europe as the Fables of Bidpai, or Pilpay; the _Dharma-sastra_ of +Manu; Bharavi, Magha, Bhartrihari, and other Hindu poets. Specimens +of the mild teachings of Buddha and his more notable followers are +taken from the _Dhammapada_ (Path of Virtue) and other canonical +works; pregnant sayings of the Jewish Fathers, from the Talmud; +Moslem moral philosophy is represented by extracts from Arabic and +Persian writers (among the great poets of Persia are, Firdausi, +Sa'di, Hafiz, Nizami, Omar Khayyam, Jami); while the proverbial +wisdom of the Chinese and the didactic writings of the sages of +Burmah are also occasionally cited. + +The ordinary reader will probably be somewhat surprised to discover +in the aphorisms of the ancient Greeks and Hindus several close +parallels to the doctrines of the Old and New Testaments, and he +will have reasoned justly if he conclude that the so-called +"heathens" could have derived their spiritual light only from the +same Source as that which inspired the Hebrew prophets and the +Christian apostles. + +Among English writers of aphorisms Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, is +pre-eminent, but none of his pithy sentences find place here, +because they are procurable in many inexpensive forms, (_e.g._, +_Counsels from my Lord Bacon_, 1892), and must be familiar to what is +termed "the average general reader." _The Enchiridion_ of Frances +Quarles and the _Resolves_ of Owen Feltham are, however, laid under +contribution, as also Robert Chamberlain, an author who is probably +unknown to many pluming themselves on their thorough acquaintance +with English literature, some of whose aphorisms (published in 1638, +under the title of _Nocturnal Lucubrations_) I have deemed worthy of +reproduction. + +In more modern times, with the sole exception of William Hazlitt, +our country has produced no very successful writer of aphorisms. +Colton's _Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those +who Think_, went through several editions soon after its first +publication in 1820; it is described by Mr. John Morley--and not +unfairly--as being "so vapid, so wordy, so futile as to have a place +among those books which dispense with parody"; it is "an awful +example to anyone who is tempted to try his hand at an aphorism." +Mr. Morley is hardly less severe in speaking of the "Thoughts" in +_Theophrastus Such_: "the most insufferable of all deadly-lively +prosing in our sublunary world." However this may be, assuredly +other works of the author of _Adam Bede_ will be found to furnish +many examples of admirable apothegms. + +It only remains to add that, bearing in mind that a great collection +of gravities commonly proves quite as wearisome reading as a large +compilation of gaieties, or facetiae, I have confined my selection of +"sayings of the wise" within the limits of a pocket-volume. + + W. A. C. + + + + +BOOK OF WISE SAYINGS. + + +1. + +The enemies which rise within the body, hard to be overcome--thy +evil passions--should manfully be fought: he who conquers these is +equal to the conquerors of worlds. + + _Bharavi._ + + +2. + +If passion gaineth the mastery over reason, the wise will not count +thee amongst men. + + _Firdausi._ + + +3. + +Knowledge is destroyed by associating with the base; with equals +equality is gained, and with the distinguished, distinction. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +4. + +Dost thou desire that thine own heart should not suffer, redeem thou +the sufferer from the bonds of misery. + + _Sa'di._ + + +5. + +To friends and eke to foes true kindness show; +No kindly heart unkindly deeds will do; + Harshness will alienate a bosom friend. +And kindness reconcile a deadly foe. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +6. + +There is no greater grief in misery than to turn our thoughts back +to happier times.[1] + + _Dante._ + + [1] Cf. Goldsmith: + + O Memory! thou fond deceiver, + Still importunate and vain; + To former joys recurring ever, + And turning all the past to pain. + + +7. + +We in reality only know when we doubt a little. With knowledge comes +doubt. + + _Goethe._ + + +8. + +In the hour of adversity be not without hope, for crystal rain falls +from black clouds. + + _Nizami._ + + +9. + +One common origin unites us all, but every sort of wood does not +give the perfume of the lignum aloes. + + _Arabic._ + + +10. + +I asked an experienced elder who had profited by his knowledge of +the world, "What course should I pursue to obtain prosperity?" He +replied, "Contentment--if you are able, practise contentment." + + _Selman._ + + +11. + +Every moment that a man may be in want of employment, than such I +hold him to be far better who is forced to labour for nothing. + + _Afghan._ + + +12. + +The foolish undertake a trifling act, and soon desist, discouraged; +wise men engage in mighty works, and persevere. + + _Magha._ + + +13. + +Those who wish well towards their friends disdain to please them +with words which are not true. + + _Bharavi._ + + +14. + +Reason is captive in the hands of the passions, as a weak man in the +hands of an artful woman. + + _Sa'di._ + + +15. + +Like an earthen pot, a bad man is easily broken, and cannot readily +be restored to his former situation; but a virtuous man, like a vase +of gold, is broken with difficulty, and easily repaired. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +16. + +The son who delights his father by his good actions; the wife who +seeks only her husband's good; the friend who is the same in +prosperity and adversity--these three things are the reward of +virtue. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +17. + +Let us not overstrain our abilities, or we shall do nothing with +grace. A clown, whatever he may do, will never pass for a gentleman. + + _La Fontaine._ + + +18. + +To abstain from speaking is regarded as very difficult. It is not +possible to say much that is valuable and striking.[2] + + _Mahabharata._ + + [2] Cf. James, III, 8. + + +19. + +Pagodas are, like mosques, true houses of prayer; +'Tis prayer that church bells waft upon the air; + Kaaba and temple, rosary and cross, +All are but divers tongues of world-wide prayer. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +20. + +In no wise ask about the faults of others, for he who reporteth the +faults of others will report thine also. + + _Firdausi._ + + +21. + +He that holds fast the golden mean, +And lives contentedly between + The little and the great, +Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, +Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door, + Embittering all his state. + + _Horace._ + + +22. + +Nothing is more becoming a man than silence. It is not the preaching +but the practice which ought to be considered as the more important. +A profusion of words is sure to lead to error. + + _Talmud._ + + +23. + +Consider, and you will find that almost all the transactions of the +time of Vespasian differed little from those of the present day. You +there find marrying and giving in marriage, educating children, +sickness, death, war, joyous holidays, traffic, agriculture, +flatterers, insolent pride, suspicions, laying of plots, longing for +the death of others, newsmongers, lovers, misers, men canvassing for +consulship--yet all these passed away, and are nowhere. + + _M. Aurelius._ + + +24. + +The friendship of the bad is like the shade of some precipitous bank +with crumbling sides, which, falling, buries him who is beneath. + + _Bharavi._ + + +25. + +His action no applause invites +Who simply good with good repays; + He only justly merits praise +Who wrongful deeds with kind requites.[3] + + _Panchatantra._ + + [3] Matt. V, 43, 44. + + +26. + +Death comes, and makes a man his prey, + A man whose powers are yet unspent; + Like one on gathering flowers intent, +Whose thoughts are turned another way. + +Begin betimes to practise good, + Lest fate surprise thee unawares + Amid thy round of schemes and cares; +To-morrow's task to-day conclude.[4] + + _Mahabharata._ + + [4] Eccles. IX, 10; XII, 1. + + +27. + +Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, we feel +satisfaction in his society only as he is satisfied in himself. We +cannot enjoy the good qualities of a friend if he seems to be none +the better for them. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +28. + +It was a false maxim of Domitian that he who would gain the people +of Rome must promise all things and perform nothing. For when a man +is known to be false in his word, instead of a column, which he +might be by keeping it, for others to rest upon, he becomes a reed, +which no man will vouchsafe to lean upon. Like a floating island, +when we come next day to seek it, it is carried from the place we +left it in, and, instead of earth to build upon, we find nothing but +inconstant and deceiving waves. + + _Feltham._ + + +29. + +He is not dead who departs this life with high fame; dead is he, +though living, whose brow is branded with infamy. + + _Tieck._ + + +30. + +In the height of thy prosperity expect adversity, but fear it not. +If it come not, thou art the more sweetly possessed of the happiness +thou hast, and the more strongly confirmed. If it come, thou art the +more gently dispossessed of the happiness thou hadst, and the more +firmly prepared. + + _Quarles._ + + +31. + +A prudent man will not discover his poverty, his self-torments, the +disorders of his house, his uneasiness, or his disgrace. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +32. + +Men are of three different capacities: one understands intuitively; +another understands so far as it is explained; and a third +understands neither of himself nor by explanation. The first is +excellent, the second, commendable, and the third, altogether +useless. + + _Machiavelli._ + + +33. + +It is difficult to understand men, but still harder to know them +thoroughly. + + _Schiller._ + + +34. + +Worldly fame and pleasure are destructive to the virtue of the mind; +anxious thoughts and apprehensions are injurious to the health of +the body. + + _Chinese._ + + +35. + +Alas, for him who is gone and hath done no good work! The trumpet of +march has sounded, and his load was not bound on. + + _Persian._ + + +36. + +Human experience, like the stern-lights of a ship at sea, illumines +only the path which we have passed over. + + _Coleridge._ + + +37. + +Man is an actor who plays various parts: +First comes a boy, then out a lover starts; +His garb is changed for, lo! a beggar's rags; +Then he's a merchant with full money-bags; +Anon, an aged sire, wrinkled and lean; +At last Death drops the curtain on the scene.[5] + + _Bhartrihari._ + + [5] Cf. Shakspeare: + + "All the world's a stage," etc.--_As You Like It_, + Act II, _sc._ 7. + + +38. + +Through avarice a man loses his understanding, and by his thirst for +wealth he gives pain to the inhabitants of both worlds. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +39. + +Men soon the faults of others learn, + A few their virtues, too, find out; + But is there one--I have a doubt-- +Who can his own defects discern? + + _Sanskrit._ + + +40. + +In learning, age and youth go for nothing; the best informed take +the precedence. + + _Chinese._ + + +41. + +Mention not a blemish which is thy own in detraction of a neighbour. + + _Talmud._ + + +42. + +Affairs succeed by patience, and he that is hasty falleth headlong. + + _Sa'di._ + + +43. + +A man who has learnt little grows old like an ox: his flesh grows, +but his knowledge does not grow. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +44. + +Unsullied poverty is always happy, while impure wealth brings with +it many sorrows. + + _Chinese._ + + +45. + +Both white and black acknowledge women's sway, + So much the better and the wiser too, +Deeming it most convenient to obey, + Or possibly they might their folly rue.[6] + + _Persian._ + + [6] Cf. Pope: + + Would men but follow what the sex advise, + All things would prosper, all the world grow wise. + + +46. + +We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are +dissatisfied with ourselves. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +47. + +No one is more profoundly sad than he who laughs too much. + + _Richter._ + + +48. + +The heaven that rolls around cries aloud to you while it displays +its eternal beauties, and yet your eyes are fixed upon the earth +alone. + + _Dante._ + + +49. + +This world is a beautiful book, but of little use to him who cannot +read it. + + _Goldoni._ + + +50. + +Sorrows are like thunder-clouds: in the distance they look black, +over our heads, hardly gray. + + _Richter._ + + +51. + +The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected +without trials. + + _Chinese._ + + +52. + +Health is the greatest gift, contentedness the best riches. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +53. + +Great and unexpected successes are often the cause of foolish +rushing into acts of extravagance. + + _Demosthenes._ + + +54. + +Let none with scorn a suppliant meet, + Or from the door untended spurn +A dog; an outcast kindly treat; + And so thou shalt be blest in turn. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +55. + +Choose knowledge, if thou desirest a blessing from the Universal +Provider; for the ignorant man cannot raise himself above the earth, +and it is by knowledge that thou must render thy soul praiseworthy. + + _Firdausi._ + + +56. + +Good fortune is a benefit to the wise, but a curse to the foolish. + + _Chinese._ + + +57. + +In this thing one man is superior to another, that he is better able +to bear adversity and prosperity. + + _Philemon._ + + +58. + +The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colourless when +unbroken. + + _Longfellow._ + + +59. + +There are three things which, in great quantity, are bad, and, in +little, very good: leaven, salt, and liberality. + + _Talmud._ + + +60. + +Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at +mediocrity will be far short of it. + + _Burmese._ + + +61. + +Keep thy heart afar from sorrow, and be not anxious about the +trouble which is not yet come. + + _Firdausi._ + + +62. + +If thy garments be clean and thy heart be foul, thou needest no key +to the door of hell. + + _Sa'di._ + + +63. + +We ought never to mock the wretched, for who can be sure of being +always happy? + + _La Fontaine._ + + +64. + +To those who err in judgment, not in will, anger is gentle. + + _Sophocles._ + + +65. + +Not only is the old man twice a child, but also the man who is +drunk. + + _Plato._ + + +66. + +Wrapt up in error is the human mind, + And human bliss is ever insecure; +Know we what fortune yet remains behind? + Know we how long the present shall endure? + + _Pindar._ + + +67. + +A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself +to the vessel that contains it. + + _Chinese._ + + +68. + +He who formerly was reckless and afterwards became sober brightens +up this world like the moon when freed from clouds. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +69. + +When a base fellow cannot vie with another in merit he will attack +him with malicious slander. + + _Sa'di._ + + +70. + +If a man be not so happy as he desires, let this be his comfort--he +is not so wretched as he deserves. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +71. + +In conversation humour is more than wit, easiness, more than +knowledge; few desire to learn, or to think they need it; all desire +to be pleased, or, if not, to be easy. + + _Sir W. Temple._ + + +72. + +The greatest men sometimes overshoot themselves, but then their very +mistakes are so many lessons of instruction. + + _Tom Browne._ + + +73. + +We may be as good as we please, if we please to be good. + + _Barrow._ + + +74. + +The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his +passion which his virtue obliges him to pay. He spends his time in +outrage and acknowledgment, injury and reparation. + + _Johnson._ + + +75. + +To reprehend well is the most necessary and the hardest part of +friendship. Who is it that does not sometimes merit a check, and yet +how few will endure one? Yet wherein can a friend more unfold his +love than in preventing dangers before their birth, or in bringing a +man to safety who is travelling on the road to ruin? I grant there +is a manner of reprehending which turns a benefit into an injury, +and then it both strengthens error and wounds the giver. When thou +chidest thy wandering friend do it secretly, in season, in love, not +in the ear of a popular convention, for oftentimes the presence of a +multitude makes a man take up an unjust defence, rather than fall +into a just shame. + + _Feltham._ + + +76. + +I put no account on him who esteems himself just as the popular +breath may chance to raise him. + + _Goethe._ + + +77. + +He who seeks wealth sacrifices his own pleasure, and, like him who +carries burdens for others, bears the load of anxiety. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +78. + +Circumspection in calamity; mercy in greatness; good speeches in +assemblies; fortitude in adversity: these are the self-attained +perfections of great souls. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +79. + +The best preacher is the heart; the best teacher is time; the best +book is the world; the best friend is God. + + _Talmud._ + + +80. + +A woman will not throw away a garland, though soiled, which her +lover gave: not in the object lies a present's worth, but in the +love which it was meant to mark. + + _Bharavi._ + + +81. + +Men who have not observed discipline, and have not gained treasure +in their youth, perish like old herons in a lake without fish. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +82. + +As drops of bitter medicine, though minute, may have a salutary +force, so words, though few and painful, uttered seasonably, may +rouse the prostrate energies of those who meet misfortune with +despondency. + + _Bharavi._ + + +83. + +There are three whose life is no life: he who lives at another's +table; he whose wife domineers over him; and he who suffers bodily +affliction. + + _Talmud._ + + +84. + +Let thy words between two foes be such that if they were to become +friends thou shouldst not be ashamed. + + _Sa'di._ + + +85. + +An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one; for as +the latter will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill to, +the other injures indifferently both his friends and foes. + + _Addison._ + + +86. + +A man of quick and active wit +For drudgery is more unfit, +Compared to those of duller parts, +Than running nags are to draw carts. + + _Butler._ + + +87. + +All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to +appear rich. + + _Lavater._ + + +88. + +There never was, there never will be, a man who is always praised, +or a man who is always blamed. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +89. + +A good man's intellect is piercing, yet inflicts no wound; his +actions are deliberate, yet bold; his heart is warm, but never +burns; his speech is eloquent, yet ever true. + + _Magha._ + + +90. + +He who can feel ashamed will not readily do wrong. + + _Talmud._ + + +91. + +A stranger who is kind is a kinsman; an unkind kinsman is a +stranger. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +92. + +The good to others kindness show, + And from them no return exact; +The best and greatest men, they know, + Thus ever nobly love to act.[7] + + _Mahabharata._ + + [7] Cf. Luke, VI, 34, 35. + + +93. + +Trees loaded with fruit are bent down; the clouds when charged with +fresh rain hang down near the earth: even so good men are not +uplifted through prosperity. Such is the natural character of the +liberal. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +94. + +The man who neither gives in charity nor enjoys his wealth, which +every day increases, breathes, indeed, like the bellows of a smith, +but cannot be said to live. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +95. + +That energy which veils itself in mildness is most effective of its +object. + + _Magha._ + + +96. + +Our writings are like so many dishes, our readers, our guests, our +books, like beauty--that which one admires another rejects; so we +are approved as men's fancies are inclined.... As apothecaries, we +make new mixtures every day, pour out of one vessel into another; +and as those old Romans robbed all cities of the world to set out +their bad-cited Rome, we skim off the cream of other men's wits, +pick the choice flowers of their tilled gardens, to set out our own +sterile plots. We weave the same web still, twist the same rope +again and again; or, if it be a new invention, 'tis but some bauble +or toy, which idle fellows write, for as idle fellows to read.[8] + + _Burton._ + + [8] Ferriar has pointed out, in his _Illustrations of + Sterne_, how these passages from Burton's _Anatomy of + Melancholy_ have been boldly plagiarised in the + introduction to the fragment on Whiskers in _Tristram + Shandy_: "Shall we for ever make new books as + apothecaries make new mixtures, by only pouring out of + one vessel into another? Are we for ever to be twisting + and untwisting the same rope?" And Dr. Johnson, who was + a great admirer of Burton, adopts the illustration of + the plundering Romans in his _Rambler_, No. 143. + + +97. + +It is our follies that make our lives uncomfortable. Our errors of +opinion, our cowardly fear of the world's worthless censure, and our +eagerness after unnecessary gold have hampered the way of virtue, +and made it far more difficult than, in itself, it is. + + _Feltham._ + + +98. + +There is not half so much danger in the desperate sword of a known +foe as in the smooth insinuations of a pretended friend. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +99. + +Nothing is so oppressive as a secret; it is difficult for ladies to +keep it long, and I know even in this matter a good number of men +who are women. + + _La Fontaine._ + + +100. + +All kinds of beauty do not inspire love: there is a kind of it which +pleases only the sight, but does not captivate the affections. + + _Cervantes._ + + +101. + +Contentment consisteth not in heaping more fuel, but in taking away +some fire. + + _Fuller._ + + +102. + +It is difficult to personate and act a part long, for where truth is +not at the bottom Nature will always be endeavouring to return, and +will peep out and betray herself one time or other. + + _Tillotson._ + + +103. + +The truest characters of ignorance +Are vanity, pride, and arrogance; +As blind men use to bear their noses higher +Than those that have their eyes and sight entire. + + _Butler._ + + +104. + +It is better to be well deserving without praise than to live by the +air of undeserved commendation. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +105. + +He travels safe and not unpleasantly who is guarded by poverty and +guided by love. + + _Sir P. Sidney._ + + +106. + +Never put thyself in the way of temptation: even David could not +resist it. + + _Talmud._ + + +107. + +Pride is a vice which pride itself inclines every man to find in +others and overlook in himself. + + _Johnson._ + + +108. + +By six qualities may a fool be known: anger, without cause; speech, +without profit; change, without motive; inquiry, without an object; +trust in a stranger; and incapacity to discriminate between friend +and foe. + + _Arabic._ + + +109. + +Men are not to be judged by their looks, habits, and appearances, +but by the character of their lives and conversations. 'Tis better +that a man's own works than another man's words should praise him. + + _Sir R. L'Estrange._ + + +110. + +To exert his power in doing good is man's most glorious task. + + _Sophocles._ + + +111. + +Those who are skilled in archery bend their bow only when they are +prepared to use it; when they do not require it they allow it to +remain unbent, for otherwise it would be unserviceable when the time +for using it arrived. So it is with man. If he were to devote +himself unceasingly to a dull round of business, without breaking +the monotony by cheerful amusements, he would fall imperceptibly +into idiotcy, or be struck with paralysis. + + _Herodotus._ + + +112. + +Blinded by self-conceit and knowing nothing, +Like elephant infatuate with passion, +I thought within myself, I all things knew; +But when by slow degrees I somewhat learnt +By aid of wise preceptors, my conceit, +Like some disease, passed off; and now I live +In the plain sense of what a fool I am. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +113. + +Time is the most important thing in human life, for what is pleasure +after the departure of time? and the most consolatory, since pain, +when pain has passed, is nothing. Time is the wheel-track in which +we roll on towards eternity, conducting us to the Incomprehensible. +In its progress there is a ripening power, and it ripens us the +more, and the more powerfully, when we duly estimate it. Listen to +its voice, do not waste it, but regard it as the highest finite +good, in which all finite things are resolved. + + _Von Humboldt._ + + +114. + +All that we are is made up of our thoughts; it is founded on our +thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speak or act with +a pure thought, happiness will follow him, like a shadow that never +leaves him. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +115. + +Depend not on another, rather lean +Upon thyself; trust to thine own exertions: +Subjection to another's will gives pain; +True happiness consists in self-reliance. + + _Manu._ + + +116. + +If the friendship of the good be interrupted, their minds admit of +no long change; as when the stalks of a lotus are broken the +filaments within them are more visibly cemented. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +117. + +Anger that has no limit causes terror, and unseasonable kindness +does away with respect. Be not so severe as to cause disgust, nor so +lenient as to make people presume. + + _Sa'di._ + + +118. + +Be patient, if thou wouldst thy ends accomplish; for like patience +is there no appliance effective of success, producing certainly +abundant fruit of actions, never damped by failure, conquering all +impediments. + + _Bharavi._ + + +119. + +As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion breaks through +an unreflecting mind. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +120. + +Most men, even the most accomplished, are of limited faculties; +every one sets a value on certain qualities in himself and others: +these alone he is willing to favour, these alone will he have +cultivated. + + _Goethe._ + + +121. + +Poverty, we may say, surrounds a man with ready-made barriers, which +if they do mournfully gall and hamper, do at least prescribe for +him, and force on him, a sort of course and goal; a safe and beaten, +though a circuitous, course. A great part of his guidance is secure +against fatal error, is withdrawn from his control. The rich, again, +has his whole life to guide, without goal or barrier, save of his +own choosing, and, tempted, is too likely to guide it ill. + + _Carlyle._ + + +122. + +By Fate full many a heart has been undone, +And many a sprightly rose made woe-begone; + Plume thee not on thy lusty youth and strength: +Full many a bud is blasted ere its bloom. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +123. + +The best thing is to be respected, the next, is to be loved; it is +bad to be hated, but still worse to be despised. + + _Chinese._ + + +124. + +To be envied is a nobler fate than to be pitied. + + _Pindar._ + + +125. + +He only does not live in vain +Who all the means within his reach + Employs--his wealth, his thought, his speech-- +T'advance the weal of other men. + + _Sanskrit._ + + +126. + +If you injure a harmless person, the evil will fall back upon you, +like light dust thrown up against the wind. + + _Buddhist._ + + +127. + +In the life of every man there are sudden transitions of feeling, +which seem almost miraculous. At once, as if some magician had +touched the heavens and the earth, the dark clouds melt into the +air, the wind falls, and serenity succeeds the storm. The causes +which produce these changes may have been long at work within us, +but the changes themselves are instantaneous, and apparently without +sufficient cause. + + _Longfellow._ + + +128. + +Man is an intellectual animal, therefore an everlasting +contradiction to himself. His senses centre in himself, his ideas +reach to the ends of the universe; so that he is torn in pieces +between the two without the possibility of its ever being otherwise. +A mere physical being or a pure spirit can alone be satisfied with +itself. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +129. + +The pure in heart, who fear to sin, +The good, kindly in word and deed-- +These are the beings in the world +Whose nature should be called divine. + + _Buddhist._ + + +130. + +If thou desirest that the pure in heart should praise thee, lay +aside anger; be not a man of many words; and parade not thy virtues +in the face of others. + + _Firdausi._ + + +131. + +A wise man takes a step at a time; he establishes one foot before he +takes up the other: an old place should not be forsaken recklessly. + + _Sanskrit._ + + +132. + +The fish dwell in the depths of the waters, and the eagles in the +sides of heaven; the one, though high, may be reached with the +arrow, and the other, though deep, with the hook; but the heart of +man at a foot's distance cannot be known.[9] + + _Burmese._ + + [9] Cf. Proverbs, XXV, 3. + + +133. + +The life of man is the incessant walk of nature, wherein every +moment is a step towards death. Even our growing to perfection is a +progress to decay. Every thought we have is a sand running out of +the glass of life. + + _Feltham._ + + +134. + +I have observed that as long as a man lives and exerts himself he +can always find food and raiment, though, it may be, not of the +choicest description. + + _Goethe._ + + +135. + +There are no riches like the sweetness of content, nor poverty +comparable to the want of patience. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +136. + +'Tis not for gain, for fame, from fear + That righteous men injustice shun, +And virtuous men hold virtue dear: +An inward voice they seem to hear, + Which tells them duty must be done. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +137. + +As far and wide the vernal breeze +Sweet odours waft from blooming trees, +So, too, the grateful savour spreads +To distant lands of virtuous deeds. + + _Sanskrit._ + + +138. + +In this world, however little happiness may have been our portion, +yet have we no desire to die. Whether he can speak of life as +cheerful and delicate, or as full of pain, anxiety, and sorrow, +never yet have I seen one who wished to die. + + _Firdausi._ + + +139. + +When morning silvers the dark firmament, +Why shrills the bird of dawning his lament? + It is to show in dawn's bright looking-glass +How of thy careless life a night is spent. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +140. + +Be thou generous, and gentle, and forgiving; as God hath scattered +upon thee, scatter thou upon others. + + _Sa'di._ + + +141. + +In the body restraint is good; good is restraint in speech; in +thought restraint is good: good is restraint in all things. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +142. + +Men say that everyone is naturally a lover of himself, and that it +is right that it should be so. This is a mistake; for in fact the +cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this +excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved, +so that he passes a wrong judgment upon what is just, good, and +beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honour what belongs to +himself, in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great +man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what +is just, whether it happens to be done by himself or by another. + + _Plato._ + + +143. + +A man eminent in learning has not even a little virtue if he fears +to practise it. What precious things can be shown to a blind man +when he holds a lamp in his hand? + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +144. + +The first forty years of our life give the text, the next thirty +furnish the commentary upon it, which enables us rightly to +understand the true meaning and connection of the text with its +moral and its beauties. + + _Schopenhauer._ + + +145. + +Good actions lead to success, as good medicines to a cure: a healthy +man is joyful, and a diligent man attains learning; a just man gains +the reward of his virtue. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +146. + +Purpose without power is mere weakness and deception; and power +without purpose is mere fatuity. + + _Sa'di._ + + +147. + +Suffering is the necessary consequence of sin, just as when you eat +a sour fruit a stomach complaint ensues. + + _Burmese._ + + +148. + +Riches disclose in a man's character the bad qualities formerly +concealed in his poverty. + + _Arabic._ + + +149. + +Whate'er the work a man performs, +The most effective aid to its completion-- +The most prolific source of true success-- +Is energy, without despondency. + + _Ramayana._ + + +150. + +Humility is a virtue all preach, none practise, and yet everybody is +content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, +the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity. + + _Selden._ + + +151. + +Authority intoxicates, +And makes mere sots of magistrates; +The fumes of it invade the brain, +And make men giddy, proud, and vain; +By this the fool commands the wise, +The noble with the base complies, +The sot assumes the rule of wit, +And cowards make the base submit. + + _Butler._ + + +152. + +No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he +rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own +measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other +men; it is life that touches his genuine worth. + + _Goethe._ + + +153. + +Increase in goodness as long as thou art here, that, when thou +departest, in that thou mayest still be joyful. According to our +words and deeds in this life will be the remembrance of us in the +world. + + _Firdausi._ + + +154. + +Parents' affection is best shown by their teaching their children +industry and self-denial. + + _Burmese._ + + +155. + +There are three things to beware of through life: when a man is +young, let him beware of his appetites; when he is middle-aged, of +his passions; and when old, of covetousness, especially. + + _Confucius._ + + +156. + +He who has given satisfaction to the best of his time has lived for +ages. + + _Schiller._ + + +157. + +I never yet found pride in a noble nature nor humility in an +unworthy mind. + + _Feltham._ + + +158. + +Worldly fame is but a breath of wind, that blows now this way, now +that, and changes name as it changes sides. + + _Dante._ + + +159. + +True modesty and true pride are much the same thing. Both consist in +setting a just value on ourselves--neither more nor less. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +160. + +Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his +manner of portraying another. + + _Richter._ + + +161. + +A foolish husband fears his wife; a prudent wife obeys her husband. + + _Chinese._ + + +162. + +He who devises evil for another falls at last into his own pit, and +the most cunning finds himself caught by what he had prepared for +another. But virtue without guile, erect like the lofty palm, rises +with greater vigour when it is oppressed. + + _Metastasio._ + + +163. + +Laughing is peculiar to man, but all men do not laugh for the same +reason. There is the attic salt which springs from the charm in the +words, from the flash of wit, from the spirited and brilliant sally. +There is the low joke which arises from scurrility and idle conceit. + + _Goldoni._ + + +164. + +The woman who is resolved to be respected can make herself be so +even amidst an army of soldiers. + + _Cervantes._ + + +165. + +Petty ambition would seem to be a mean craving after distinction. + + _Theophrastus._ + + +166. + +It is an old observation that wise men grow usually wiser as they +grow older, and fools more foolish. + + _Wieland._ + + +167. + +Use law and physic only for necessity. They that use them otherwise +abuse themselves into weak bodies and light purses. They are good +remedies, bad businesses, and worse recreations. + + _Quarles._ + + +168. + +In some dispositions there is such an envious kind of pride that +they cannot endure that any but themselves should be set forth as +excellent; so that when they hear one justly praised they will +either openly detract from his virtues; or, if those virtues be, +like a clear and shining light, eminent and distinguished, so that +he cannot be safely traduced by the tongue, they will then raise a +suspicion against him by a mysterious silence, as if there were +something remaining to be told which overclouded even his brightest +glory. + + _Feltham._ + + +169. + +Every man thinks with himself, I am well, I am wise, and laughs at +others; and 'tis a general fault amongst them all, that which our +forefathers approved--diet, apparel, humours, customs, manners--we +deride and reject in our time as absurd. + + _Burton._ + + +170. + +Repeated sin destroys the understanding +And he whose reason is impaired repeats +His sins. The constant practising of virtue +Strengthens the mental faculties, and he +Whose judgment stronger grows acts always right. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +171. + +If you wish to know how much preferable wisdom is to gold, then +observe: if you change gold you get silver for it, but your gold is +gone; but if you exchange one sort of wisdom for another, you obtain +fresh knowledge, and at the same time keep what you possessed +before. + + _Talmud._ + + +172. + +The man who listens not to the words of affectionate friends will +give joy in the time of distress to his enemies. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +173. + +It is a proverbial expression that every man is the maker of his own +fortune, and we usually regard it as implying that every man by his +folly or wisdom prepares good or evil for himself. But we may view +it in another light, namely, that we may so accommodate ourselves to +the dispositions of Providence as to be happy in our lot, whatever +may be its privations. + + _Von Humboldt._ + + +174. + +Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of +thy equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy +superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best of the company +is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the +worst there. + + _Quarles._ + + +175. + +Assume in adversity a countenance of prosperity, and in prosperity +moderate thy temper. + + _Livy._ + + +176. + +Mark this! who lives beyond his means +Forfeits respect, loses his sense; +Where'er he goes, through the seven births, +All count him knave: him women hate. + + _Hindu Poetess._ + + +177. + +Be cautious in your intercourse with the great; they seldom confer +obligations on their inferiors but from interested motives. Friendly +they appear as long as it serves their turn, but they will render no +assistance in time of actual need. + + _Talmud._ + + +178. + +Man, though he be gray-headed when he comes back, soon gets a young +wife. But a woman's time is short within which she can expect to +obtain a husband. If she allows it to slip away, no one cares to +marry her. She sits at home, speculating on the probability of her +marriage. + + _Aristophanes._ + + +179. + +Hearts are like tapers, which at beauteous eyes +Kindle a flame of love that never dies; +And beauty is a flame, where hearts, like moths, +Offer themselves a burning sacrifice. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +180. + +When thou utterest not a word thou hast laid thy hand upon it; when +thou hast uttered it, it hath laid its hand on thee. + + _Sa'di._ + + +181. + +To the tongue which bringeth thee words without reason, the answer +that best beseemeth thee is--silence. + + _Nizami._ + + +182. + +The man who talketh much and never acteth will not be held in +reputation by anyone. + + _Firdausi._ + + +183. + +Two sources of success are known: wisdom and effort; make them both +thine own, if thou wouldst haply rise. + + _Magha._ + + +184. + +The worse the ill that fate on noble souls +Inflicts, the more their firmness; and they arm +Their spirits with adamant to meet the blow. + + _Hindu Drama._ + + +185. + +Opportunities lose not, for all delay is madness; +'Mid bitter sorrow patience show, for 'tis the key of gladness. + + _Turkish._ + + +186. + +Man is the only animal with the powers of laughter, a privilege +which was not bestowed on him for nothing. Let us then laugh while +we may, no matter how broad the laugh may be, and despite of what +the poet says about "the loud laugh that speaks the vacant mind." +The mind should occasionally be vacant, as the land should sometimes +lie fallow, and for precisely the same reason. + + _Egerton Smith._ + + +187. + +The man of affluence is not in fact more happy than the possessor of +a bare competency, unless, in addition to his wealth, the end of his +life be fortunate. We often see misery dwelling in the midst of +splendour, whilst real happiness is found in humbler stations. + + _Herodotus._ + + +188. + +Love of money is the disease which renders us most pitiful and +grovelling, and love of pleasure is that which renders us most +despicable. + + _Longinus._ + + +189. + +He who labours diligently need never despair. We can accomplish +every thing by diligence and labour. + + _Menander._ + + +190. + +Lost money is bewailed with deeper sighs +Than friends, or kindred, and with louder cries. + + _Juvenal._ + + +191. + +In one short verse I here express +The sum of tomes of sacred lore: +Beneficence is righteousness, +Oppression's sin's malignant core. + + _Sanskrit._ + + +192. + +A wound inflicted by arrows heals, a wood cut down by an axe grows, +but harsh words are hateful--a wound inflicted by them does not +heal. Arrows of different sorts can be extracted from the body, but +a word-dart cannot be drawn out, for it is seated in the heart. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +193. + +To address a judicious remark to a thoughtless man is a mere +threshing of chaff. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +194. + +All the blessings of a household come through the wife, therefore +should her husband honour her. + + _Talmud._ + + +195. + +Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, +but in order that we might see how much the author knows. + + _Goethe._ + + +196. + +All that is old is not therefore necessarily excellent; all that is +new is not despicable on that account alone. Let what is really +meritorious be pronounced so by the candid judge after due +investigation; blockheads alone are influenced by the opinion of +others. + + _Hindu Drama._ + + +197. + +One of the diseases of this age is the multitude of books. It is a +thriftless and a thankless occupation, this writing of books: a man +were better to sing in a cobbler's shop, for his pay is a penny a +patch; but a book-writer, if he get sometimes a few commendations +from the judicious, he shall be sure to reap a thousand reproaches +from the malicious. + + _Barnaby Rich._ + + +198. + +We rather confess our moral errors, faults, and crimes than our +ignorance. + + _Goethe._ + + +199. + +The angel grows up in divine knowledge, the brute, in savage +ignorance, and the son of man stands hesitating between the two. + + _Persian._ + + +200. + +She is a wife who is notable in her house; she is a wife who beareth +children; she is a wife whose husband is as her life; she is a wife +who is obedient to her lord. The wife is half the man; a wife is +man's dearest friend; a wife is the source of his religion, his +worldly profit, and his love. He who hath a wife maketh offerings in +his house. Those who have wives are blest with good fortune. Wives +are friends, who, by their kind and gentle speech, soothe you in +your retirement. In your distresses they are as mothers, and they +are refreshment to those who are travellers in the rugged paths of +life. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +201. + +He that is ambitious of fame destroys it. He that increaseth not his +knowledge diminishes it. He that uses the crown of learning as an +instrument of gain will pass away. + + _Talmud._ + + +202. + +While the slightest inconveniences of the great are magnified into +calamities, while tragedy mouths out their sufferings in all the +strains of eloquence, the miseries of the poor are entirely +disregarded; and yet some of the lower ranks of people undergo more +real hardships in one day than those of a more exalted station +suffer in their whole lives. + + _Goldsmith._ + + +203. + +It is impossible for those who are engaged in low and grovelling +pursuits to entertain noble and generous sentiments. Their thoughts +must always necessarily be somewhat similar to their employments. + + _Demosthenes._ + + +204. + +The interval is immense between corporeal qualifications and +sciences: the body in a moment is extinct, but knowledge endureth to +the end of time. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +205. + +If thou lackest knowledge, what hast thou then acquired? Hast thou +acquired knowledge, what else dost thou want? + + _Talmud._ + + +206. + +Be modest and simple in your deportment, and treat with indifference +whatever lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race; obey +God. + + _Marcus Aurelius._ + + +207. + +Bootless grief hurts a man's self, but patience makes a jest of an +injury. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +208. + +Poverty without debt is independence. + + _Arabic._ + + +209. + +Just as the track of birds that cleave the air +Is not discovered, nor yet the path of fish +That skim the water, so the course of those +Who do good actions is not always seen. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +210. + +He who has wealth has friends; he who has wealth has relations; he +who has wealth is a hero among the people; he who has wealth is even +a sage. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +211. + +Like a beautiful flower, full of colour but without scent, are the +fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +212. + +When men are doubtful of the true state of things, their wishes lead +them to believe in what is most agreeable. + + _Arrianus._ + + +213. + +Most men the good they have despise, +And blessings which they have not prize: +In winter, wish for summer's glow, +In summer, long for winter's snow. + + _Sanskrit._ + + +214. + +The best conduct a man can adopt is that which gains him the esteem +of others without depriving him of his own. + + _Talmud._ + + +215. + +Whoso associates with the wicked will be accused of following their +ways, though their principles may have made no impression upon him; +just as if a person were in the habit of frequenting a tavern, he +would not be supposed to go there for prayer, but to drink +intoxicating liquor. + + _Sa'di._ + + +216. + +The loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have +not regarded its tenure as secure. + + _Goethe._ + + +217. + +The dull-hued turkey apes the gait +Of lordly peacock, richly plumed; +And thus the poetaster shows +When he would fain his verse recite. + + _Hindu Poetess._ + + +218. + +Knowledge acquired by a man of low degree places him on a level with +a prince, as a small river attains the irremeable ocean; and his +fortune is then exalted. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +219. + +An evil-minded man is quick to see +His neighbour's faults, though small as mustard seed; +But when he turns his eyes towards his own, +Though large as _bilva_ fruit, he none descries. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +220. + +Two persons die remorseful: he who possessed and enjoyed not, and he +who knew but did not practise. + + _Sa'di._ + + +221. + +With regard to a secret divulged and kept concealed, there is an +excellent proverb, that the one is an arrow still in our possession, +the other is an arrow sent from the bow. + + _Jami._ + + +222. + +The thing we want eludes our grasp, +Some other thing is given; sometimes +Our wish is gained, and gifts unsought +Are ours; these all are God's own work. + + _Hindu Poetess._ + + +223. + +If a man conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if +another conquer himself, he is the greater of conquerors.[10] + + _Dhammapada._ + + [10] Cf. Prov. XVI, 32. + + +224. + +The man who is in the highest state of prosperity, and who thinks +his fortune is most secure, knows not if it will remain unchanged +till the evening. + + _Demosthenes._ + + +225. + +Amongst all possessions knowledge appears pre-eminent. The wise call +it supreme riches, because it can never be lost, has no price, and +can at no time be destroyed. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +226. + +The shadows of the mind are like those of the body. In the morning +of life they all lie behind us, at noon we trample them under foot, +and in the evening they stretch long, broad, and deepening before +us. + + _Longfellow._ + + +227. + +He who is full of faith and modesty, who shrinks from sin, and is +full of learning, who is diligent, unremiss, and full of +understanding--he, being replete with these seven things, is +esteemed a wise man. + + _Burmese._ + + +228. + +If your foot slip, you may recover your balance, but if your tongue +slip, you cannot recall your words. + + _Telugu._ + + +229. + +A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as the hollow mountain +returns all sounds. + + _Chinese._ + + +230. + +Women are ever masters when they like, +And cozen with their kindness; they have spells +Superior to the wand of the magicians; +And from their lips the words of wisdom fall, +Like softest music on the listening ear. + + _Firdausi._ + + +231. + +A man cannot possess anything that is better than a good wife, or +anything that is worse than a bad one. + + _Simonides._ + + +232. + +The wife of bad conduct--constantly pleased with quarrelling--she is +known by wise men to be cruel Old Age in the form of a wife. + + _Panchatantra._ + + +233. + +I have often thought that the cause of men's good or ill fortune +depends on whether they make their actions fit with the times. A man +having prospered by one mode of acting can never be persuaded that +it may be well for him to act differently, whence it is that a man's +Fortune varies, because she changes her times and he does not his +ways. + + _Machiavelli._ + + +234. + +By nature all men are alike, but by education very different. + + _Chinese._ + + +235. + +Whilom, ere youth's conceit had waned, methought +Answers to all life's problems I had wrought; + But now, grown old and wise, too late I see +My life is spent, and all my lore is nought. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +236. + +Weak men gain their object when allied with strong associates: the +brook reaches the ocean by the river's aid. + + _Magha._ + + +237. + +A swan is out of place among crows, a lion among bulls, a horse +among asses, and a wise man among fools. + + _Burmese._ + + +238. + +Whosoever does not persecute them that persecute him; whosoever +takes an offence in silence; he who does good because of love; he +who is cheerful under his sufferings--these are the friends of God, +and of them the Scripture says, "They shall shine forth like the sun +at noontide." + + _Talmud._ + + +239. + +It is intolerable that a silly fool, with nothing but empty birth to +boast of, should in his insolence array himself in the merits of +others, and vaunt an honour which does not belong to him. + + _Boileau._ + + +240. + +Ask not a man who his father was but make trial of his qualities, +and then conciliate or reject him accordingly. For it is no disgrace +to new wine, if only it be sweet, as to its taste, that it was the +juice [or daughter] of sour grapes. + + _Arabic._ + + +241. + +The sun opens the lotuses, the moon illumines the beds of +water-lilies, the cloud pours forth its water unasked: even so the +liberal of their own accord are occupied in benefiting others. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +242. + +We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his +own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth. + + _Goethe._ + + +243. + +Men are so simple, and yield so much to necessity, that he who will +deceive may always find him that will lend himself to be deceived. + + _Machiavelli._ + + +244. + +Obstinate silence implies either a mean opinion of ourselves, or a +contempt for our company; and it is the more provoking, as others do +not know to which of these causes to attribute it--whether humility +or pride. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +245. + +If thou desire not to be poor, desire not to be too rich. He is +rich, not that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is +poor, not that enjoys little, but he that wants too much. The +contented mind wants nothing which it hath not; the covetous mind +wants, not only what it hath not, but likewise what it hath. + + _Quarles._ + + +246. + +Those noble men who falsehood dread + In wealth and glory ever grow, + As flames with greater brightness glow +With oil in ceaseless flow when fed. + +But like to flames with water drenched, + Which, faintly flickering, die away, + So liars day by day decay, +Till all their lustre soon is quenched. + + _Sanskrit._ + + +247. + +Watch over thy expenditure, for he who through vain glory spendeth +uselessly what he hath on empty follies, will receive neither return +nor praise from anyone. + + _Firdausi._ + + +248. + +If thou art a man, speak not much about thine own manliness, for not +every champion driveth the ball to the goal. + + _Sa'di._ + + +249. + +The potter forms what he pleases with soft clay, so a man +accomplishes his works by his own act. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +250. + +No man of high and generous spirit is ever willing to indulge in +flattery; the good may feel affection for others, but will not +flatter them. + + _Aristotle._ + + +251. + +An ass will with his long ears fray +The flies that tickle him away; +But man delights to have his ears +Blown maggots in by flatterers. + + _Butler._ + + +252. + +Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our +health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, +let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no +fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss. + + _Montaigne._ + + +253. + +He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. + + _Goethe._ + + +254. + +If with a stranger thou discourse, first learn, +By strictest observation, to discern +If he be wiser than thyself, if so, +Be dumb, and rather choose by him to know; +But if thyself perchance the wiser be, +Then do thou speak, that he may learn by thee. + + _Randolph._ + + +255. + +Being continually in people's sight, by the satiety which it +creates, diminishes the reverence felt for great characters. + + _Livy._ + + +256. + +There is a great difference between one who can feel ashamed before +his own soul and one who is only ashamed before his fellow men. + + _Talmud._ + + +257. + +By rousing himself, by earnestness, by restraint and control the +wise man may make for himself an island which no flood can +overwhelm. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +258. + +The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to +think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities +they will not complain of the want of them in us. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +259. + +To form a judgment intuitively is the privilege of few; authority +and example lead the rest of the world. They see with the eyes of +others, they hear with the ears of others. Therefore it is very easy +to think as all the world now think; but to think as all the world +will think thirty years hence is not in the power of every one. + + _Schopenhauer._ + + +260. + +Poesy is a beauteous damsel, chaste, honourable, discreet, witty, +retired, and who keeps herself within the limits of propriety. She +is a friend of solitude; fountains entertain her, meadows console +her, woods free her from ennui, flowers delight her; in short, she +gives pleasure and instruction to all with whom she communicates. + + _Cervantes._ + + +261. + +How can we learn to know ourselves? By reflection, never, but by our +actions. Attempt to do your duty, and you will immediately find what +is in you. + + _Goethe._ + + +262. + +Man is supreme lord and master +Of his own ruin and disaster, +Controls his fate, but nothing less +In ordering his own happiness: +For all his care and providence +Is too feeble a defence +To render it secure and certain +Against the injuries of Fortune; +And oft, in spite of all his wit, +Is lost by one unlucky hit, +And ruined with a circumstance, +And mere punctilio of a chance. + + _Butler._ + + +263. + +There is nothing in this world which a resolute man, who exerts +himself, cannot attain. + + _Somadeva._ + + +264. + +Ere need be shown, some men will act, +As trees may fruit without a flower; +To some you speak with no result, +As seeds may die, and yield no grain. + + _Hindu Poetess._ + + +265. + +Seven things characterise the wise man, and seven the blockhead. The +wise man speaks not before those who are his superiors, either in +age or wisdom. He interrupts not others in the midst of their +discourse. He replies not hastily. His questions are relevant to the +subject, his answers, to the purpose. In delivering his sentiments +he taketh the first in order first, the last, last. What he +understands not he says, "I understand not." He acknowledges his +error, and is open to conviction. The reverse of all this +characterises the blockhead. + + _Talmud._ + + +266. + +How absolute and omnipotent is the silence of the night! And yet the +stillness seems almost audible. From all the measureless depths of +air around us comes a half sound, a half whisper, as if we could +hear the crumbling and falling away of the earth and all created +things in the great miracle of nature--decay and reproduction--ever +beginning, never ending--the gradual lapse and running of the sand +in the great hour-glass of Time. + + _Longfellow._ + + +267. + +What avails your wealth, if it makes you arrogant to the poor? + + _Arabic._ + + +268. + +All confidence is dangerous unless it is complete; there are few +circumstances in which it is not better either to hide all or to +tell all. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +269. + +It is well that there is no one without a fault, for he would not +have a friend in the world: he would seem to belong to a different +species. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +270. + +The mind alike, +Vigorous or weak, is capable of culture, +But still bears fruit according to its nature. +'Tis not the teacher's skill that rears the scholar: +The sparkling gem gives back the glorious radiance +It drinks from other light, but the dull earth +Absorbs the blaze, and yields no gleam again. + + _Bhavabhuti._ + + +271. + +One man envies the success in life of another, and hates him in +secret; nor is he willing to give him good advice when he is +consulted, except it be by some wonderful effort of good feeling, +and there are, alas, few such men in the world. A real friend, on +the other hand, exults in his friend's happiness, rejoices in all +his joys, and is ready to afford him the best advice. + + _Herodotus._ + + +272. + +This body is a tent which for a space +Does the pure soul with kingly presence grace; + When he departs, comes the tent-pitcher, Death, +Strikes it, and moves to a new halting-place. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +273. + +Speak but little, and that little only when thy own purposes require +it. Heaven has given thee two ears but only one tongue, which means: +listen to two things, but be not the first to propose one. + + _Hafiz._ + + +274. + +The natural hostility of beasts is laid aside when flying from +pursuers; so also when danger is impending the enmity of rivals is +ended. + + _Bharavi._ + + +275. + +He who toils with pain will eat with pleasure. + + _Chinese._ + + +276. + +A day of fortune is like a harvest-day, we must be busy when the +corn is ripe. + + _Goethe._ + + +277. + +The fame of good men's actions seldom goes beyond their own doors, +but their evil deeds are carried a thousand miles' distance. + + _Chinese._ + + +278. + +A subtle-witted man is like an arrow, which, rending little surface, +enters deeply, but they whose minds are dull resemble stones dashing +with clumsy force, but never piercing. + + _Magha._ + + +279. + +It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in, and +flighty, rushing wheresoever it listeth: a tamed mind brings +blessings. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +280. + +The man who every sacred science knows, +Yet has not strength to keep in check the foes +That rise within him, mars his Fortune's fame, +And brings her by his feebleness to shame. + + _Bharavi._ + + +281. + +What a rich man gives and what he consumes, that is his real worth. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +282. + +He who does not think too much of himself is much more esteemed than +he imagines. + + _Goethe._ + + +283. + +It is a kind of policy in these days to prefix a fantastical title +to a book which is to be sold; for as larks come down to a day-net, +many vain readers will tarry and stand gazing, like silly +passengers, at an antic picture in a painter's shop that will not +look at a judicious piece. + + _Burton._ + + +284. + +With many readers brilliancy of style passes for affluence of +thought: they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable gold +mines under the ground. + + _Longfellow._ + + +285. + +The doctrine that enters only into the ear is like the repast one +takes in a dream. + + _Chinese._ + + +286. + +Adorn thy mind with knowledge, for knowledge maketh thy worth. + + _Firdausi._ + + +287. + +Men hail the rising sun with glee, +They love his setting glow to see, +But fail to mark that every day +In fragments bears their life away. + +All Nature's face delight to view, +As changing seasons come anew; +None sees how each revolving year +Abridges swiftly man's career. + + _Ramayana._ + + +288. + +The good man shuns evil and follows good; he keeps secret that which +ought to be hidden; he makes his virtues manifest to all; he does +not forsake one in adversity; he gives in season: such are the marks +of a worthy friend. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +289. + +No one hath come into the world for a continuance save him who +leaveth behind him a good name.[11] + + _Sa'di._ + + [11] Cf. 29. + + +290. + +Gross ignorance produces a dogmatic spirit. He who knows nothing +thinks he can teach others what he has himself just been learning. +He who knows much scarcely believes that what he is saying is +unknown to others, and consequently speaks with more hesitation. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +291. + +When you see a man elated with pride, glorying in his riches and +high descent, rising even above fortune, look out for his speedy +punishment; for he is only raised the higher that he may fall with a +heavier crash. + + _Menander._ + + +292. + +The ridiculous is produced by any defect that is unattended by pain, +or fatal consequences; thus, an ugly and deformed countenance does +not fail to cause laughter, if it is not occasioned by pain. + + _Aristotle._ + + +293. + +Happy the man who early learns the difference between his wishes and +his powers. + + _Goethe._ + + +294. + +There is nothing more pitiable in the world than an irresolute man +vacillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two, +and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them. + + _Goethe._ + + +295. + +Beauty in a modest woman is like fire at a distance, or like a sharp +sword: neither doth the one burn nor the other wound him that comes +not too near them. + + _Cervantes._ + + +296. + +We are more sociable and get on better with people by the heart than +the intellect. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +297. + +A good man may fall, but he falls like a ball [and rebounds]; the +ignoble man falls like a lump of clay. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +298. + +Do not anxiously expect what is not yet come; do not vainly regret +what is already past. + + _Chinese._ + + +299. + +The way to subject all things to thyself is to subject thyself to +reason; thou shalt govern many if reason govern thee. Wouldst thou +be a monarch of a little world, command thyself. + + _Quarles._ + + +300. + +If our inward griefs were written on our brows, how many who are +envied now would be pitied. It would seem that they had their +deadliest foe in their own breast, and their whole happiness would +be reduced to mere seeming. + + _Metastasio._ + + +301. + +There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from +knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of +conversation. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +302. + +Whoever brings cheerfulness to his work, and is ever active, dashes +through the world's labours. + + _Tieck._ + + +303. + +Grossness is not difficult to define: it is obtrusive and +objectionable pleasantry. + + _Theophrastus._ + + +304. + +Do not consider any vice as trivial, and therefore practise it; do +not consider any virtue as unimportant, and therefore neglect it. + + _Chinese._ + + +305. + +To bad as well as good, to all, +A generous man compassion shows; + On earth no mortal lives, he knows, +Who does not oft through weakness fall. + + _Ramayana._ + + +306. + +The good extend their loving care + To men, however mean or vile; +E'en base Chandalas'[12] dwellings share + Th' impartial sunbeam's silver smile. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + [12] Chandalas, or Pariahs, are the lowest, or of no caste. + + +307. + +Let a man accept with confidence valuable knowledge even from a +person of low degree, good instruction regarding duty even from a +humble man, and a jewel of a wife even from an ignoble family. + + _Manu._ + + +308. + +We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed +with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to +be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we +move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will +come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is +scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is +often the place, if not of something better, at least for something +more agreeable. + + _Goethe._ + + +309. + +The friendships formed between good and evil men differ. The +friendship of the good, at first faint like the morning light, +continually increases; the friendship of the evil at the very +beginning is like the light of midday, and dies away like the light +of evening.[13] + + _Bhartrihari._ + + [13] In many parts of the East there is practically no + twilight. + + +310. + +A hundred long leagues is no distance for him who would quench the +thirst of covetousness; but a contented mind has no solicitude for +grasping wealth. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +311. + +The noble-minded dedicate themselves to the promotion of the +happiness of others--even of those who injure them. True happiness +consists in making happy. + + _Bharavi._ + + +312. + +A benefit given to the good is like characters engraven on a stone; +a benefit given to the evil is like a line drawn on water. + + _Buddhist._ + + +313. + +The undertaking of a careless man succeeds not, though he use the +right expedients: a clever hunter, though well placed in ambush, +kills not his quarry if he falls asleep. + + _Bharavi._ + + +314. + +All love, at first, like generous wine, +Ferments and frets until 'tis fine; +But when 'tis settled on the lee, +And from th' impurer matter free, +Becomes the richer still the older, +And proves the pleasanter the colder. + + _Butler._ + + +315. + +Safe in thy breast close lock up thy intents, +For he that knows thy purpose best prevents. + + _Randolph._ + + +316. + +Frugality should ever be practised, but not excessive parsimony. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +317. + +He who receives a favour must retain a recollection of it for all +time to come; but he who confers should at once forget it, if he is +not to show a sordid and ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a +kindness conferred on him, and to talk of it, is little different +from a reproach. + + _Demosthenes._ + + +318. + +Pride not thyself on thy religious works, +Give to the poor, but talk not of thy gifts: +By pride religious merit melts away, +The merit of thy alms, by ostentation. + + _Manu._ + + +319. + +The empty beds of rivers fill again; +Trees leafless now renew their vernal bloom; + Returning moons their lustrous phase resume; +But man a second youth expects in vain.[14] + + _Somadeva._ + + [14] Cf. Job, XIV, 7. + + +320. + +Shall He to thee His aid refuse +Who clothes the swan in dazzling white, + Who robes in green the parrot bright, +The peacocks decks in rainbow hues?[15] + + _Hitopadesa._ + + [15] Cf. Matt. VI, 25, 26. + + +321. + +A bad man is as much pleased as a good man is distressed to speak +ill of others. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +322. + +Every bird has its decoy, and every man is led and misled in his own +peculiar way. + + _Goethe._ + + +323. + +There is such a grateful tickling in the mind of man in being +commended that even when we know the praises which are bestowed on +us are not our due, we are not angry with the author's insincerity. + + _Feltham._ + + +324. + +Too much to lament a misery is the next way to draw on a remediless +mischief. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +325. + +There is no remembrance which time doth not obliterate, nor pain +which death doth not put an end to. + + _Cervantes._ + + +326. + +Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely +improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy +Future, without fear, and with a manly heart. + + _Longfellow._ + + +327. + +Plans that are wise and prudent in themselves are rendered vain when +the execution of them is carried on negligently and with imprudence. + + _Guicciardini._ + + +328. + +Every man stamps his value on himself. The price we challenge for +ourselves is given us. Man is made great or little by his own will. + + _Schiller._ + + +329. + +Hath any wronged thee, be bravely revenged. Slight it, and the +work's begun; forgive it, and 'tis finished. He is below himself +that is not above an injury. + + _Quarles._ + + +330. + +As gold is tried by the furnace, and the baser metal shown, so the +hollow-hearted friend is known by adversity. + + _Metastasio._ + + +331. + +The rose does not bloom without thorns. True, but would that the +thorns did not outlive the rose. + + _Richter._ + + +332. + +Truth from the mouth of an honest man and severity from a +good-natured man have a double effect. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +333. + +Most virgins marry, just as nuns +The same thing the same way renounce; +Before they've wit to understand +The bold attempt, they take in hand; +Or, having stayed and lost their tides, +Are out of season grown for brides. + + _Butler._ + + +334. + +The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who has +so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing +anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless +efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove. + + _Johnson._ + + +335. + +In all things, to serve from the lowest station upwards is +necessary. To restrict yourself to a trade is best. For the narrow +mind, whatever he attempts is still a trade; for the higher, an art; +and the highest in doing one thing does all, or, to speak less +paradoxically, in the one thing which he does rightly he sees the +likeness of all that is done rightly. + + _Goethe._ + + +336. + +Misanthropy ariseth from a man trusting another without having +sufficient knowledge of his character, and, thinking him to be +truthful, sincere, and honourable, finds a little afterwards that he +is wicked, faithless, and then he meets with another of the same +character. When a man experiences this often, and more particularly +from those whom he considered his most dear and best friends, at +last, having frequently made a slip, he hates the whole world, and +thinks that there is nothing sound at all in any of them. + + _Plato._ + + +337. + +Pleasure, most often delusive, may be born of delusion. Pleasure, +herself a sorceress, may pitch her tents on enchanted ground. But +happiness (or, to use a more accurate and comprehensive term, solid +well-being) can be built on virtue alone, and must of necessity have +truth for its foundation. + + _Coleridge._ + + +338. + +Entangled in a hundred worldly snares, +Self-seeking men, by ignorance deluded, +Strive by unrighteous means to pile up riches. +Then, in their self-complacency, they say, +"This acquisition I have made to-day, +That will I gain to-morrow, so much pelf +Is hoarded up already, so much more +Remains that I have yet to treasure up. +This enemy I have destroyed, him also, +And others in their turn, I will despatch. +I am a lord; I will enjoy myself; +I'm wealthy, noble, strong, successful, happy; +I'm absolutely perfect; no one else +In all the world can be compared to me. +Now will I offer up a sacrifice, +Give gifts with lavish hand, and be triumphant." +Such men, befooled by endless vain conceits, +Caught in the meshes of the world's illusion, +Immersed in sensuality, descend +Down to the foulest hell of unclean spirits.[16] + + _Mahabharata._ + + [16] Cf. Luke, XII, 17-20; see also 291. + + +339. + +There needs no other charm, nor conjuror, +To raise infernal spirits up, but Fear, +That makes men pull their horns in, like a snail, +That's both a prisoner to itself and jail; +Draws more fantastic shapes than in the grains +Of knotted wood, in some men's crazy brains, +When all the cocks they think they are, and bulls, +Are only in the insides of their skulls. + + _Butler._ + + +340. + +He that rectifies a crooked stick bends it the contrary way, so must +he that would reform a vice learn to affect its mere contrary, and +in time he shall see the springing blossoms of a happy restoration. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +341. + +The more weakness the more falsehood; strength goes straight: every +cannon ball that has in it hollows and holes goes crooked. + + _Richter._ + + +342. + +Learning dissipates many doubts, and causes things otherwise +invisible to be seen, and is the eye of everyone who is not +absolutely blind. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +343. + +Very distasteful is excessive fame + To the sour palate of the envious mind, +Who hears with grief his neighbours good by name, + And hates the fortune that he ne'er shall find. + + _Pindar._ + + +344. + +A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this, +that when the injury began on his part the kindness should begin on +ours. + + _Tillotson._ + + +345. + +Time, which gnaws and diminishes all things else, augments and +increases benefits, because a noble action of liberality done to a +man of reason doth grow continually by his generously thinking of it +and remembering it. + + _Rabelais._ + + +346. + +Were all thy fond endeavours vain + To chase away the sufferer's smart, +Still hover near, lest absence pain + His lonely heart. + +For friendship's tones have kindlier power + Than odorous fruit, or nectared bowl, +To soothe, in sorrow's languid hour, + The sinking soul. + + _Sa'di._ + + +347. + +The faults of others are easily perceived, but those of oneself are +difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like +chaff, but his own fault he hides as a cheat hides the false dice +from the gamester. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +348. + +Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to +make a good man. + + _Aristotle._ + + +349. + +Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked +together in a kind of necessary connection. + + _Livy._ + + +350. + +Enjoy thou the prosperity of others, +Although thyself unprosperous; noble men +Take pleasure in their neighbours' happiness. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +351. + +Neither live with a bad man nor be at enmity with him; even as if +you take hold of glowing charcoal it will burn you, if you take hold +of cold charcoal it will soil you. + + _Buddhist._ + + +352. + +In the sandal-tree are serpents, in the water lotus flowers, but +crocodiles also; even virtues are marred by the vicious--in all +enjoyments there is something which impairs our happiness. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +353. + +There is no pleasure of life sprouting like a tree from one root but +there is some pain joined to it; and again nature brings good out of +evil. + + _Menander._ + + +354. + +The manner of giving shows the character of the giver more than the +gift itself. There is a princely manner of giving and accepting. + + _Lavater._ + + +355. + +Perfect ignorance is quiet, perfect knowledge is quiet; not so the +transition from the former to the latter. + + _Carlyle._ + + +356. + +Superstition is the religion of feeble minds; and they must be +tolerated in an admixture of it in some trifling or enthusiastic +shape or other; else you will deprive weak minds of a resource found +necessary to the strongest. + + _Burke._ + + +357. + +Fair words without good deeds to a man in misery are like a saddle +of gold clapped upon a galled horse. + + _Chamberlain._ + + +358. + +There is a rabble among the gentry as well as the commonalty; a sort +of plebeian heads whose fancy moves with the same wheel as these +men--in the same level with mechanics, though their fortunes do +sometimes gild their infirmities and their purses compound for their +follies. + + _Sir Thomas Browne._ + + +359. + +It is a common remark that men talk most who think least; just as +frogs cease their quacking when a light is brought to the +water-side. + + _Richter._ + + +360. + +Our time is like our money; when we change a guinea the shillings +escape as things of small account; when we break a day by idleness +in the morning, the rest of the hours lose their importance in our +eyes. + + _Sir Walter Scott._ + + +361. + +Vociferation and calmness of character seldom meet in the same +person. + + _Lavater._ + + +362. + +Wit and wisdom differ. Wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is in +bringing about ends. + + _Selden._ + + +363. + +Real and solid happiness springs from moderation. + + _Goethe._ + + +364. + +In all the world there is no vice +Less prone t'excess than avarice; +It neither cares for food nor clothing: +Nature's content with little, that with nothing. + + _Butler._ + + +365. + +Beside the streamlet seated, mark how life glides on: +That sign, how swift each moment goes, to me's enough. +Behold this world's delights, and view its various pains: +If not to you, the joy it shows to me's enough. + + _Hafiz._ + + +366. + +The lake no longer water holds-- +Off fly the fowls, the lilies stay: +If friends are friends when wealth is gone, +The lily's constancy they share. + + _Hindu Poetess._ + + +367. + +Let us be well persuaded that everyone of us possesses happiness in +proportion to his virtue and wisdom, and according as he acts in +obedience to their suggestion. + + _Aristotle._ + + +368. + +All property which comes to hand by means of violence, or infamy, or +baseness, however large it may be, is tainted and unblest. On the +other hand, whatever is obtained by honest profit, small though it +be, brings a blessing with it.[17] + + _Akhlak-i-Jalali._ + + [17] See 44. + + +369. + +We should know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble +one another. + + _Goethe._ + + +370. + +Root out the love of self, as you might the autumn lotus with your +hand. + + _Buddhist._ + + +371. + +Whoever has the seed of virtue and honour implanted in his breast +will drop a sympathising tear on the woes of his neighbour. + + _Nakhshabi._ + + +372. + +Do naught to others which, if done to thee, would cause thee pain: +this is the sum of duty.[18] + + _Mahabharata._ + + [18] Cf. Matt. VII, 12. + + +373. + +A bad man, though raised to honour, always returns to his natural +course, as a dog's tail, though warmed by the fire and rubbed with +oil, retains its form.[19] + + _Hitopadesa._ + + [19] Cf. Arab proverb: "A dog's tail never can be made + straight." + + +374. + +The man who cannot blush, and who has no feelings of fear, has +reached the acme of impudence. + + _Menander._ + + +375. + +It is the usual consolation of the envious, if they cannot maintain +their superiority, to represent those by whom they are surpassed as +inferior to some one else. + + _Plutarch._ + + +376. + +Such as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of +wishes: one links on to another; the whole man is bound in the chain +of wishing for ever. + + _Seneca._ + + +377. + +I do remember stopping by the way, +To watch a potter thumping his wet clay; + And with its all-obliterated tongue +It murmured, "Gently, brother, gently, pray!" + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +378. + +If you only knew the evils which others suffer, you would willingly +submit to those which you now bear. + + _Philemon._ + + +379. + +Children form a bond of union than which the human heart finds none +more enduring. + + _Livy._ + + +380. + +The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy, +And its best flavour temperance gives to joy. + + _Juvenal._ + + +381. + +To our own sorrows serious heed we give, +But for another's we soon cease to grieve. + + _Pindar._ + + +382. + +Can anything be more absurd than that the nearer we are to our +journey's end, we should lay in the more provision for it? + + _Cicero._ + + +383. + +Set about whatever you intend to do; the beginning is half the +battle. + + _Ausonius._ + + +384. + +All smatterers are more brisk and pert +Than those who understand an art; +As little sparkles shine more bright +Than glowing coals that gave them light. + + _Butler._ + + +385. + +No prince, how great soever, begets his predecessors, and the +noblest rivers are not navigable to the fountain. + + _A. Marvell._ + + +386. + +The guilty man may escape, but he cannot be sure of doing so. + + _Epicurus._ + + +387. + +In everything you will find annoyances, but you ought to consider +whether the advantages do not predominate. + + _Menander._ + + +388. + +Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have +most occupied the thoughts during the day. + + _Herodotus._ + + +389. + +Sleeping, we image what awake we wish; +Dogs dream of bones, and fishermen of fish.[20] + + _Theocritus._ + + [20] Cf. Arab proverb: "The dream of the cat is always about + mice." + + +390. + +A man who does not endeavour to _seem_ more than he is will +generally be thought nothing of. We habitually make such large +deductions for pretence and imposture that no real merit will stand +against them. It is necessary to set off our good qualities with a +certain air of plausibility and self-importance, as some attention +to fashion is necessary. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +391. + +There is nothing more beautiful than cheerfulness in an old face, +and among country people it is always a sign of a well-regulated +life. + + _Richter._ + + +392. + +From things which have been obtained after having been long desired +men almost never derive the pleasure and delight which they had +anticipated. + + _Guicciardini._ + + +393. + +Seest thou good days? Prepare for evil times. No summer but hath its +winter. He never reaped comfort in adversity that sowed not in +prosperity. + + _Quarles._ + + +394. + +Every man knows his own but not others' defects and miseries; and +'tis the nature of all men still to reflect upon themselves their +own misfortunes, not to examine or consider other men's, not to +confer themselves with others; to recount their own miseries but not +their good gifts, fortunes, benefits which they have, to ruminate on +their adversity, but not once to think on their prosperity, not what +they have but what they want. + + _Burton._ + + +395. + +Some people, you would think, are made up of nothing but title and +genealogy; the stamp of dignity defaces in them the very character +of humanity, and transports them to such a degree of haughtiness +that they reckon it below them to exercise good nature or good +manners. + + _L'Estrange._ + + +396. + +He alone is poor who does not possess knowledge. + + _Talmud._ + + +397. + +It is not enough to know; we must apply what we know. It is not +enough to will; we must also act. + + _Goethe._ + + +398. + +Words of blame from those who are hostile to a great man cannot +injure him. The moon is not hurt when barked at by a dog. + + _Arabic._ + + +399. + +The value of three things is justly appreciated by all classes of +men: youth, by the old; health, by the diseased; and wealth, by the +needy. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +400. + +As one might nurse a tiny flame, +The able and far-seeing man, +E'en with the smallest capital, +Can raise himself to wealth. + + _Buddhist._ + + +401. + +By a husband wealth is accumulated; by a wife is its preservation. + + _Burmese._ + + +402. + +It is very hard for the mind to disengage itself from a subject on +which it has been long employed. The thoughts will be rising of +themselves from time to time, though we have given them no +encouragement, as the tossings and fluctuations of the sea continue +several hours after the winds are laid. + + _Addison._ + + +403. + +Hypocrisy will serve as well +To propagate a church as zeal; +As persecution and promotion +Do equally advance devotion: +So round white stones will serve, they say, +As well as eggs, to make hens lay. + + _Butler._ + + +404. + +Man differs from other animals particularly in this, that he is +imitative, and acquires his rudiments of knowledge in this way; +besides, the delight in imitation is universal. + + _Aristotle._ + + +405. + +The hooting fowler seldom takes much game. When a man has a project +in his mind, digested and fixed by consideration, it is wise to keep +it secret till the time that his designs arrive at their despatch +and perfection. He is unwise who brags much either of what he will +do or what he shall have, for if what he speaks of fall not out +accordingly, instead of applause, a mock and scorn will follow him. + + _Feltham._ + + +406. + +What is the most profitable? Fellowship with the good. What is the +worst thing in the world? The society of evil men. What is the +greatest loss? Failure in one's duty. Where is the greatest peace? +In truth and righteousness. Who is the hero? The man who subdues his +senses. Who is the best beloved? The faithful wife. What is wealth? +Knowledge. What is the most perfect happiness? Staying at home. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +407. + +If a man says that it is right to give every one his due, and +therefore thinks within his own mind that injury is due from a just +man to his enemies but kindness to his friends, he was not wise who +said so, for he spoke not the truth, for in no case has it appeared +to be just to injure any one.[21] + + _Plato._ + + [21] Cf. Matt. V, 43, 44. + + +408. + +Faith is like love, it cannot be forced. Therefore it is a dangerous +operation if an attempt be made to introduce or bind it by state +regulations; for, as the attempt to force love begets hatred, so +also to compel religious belief produces rank unbelief. + + _Schopenhauer._ + + +409. + +We are like vessels tossed on the bosom of the deep; our passions +are the winds that sweep us impetuously forward; each pleasure is a +rock; the whole life is a wide ocean. Reason is the pilot to guide +us, but often allows itself to be led astray by the storms of pride. + + _Metastasio._ + + +410. + +Empty is the house of a childless man; as empty is the mind of a +bachelor; empty are all quarters of the world to an ignorant man; +but poverty is total emptiness. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +411. + +The wicked have no stability, for they do not remain in consistency +with themselves; they continue friends only for a short time, +rejoicing in each other's wickedness. + + _Aristotle._ + + +412. + +It is the natural disposition of all men to listen with pleasure to +abuse and slander of their neighbour, and to hear with impatience +those who utter praises of themselves. + + _Demosthenes._ + + +413. + +A man ought not to return evil for evil, as many think, since at no +time ought we to do an injury to our neighbour.[22] + + _Plato._ + + [22] Cf. Rom. XII, 19; 1 Thess. V, 15. + + +414. + +In all that belongs to man you cannot find a greater wonder than +memory. What a treasury of all things! What a record! What a journal +of all! As if provident Nature, because she would have man +circumspect, had furnished him with an account-book, to carry always +with him. Yet it neither burthens nor takes up room. + + _Feltham._ + + +415. + +He who will not freely and sadly confess that he is _much_ a fool is +_all_ a fool. + + _Fuller._ + + +416. + +The man with hoary head is not revered as aged by the gods, but only +he who has true knowledge; he, though young, is old. + + _Manu._ + + +417. + +No fathers and mothers think their own children ugly, and this +self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the +mind. + + _Cervantes._ + + +418. + +In thy apparel avoid singularity, profuseness, and gaudiness. Be not +too early in the fashion, nor too late. Decency is half way between +affectation and neglect. The body is the shell of the soul, apparel +is the husk of that shell; the husk often tells you what the kernel +is. + + _Quarles._ + + +419. + +We have more faith in a well-written romance while we are reading it +than in common history. The vividness of the representations in the +one case more than counterbalances the mere knowledge of the truth +of facts in the other. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +420. + +It is easy to lose important opportunities, and difficult to regain +them; therefore when they present themselves it is the more +necessary to make every effort to retain them. + + _Guicciardini._ + + +421. + +Among wonderful things is a sore-eyed man who is an oculist. + + _Arabic._ + + +422. + +Gold gives the appearance of beauty even to ugliness; but everything +becomes frightful with poverty. + + _Boileau._ + + +423. + +When the scale of sensuality bears down that of reason, the baseness +of our nature conducts us to most preposterous conclusions. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +424. + +Idleness is a great enemy to mankind. There is no friend like +energy, for, if you cultivate that, it will never fail. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +425. + +The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them. + + _Goethe._ + + +426. + +We must oblige everybody as much as we can; we have often need of +assistance from those inferior to ourselves. + + _La Fontaine._ + + +427. + +We magnify the wealthy man, though his parts be never so poor. The +poor man we despise, be he never so well qualified. Gold is the +coverlet of imperfections. It is the fool's curtain, which hides all +his defects from the world. + + _Feltham._ + + +428. + +There is nothing more operative than sedulity and diligence. A man +would wonder at the mighty things which have been done by degrees +and gentle augmentations. Diligence and moderation are the best +steps whereby to climb to any excellence, nay, it is rare that there +is any other other way. + + _Feltham._ + + +429. + +In sooth, it is a shame to choose rather to be still borrowing in +all places, from everybody, than to work and win. + + _Rabelais._ + + +430. + +Behaviour is a mirror in which every one shows his image. + + _Goethe._ + + +431. + +There is nothing more daring than ignorance. + + _Menander._ + + +432. + +It is not easy to stop the fire when the water is at a distance; +friends at hand are better than relations afar off. + + _Chinese._ + + +433. + +The lustre of a virtuous character cannot be defaced, nor can the +vices of a vicious man ever become lucid. A jewel preserves its +lustre, though trodden in the mud, but a brass pot, though placed +upon the head, is brass still. + + _Panchatantra._ + + +434. + +Noble birth is an accident of fortune, noble actions characterise +the great. + + _Goldoni._ + + +435. + +Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +436. + +When anyone is modest, not after praise, but after censure, then he +is really so. + + _Richter._ + + +437. + +Experience has always shown, and reason shows, that affairs which +depend on many seldom succeed. + + _Guicciardini._ + + +438. + +Give not thy tongue too great a liberty, lest it take thee prisoner. +A word unspoken is like thy sword in thy scabbard; if vented, the +sword is in another's hand.[23] If thou desire to be held wise, be +so wise as to hold thy tongue. + + _Quarles._ + + [23] Cf. 221; also Metastasio: + + Voce dal fuggita + Poi richiamar non vale; + Non si trattien lo strale + Quando dall' arco usci. + + [The word that once escapes the tongue cannot be + recalled; the arrow cannot be detained which has once + sped from the bow.] + + +439. + +The old lose one of the greatest privileges of man, for they are no +longer judged by their contemporaries. + + _Goethe._ + + +440. + +When the man of a naturally good propensity has much wealth it +injures his advancement in wisdom; when a worthless man has much +wealth it increases his faults. + + _Chinese._ + + +441. + +In youth a man is deluded by other ideas than those which delude him +in middle life, and again in his decay he embraces other ideas. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +442. + +To consider, Is this man of our own or an alien? is a mark of +little-minded persons; but the whole earth is of kin to the +generous-hearted.[24] + + _Panchatantra._ + + [24] Cf. Luke, X, 29, ff. + + +443. + +Skill in advising others is easily attained by men; but to practise +righteousness themselves is what only a few can succeed in doing. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +444. + +Hast thou not perfect excellence, 'tis best + To keep thy tongue in silence, for 'tis this +Which shames a man; as lightness does attest + The nut is empty, nor of value is. + + _Sa'di._ + + +445. + +Understand a man by his deeds and words; the impressions of others +lead to false judgment. + + _Talmud._ + + +446. + +A man of feeble character resembles a reed that bends with every +gust of wind. + + _Magha._ + + +447. + +There is no fire like passion; there is no shark like hatred; there +is no snare like folly; there is no torrent like greed. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +448. + +Commit a sin twice, and it will not seem to thee a sin. + + _Talmud._ + + +449. + +Liberality attended with mild language; learning without pride; +valour united with mercy; wealth accompanied with a generous +contempt of it--these four qualities are with difficulty acquired. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +450. + +Inquire about your neighbour before you build, and about your +companions before you travel. + + _Arabic._ + + +451. + +Though you may yourself abound in treasure, teach your son some +handicraft; for a heavy purse of gold and silver may run to waste, +but the purse of the artisan's industry can never get empty. + + _Sa'di._ + + +452. + +It is an observation no less just than common that there is no +stronger test of a man's real character than power and authority, +exciting, as they do, every passion, and discovering every latent +vice. + + _Plutarch._ + + +453. + +Rather skin a carcass for pay in the public streets than be idly +dependent on charity. + + _Talmud._ + + +454. + +Knowledge produces mildness of speech; mildness of speech, a good +character; a good character, wealth; wealth, if virtuous actions +attend it, happiness. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +455. + +O how wonderful is the human voice! It is indeed the organ of the +soul. The intellect of man sits enshrined visibly upon his forehead +and in his eye; and the heart of man is written upon his +countenance. But the soul reveals itself in the voice only, as God +revealed himself to the prophet in the still small voice, and in a +voice from the Burning Bush. The soul of man is audible, not +visible. A sound alone betrays the flowing of the eternal fountain +invisible to man. + + _Longfellow._ + + +456. + +Every gift, though small, is in reality great, if it be given with +affection.[25] + + _Philemon._ + + [25] See also 80. + + +457. + +Good words, good deeds, and beautiful expressions +A wise man ever culls from every quarter, +E'en as a gleaner gathers ears of corn. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +458. + +In poverty and other misfortunes of life men think friends to be +their only refuge. The young they keep out of mischief, to the old +they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime +of life they incite to noble deeds. + + _Aristotle._ + + +459. + +Heed not the flatterer's fulsome talk, + He from thee hopes some trifle to obtain; +Thou wilt, shouldst thou his wishes baulk, + Ten hundred times as much of censure gain. + + _Sa'di._ + + +460. + +By the fall of water-drops the pot is filled: such is the increase +of riches, of knowledge, and of virtue. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +461. + +We deliberate about the parcels of life, but not about life itself, +and so we arrive all unawares at its different epochs, and have the +trouble of beginning all again. And so finally it is that we do not +walk as men confidently towards death, but let death come suddenly +upon us. + + _Seneca._ + + +462. + +It is no very good symptom, either of nations or individuals, that +they deal much in vaticination. Happy men are full of the present, +for its bounty suffices them; and wise men also, for its duties +engage them. Our grand business undoubtedly is not to see what lies +dimly at a distance, but to do what clearly lies at hand. + + _Carlyle._ + + +463. + +Law does not put the least restraint +Upon our freedom, but maintain'st; +Or, if it does, 'tis for our good, +To give us freer latitude: +For wholesome laws preserve us free, +By stinting of our liberty. + + _Butler._ + + +464. + +It is only necessary to grow old in order to become more indulgent. +I see no fault committed that I have not been myself inclined to. + + _Goethe._ + + +465. + +Even a blockhead may respect inspire, +So long as he is suitably attired; +A fool may gain esteem among the wise, +So long as he has sense to hold his tongue. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +466. + +A wise man should never resolve upon anything, at least, never let +the world know his resolution, for if he cannot reach that he is +ashamed.[26] + + _Selden._ + + [26] See 406. + + +467. + +Men's minds are generally ingenious in palliating guilt in +themselves. + + _Livy._ + + +468. + +Prosperity is acquired by exertion, and there is no fruit for him +who doth not exert himself: the fawns go not into the mouth of a +sleeping lion. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +469. + +Wickedness, by whomsoever committed, is odious, but most of all in +men of learning; for learning is the weapon with which Satan is +combated, and when a man is made captive with arms in his hand his +shame is more excessive. + + _Sa'di._ + + +470. + +He that will give himself to all manner of ways to get money may be +rich; so he that lets fly all he knows or thinks may by chance be +satirically witty. Honesty sometimes keeps a man from growing rich, +and civility from being witty. + + _Selden._ + + +471. + +Men are not rich or poor according to what they possess but to what +they desire. The only rich man is he that with content enjoys a +competence. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +472. + +Poverty is not dishonourable in itself, but only when it arises from +idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly. + + _Plutarch._ + + +473. + +Do nothing rashly; want of circumspection is the chief cause of +failure and disaster. Fortune, wise lover of the wise, selects him +for her lord who ere he acts reflects. + + _Bharavi._ + + +474. + +First think, and if thy thoughts approve thy will, +Then speak, and after, what thou speak'st fulfil. + + _Randolph._ + + +475. + +It cannot but be injurious to the human mind never to be called into +effort: the habit of receiving pleasure without any exertion of +thought, by the mere excitement of curiosity, and sensibility, may +be justly ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel-reading. + + _Coleridge._ + + +476. + +Patience is the chiefest fruit of study; a man that strives to make +himself different from other men by much reading gains this chiefest +good, that in all fortunes he hath something to entertain and +comfort himself withal. + + _Selden._ + + +477. + +Friendship throws a greater lustre on prosperity, while it lightens +adversity by sharing in its griefs and troubles. + + _Cicero._ + + +478. + +There is nothing more becoming a wise man than to make choice of +friends, for by them thou shalt be judged what thou art. Let them +therefore be wise and virtuous, and none of those that follow thee +for gain; but make election rather of thy betters than thy +inferiors; shunning always such as are poor and needy, for if thou +givest twenty gifts and refuse to do the like but once, all that +thou hast done will be lost, and such men will become thy mortal +enemies. + + _Sir W. Raleigh, to his Son._ + + +479. + +Learning is like Scanderbeg's sword, either good or bad according to +him who hath it: an excellent weapon, if well used; otherwise, like +a sharp razor in the hand of a child. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +480. + +The greater part of mankind employ their first years to make their +last miserable. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +481. + +I hate the miser, whose unsocial breast +Locks from the world his useless stores. +Wealth by the bounteous only is enjoyed, +Whose treasures, in diffusive good employed, +The rich return of fame and friends procure, +And 'gainst a sad reverse a safe retreat secure. + + _Pindar._ + + +482. + +Wisdom alone is the true and unalloyed coin for which we ought to +exchange all things, for this and with this everything is bought and +sold--fortitude, temperance, and justice; in a word, true virtue +subsists with wisdom. + + _Plato._ + + +483. + +If thou intendest to do a good act, do it quickly, and then thou +wilt excite gratitude; a favour if it be slow in being conferred +causes ingratitude. + + _Ausonius._ + + +484. + +'Tis those who reverence the old +That are the men versed in the Faith; +Worthy of praise while in this life, +And happy in the life to come. + + _Buddhist._ + + +485. + +Low-minded men are occupied solely with their own affairs, but +noble-minded men take special interest in the affairs of others. The +submarine fire drinks up the ocean, to fill its insatiable interior; +the rain-cloud, that it may relieve the drought of the earth, burnt +up by the hot season. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +486. + +Those men are wise who do not desire the unattainable, who do not +love to mourn over what is lost, and are not overwhelmed by +calamities. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +487. + +Let him take heart who does advance, even in the smallest degree. + + _Plato._ + + +488. + +A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.[27] + + _Chinese._ + + [27] Cf. Pope, in his Epitaph on the poet Gay: + + Of manners gentle, of affections mild; + In wit a man, simplicity, a child. + + +489. + +If thou desirest ease in this life, keep thy secrets undisclosed, +like the modest rosebud. Take warning from that lovely flower, +which, by expanding its hitherto hidden beauties when in full bloom, +gives its leaves and its happiness to the winds. + + _Persian._ + + +490. + +A husband is the chief ornament of a wife, though she have no other +ornament; but, though adorned, without a husband she has no +ornaments. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +491. + +He who has more learning than goodness is like a tree with many +branches and few roots, which the first wind throws down; whilst he +whose works are greater than his knowledge is like a tree with many +roots and fewer branches, which all the winds of heaven cannot +uproot. + + _Talmud._ + + +492. + +He that would build lastingly must lay his foundation low. The proud +man, like the early shoots of a new-felled coppice, thrusts out full +of sap, green in leaves, and fresh in colour, but bruises and breaks +with every wind, is nipped with every little cold, and, being +top-heavy, is wholly unfit for use. Whereas the humble man retains +it in the root, can abide the winter's killing blast, the ruffling +concussions of the wind, and can endure far more than that which +appears so flourishing. + + _Feltham._ + + +493. + +The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious +ancestors is like a potato--the only good belonging to him is +underground. + + _Sir Thos. Overbury._ + + +494. + +When men will not be reasoned out of a vanity, they must be +ridiculed out of it. + + _L'Estrange._ + + +495. + +Women are ever in extremes, they are either better or worse than +men. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +496. + +An absent friend gives us friendly company when we are well assured +of his happiness. + + _Goethe._ + + +497. + +The man of worth is really great without being proud; the mean man +is proud without being really great. + + _Chinese._ + + +498. + +Liberality consists less in giving much than in giving at the right +moment. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +499. + +Outward perfection without inward goodness sets but the blacker dye +on the mind's deformity. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +500. + +As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, so wise men falter not +amidst blame or praise. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +501. + +Of what avail is the praise or censure of the vulgar, who make a +useless noise like a senseless crow in a forest? + + _Mahabharata._ + + +502. + +Hark! here the sound of lute so sweet, +And there the voice of wailing loud; +Here scholars grave in conclave meet, +There howls the brawling drunken crowd; +Here, charming maidens full of glee, +There, tottering, withered dames we see. +Such light! Such shade! I cannot tell, +If here we live in heaven or hell. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +503. + +The every-day cares and duties which men call drudgery are the +weights and counterpoises of the clock of Time, giving its pendulum +a true vibration, and its hands a regular motion; and when they +cease to hang upon the wheels, the pendulum no longer sways, the +hands no longer move, the clock stands still. + + _Longfellow._ + + +504. + +A man of little learning deems that little a great deal; a frog, +never having seen the ocean, considers its well a great sea. + + _Burmese._ + + +505. + +Trust not thy secret to a confidant, for he too will have his +associates and friends; and it will spread abroad through the whole +city, and men will call thee weak-headed. + + _Firdausi._ + + +506. + +Labour like a man, and be ready in doing kindnesses. He is a +good-for-nothing fellow who eateth by the toil of another's hand. + + _Sa'di._[28] + + [28] See also 429, 453. + + +507. + +Let every man sweep the snow from before his own doors, and not busy +himself about the frost on his neighbour's tiles. + + _Chinese._ + + +508. + +With knowledge, say, what other wealth +Can vie, which neither thieves by stealth +Can take, nor kinsmen make their prey, +Which, lavished, never wastes away. + + _Sanskrit._ + + +509. + +Women's wealth is beauty, learning, that of men. + + _Burmese._ + + +510. + +Prosperity attends the lion-hearted man who exerts himself, while we +say, destiny will ensure it. Laying aside destiny, show manly +fortitude by thy own strength: if thou endeavour, and thy endeavours +fail of success, what crime is there in failing? + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +511. + +Spare not, nor spend too much, be this thy care, +Spare but to spend, and only spend to spare. +Who spends too much may want, and so complain; +But he spends best that spares to spend again. + + _Randolph._ + + +512. + +Everything that is acknowledges the blessing of existence. Shalt not +thou, by a similar acknowledgment, be happy? If thou pay due +attention to sounds, thou shalt hear the praise of the Creator +celebrated by the whole creation. + + _Nakhshabi._ + + +513. + +The attribute most noble of the hand +Is readiness in giving; of the head, +Bending before a teacher; of the mouth, +Veracious speaking; of a victor's arms, +Undaunted valour; of the inner heart, +Pureness the most unsullied; of the ears, +Delight in hearing and receiving truth--These +are adornments of high-minded men, +Better than all the majesty of Empire. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +514. + +The mere reality of life would be inconceivably poor without the +charm of fancy, which brings in its bosom as many vain fears as idle +hopes, but lends much oftener to the illusions it calls up a gay +flattering hue than one which inspires terror. + + _Von Humboldt._ + + +515. + +Stupidity has its sublime as well as genius, and he who carries that +quality to absurdity has reached it, which is always a source of +pleasure to sensible people. + + _Wieland._ + + +516. + +It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought. Each +subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters +used to hide themselves. + + _Longfellow._ + + +517. + +Women never reason and therefore they are, comparatively, seldom +wrong. They judge instinctively of what falls under their immediate +observation or experience, and do not trouble themselves about +remote or doubtful consequences. If they make no profound +discoveries, they do not involve themselves in gross absurdities. It +is only by the help of reason and logical inference, according to +Hobbes, that "man becomes excellently wise or excellently foolish." + + _Hazlitt._ + + +518. + +Reprove not in their wrath incensed men, +Good counsel comes clean out of season then; +But when his fury is appeased and past, +He will conceive his fault and mend at last: +When he is cool and calm, then utter it; +No man gives physic in the midst o' th' fit. + + _Randolph._ + + +519. + +It is not flesh and blood, it is the heart, that makes fathers and +sons. + + _Schiller._ + + +520. + +Discontent is like ink poured into water, which fills the whole +fountain full of blackness. It casts a cloud over the mind, and +renders it more occupied about the evil which disquiets it than +about the means of removing it. + + _Feltham._ + + +521. + +We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and +snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their +sympathies. + + _Goethe._ + + +522. + +A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but +sets off every talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens +all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades of paintings, +it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colours more +beautiful, though not so glowing as they would be without it. + + _Addison._ + + +523. + +Happy the man who lives at home, making it his business to regulate +his desires. + + _La Fontaine._ + + +524. + +It is true that men are no fit judges of themselves, because +commonly they are partial to their own cause; yet it is as true that +he who will dispose himself to judge indifferently of himself can do +it better than any body else, because a man can see farther into his +own mind and heart than any one else can. + + _Harrington._ + + +525. + +Envy is a vice that would pose a man to tell what it should be liked +for. Other vices we assume for that we falsely suppose they bring us +either pleasure, profit, or honour. But in envy who is it can find +any of these? Instead of pleasure, we vex and gall ourselves. Like +cankered brass, it only eats itself, nay, discolours and renders it +noisome. When some one told Agis that those of his neighbour's +family did envy him, "Why, then," says he, "they have a double +vexation--one, with their own evil, the other, at my prosperity." + + _Feltham._ + + +526. + +The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of +themselves. They fancy themselves superior to every one else, and, +not being sure of making good their secret pretensions, decline +entering the lists altogether. Thus they "lay the flattering unction +to their souls" that they could have said better things than others, +or that the conversation was beneath them. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +527. + +It is commonly a dangerous thing for a man to have more sense than +his neighbours. Socrates paid for his superiority with his life; and +if Aristotle saved his skin, accused as he was of heresy by the +chief priest Eurymedon, it was because he took to his heels in time. + + _Wieland._ + + +528. + +Flattery may be considered as a mode of companionship, degrading but +profitable to him who flatters. + + _Theophrastus._ + + +529. + +Rich presents, though profusely given, Are not so dear to righteous +Heaven As gifts by honest gains supplied, Though small, which faith +hath sanctified. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +530. + +To-day is thine to spend, but not to-morrow; +Counting on morrows breedeth bankrupt sorrow: + O squander not this breath that Heaven hath lent thee; +Make not too sure another breath to borrow. + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +531. + +Leave not the business of to-day to be done to-morrow; for who +knoweth what may be thy condition to-morrow? The rose-garden, which +to-day is full of flowers, when to-morrow thou wouldst pluck a rose, +may not afford thee one. + + _Firdausi._ + + +532. + +Virtue beameth from a generous spirit as light from the moon, or as +brilliancy from Jupiter. + + _Nizami._ + + +533. + +The worth of a horse is known by its speed, the value of oxen by +their carrying power, the worth of a cow by its milk-giving +capacity, and that of a wise man by his speech. + + _Burmese._ + + +534. + +Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as the blazing +meteor when it descends to earth is only a stone. + + _Longfellow._ + + +535. + +If a man die young he hath left us at dinner; it is bed-time with a +man of three score and ten; and he that lives a hundred years hath +walked a mile after supper. This life is but one day of three meals, +or one meal of three courses--childhood, youth, and old age. To sup +well is to live well, and that's the way to sleep well. + + _Overbury._ + + +536. + +There is nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing +melts away sooner than a great one. Poverty treads upon the heels of +great and unexpected riches. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +537. + +Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or +absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or +dwarfs. The heaviest charge we can bring against the general texture +of society is that it is commonplace. Our fancied superiority to +others is in some one thing which we think most of because we excel +in it, or have paid most attention to it; whilst we overlook their +superiority to us in something else which they set equal and +exclusive store by. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +538. + +It is resignation and contentment that are best calculated to lead +us safely through life. Whoever has not sufficient power to endure +privations, and even suffering, can never feel that he is +armour-proof against painful emotions; nay, he must attribute to +himself, or at least to the morbid sensitiveness of his nature, +every disagreeable feeling he may suffer. + + _Von Humboldt._ + + +539. + +Petrarch observes, that we change language, habits, laws, customs, +manners, but not vices, not diseases, not the symptoms of folly and +madness--they are still the same. And as a river, we see, keeps the +like name and place, but not water, and yet ever runs, our times and +persons alter, vices are the same, and ever be. Look how +nightingales sang of old, cocks crowed, kine lowed, sheep bleated, +sparrows chirped, dogs barked, so they do still: we keep our madness +still, play the fool still; we are of the same humours and +inclinations as our predecessors were; you shall find us all alike, +much as one, we and our sons, and so shall our posterity continue to +the last. + + _Burton._ + + +540. + +The mother of the useful arts is necessity, that of the fine arts is +luxury; for father the former have intellect, the latter, genius, +which itself is a kind of luxury. + + _Schopenhauer._ + + +541. + +The fool who knows his foolishness is wise so far, at least; but a +fool who thinks himself wise, he is called a fool indeed. + + _Dhammapada._ + + +542. + +He who mixes with unclean things becomes unclean himself; he whose +associations are pure becomes purer each day. + + _Talmud._ + + +543. + +Heaven's gate is narrow and minute,[29] +It cannot be perceived by foolish men, +Blinded by vain illusions of the world. +E'en the clear-sighted, who discern the way +And seek to enter, find the portal barred +And hard to be unlocked. Its massive bolts +Are pride and passion, avarice and lust. + + _Mahabharata._ + + [29] Cf. Matt. VII, 14. + + +544. + +Eschew that friend, if thou art wise, who consorts with thy enemies. + + _Sa'di._ + + +545. + +Who can tell +Men's hearts? The purest comprehend +Such contradictions, and can blend +The force to bear, the power to feel, +The tender bud, the tempered steel. + + _Hindu Drama._ + + +546. + +Whosoever hath not knowledge, and benevolence, and piety knoweth +nothing of reality, and dwelleth only in semblance. + + _Sa'di._ + + +547. + +If thou shouldst find thy friend in the wrong reprove him secretly, +but in the presence of company praise him. + + _Arabic._ + + +548. + +Modesty is attended with profit, arrogance brings on destruction. + + _Chinese._ + + +549. + +The greatest hatred, like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, is +quiet. + + _Richter._ + + +550. + +Is a preface exquisitely written? No literary morsel is more +delicious. Is the author inveterately dull? It is a kind of +preparatory information, which may be very useful. It argues a +deficiency of taste to turn over an elaborate preface unread: for it +is the attar of the author's roses, every drop distilled at an +immense cost. It is the reason of the reasoning, and the folly of +the foolish. + + _Isaac D'Israeli._ + + +551. + +Vulgar prejudices are those which arise out of accident, ignorance, +or authority; natural prejudices are those which arise out of the +constitution of the human mind itself. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +552. + +Lament not Fortune's mutability, +And seize her fickle favours ere they flee; + If others never mourned departed bliss, +How should a turn of Fortune come to thee? + + _Omar Khayyam._ + + +553. + +Harsh reproof is like a violent storm, soon washed down the channel; +but friendly admonitions, like a small shower, pierce deep, and +bring forth better reformation. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +554. + +There are braying men in the world as well as braying asses; for +what's loud and senseless talking, huffing, and swearing any other +than a more fashionable way of braying? + + _L'Estrange._ + + +555. + +All wit and fancy, like a diamond, +The more exact and curious 'tis ground, +Is forced for every carat to abate +As much of value as it wants in weight. + + _Butler._ + + +556. + +Listen, if you would learn; be silent, if you would be safe. + + _Arabic._ + + +557. + +All such distinctions as tend to set the orders of the state at a +distance from each other are equally subversive of liberty and +concord. + + _Livy._ + + +558. + +No man is the wiser for his learning. It may administer matter to +work in, or objects to work upon, but wit and wisdom are born with a +man. + + _Selden._ + + +559. + +Those who are guided by reason are generally successful in their +plans; those who are rash and precipitate seldom enjoy the favour of +the gods. + + _Herodotus._ + + +560. + +Whosoever lends a greedy ear to a slanderous report is either +himself of a radically bad disposition or a mere child in sense. + + _Menander._ + + +561. + +A foolish man in wealth and authority is like a weak-timbered house +with a too-ponderous roof. + + _R. Chamberlain._ + + +562. + +A lively blockhead in company is a public benefit. Silence or +dulness by the side of folly looks like wisdom. + + _Hazlitt._ + + +563. + +Eminent positions make eminent men greater and little men less. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +564. + +Scratch yourself with your own nails; always do your own business, +and when you intend asking for a service, go to a person who can +appreciate your merit. + + _Arabic._ + + +565. + +The beauty of some women has days and seasons, depending upon +accidents which diminish or increase it; nay, the very passions of +the mind naturally improve or impair it, and very often utterly +destroy it. + + _Cervantes._ + + +566. + +No joy in nature is so sublimely affecting as the joy of a mother at +the good fortune of a child. + + _Richter._ + + +567. + +Want and sorrow are the gifts which folly earns for itself. + + _Schubert._ + + +568. + +In character, in manners, in style, in all things, the supreme +excellence is simplicity. + + _Longfellow._ + + +569. + +Those who cause dissensions in order to injure other people are +preparing pitfalls for their own ruin. + + _Chinese._ + + +570. + +Such deeds as thou with fear and grief +Wouldst, on a sick-bed laid, recall, +In youth and health eschew them all, +Remembering life is frail and brief. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +571. + +A man should not keep company with one whose character, family, and +abode are unknown. + + _Panchatantra._ + + +572. + +Sit not down to the table before thy stomach is empty, and rise +before thou hast filled it. + + _Arabic._ + + +573. + +If thou be rich, strive to command thy money, lest it command thee. + + _Quarles._ + + +574. + +In all companies there are more fools than wise men, and the greater +part always gets the better of the wiser. + + _Rabelais._ + + +575. + +Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in +the stormy billows of the world. + + _Goethe._ + + +576. + +No one ought to despond in adverse circumstances, for they may turn +out to be the cause of good to us.[30] + + _Menander._ + + [30] Cf. Job V, 17; Heb. XII, 6. + + +577. + +The constant man loses not his virtue in misfortune. A torch may +point towards the ground, but its flame will still point upwards. + + _Bhartrihari._ + + +578. + +A man should never despise himself, for brilliant success never +attends on the man who is contemned by himself. + + _Mahabharata._ + + +579. + +It is the character of a simpleton to be a bore. A man of sense sees +at once whether he is welcome or tiresome; he knows to withdraw the +moment that precedes that in which he would be in the least in the +way. + + _La Bruyere._ + + +580. + +The man of first rate excellence is virtuous in spite of +instruction; he of the middle class is so after instruction; the +lowest order of men are vicious in spite of instruction. + + _Chinese._ + + +581. + +Not to attend at the door of the wealthy, and not to use the voice +of petition--these constitute the best life of a man. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +582. + +What a man can do and suffer is unknown to himself till some +occasion presents itself which draws out the hidden power. Just as +one sees not in the water of an unruffled pond the fury and roar +with which it can dash down a steep rock without injury to itself, +or how high it is capable of rising; or as little as one can suspect +the latent heat in ice-cold water. + + _Schopenhauer._ + + +583. + +Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not athirst +for information; but, to be quite fair, we must admit that superior +reticence is a good deal due to lack of matter. Speech is often +barren, but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full +nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the +while be sitting on one addled nest-egg; and, when it takes to +cackling, will have nothing to announce but that addled delusion. + + _George Eliot._ + + +584. + +The sage who engages in controversy with ignorant people must not +expect to be treated with honour; and if a fool should overpower a +philosopher by his loquacity it is not to be wondered at, for a +common stone will break a jewel. + + _Sa'di._ + + +585. + +Success is like a lovely woman, wooed by many men, but folded in the +arms of him alone who, free from over-zeal, firmly persists and +calmly perseveres. + + _Bharavi._ + + +586. + +A feverish display of over-zeal, +At the first outset, is an obstacle +To all success; water, however cold, +Will penetrate the ground by slow degrees. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +587. + +Treat no one with disdain; with patience bear +Reviling language; with an angry man +Be never angry; blessings give for curses.[31] + + _Manu._ + + [31] Cf. Matt. V, II, 44. + + +588. + +E'en as a traveller, meeting with the shade +Of some o'erhanging tree, awhile reposes, +Then leaves its shelter to pursue his way, +So men meet friends, then part with them for ever. + + _Hitopadesa._ + + +589. + +Single is every living creature born, +Single he passes to another world, +Single he eats the fruit of evil deeds, +Single, the fruit of good; and when he leaves +His body, like a log or heap of clay, +Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away: +Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb, +And bears him through the dreary, trackless gloom. + + _Manu._ + + + + +INDEX. + + +Abilities, 17. + +Absent friend, 496. + +Abuse of the great, 398. + +Actions to be avoided, 570. + +Actor, man an, 37. + +Admonition, friendly, 553. + +Advance step by step, 131. + +Adversity, 8, 30, 57, 78, 175, 184, 185, 330, 366, 393, 477, + 576, 577. + +Advice, 82, 172, 193, 443. + +Affectation, 87. + +Age should be indulgent, 464. + +Age, reverence for, 484. + +Agreeableness, 258, 296. + +Alms-giving, pride in, 318. + +Ambition, petty, 165. + +Amusements necessary, 111. + +Ancestry, boast of, 239, 240, 385, 395, 493. + +Angel, brute, man, 199. + +Anger, 117, 119, 130. + +Angry man, 518, 587. + +Annoyances, 387. + +Anxiety, needless, 298. + +Apparel, 418. + +Arrogance, 267. + +Arts, mothers of the, 540. + +Associates to be avoided, 571. + +Associates, wicked, 215. + +Associations, 542. + +Attributes of hand, head, etc., 513. + +Authority, 151, 452, 561. + +Avarice, 38, 310, 364, 382, 481. + + +Bad men, 15, 351. + +Beauty, 100, 179, 295, 565. + +Beginning, etc., 383. + +Behaviour, 430. + +Beloved, best, 406. + +Beneficence, 4, 5, 191, 485. + +Benefits, 312, 345. + +"Bless those that curse you," 587. + +Blockhead in fine clothes, 465. + +Blockhead, lively, 562. + +Boastfulness, 248. + +Bodily and mental qualities, 204. + +Body, the soul's tent, 272. + +Books, 96, 195, 196, 197, 252, 283, 550. + +Bores, 579. + +Borrowing, 429. + +Braying men, 554. + +Business, do your own, 564. + + +Calmness, 361. + +Capacities of men, 32. + +Caution in changing, 131. + +Character, portraying, 160. + +Character, test of men, 109. + +Charity, 94. + +Cheerfulness, 302, 391. + +Children, 379. + +Circumstances, 67. + +Clever men, 86. + +Companions, 450. + +Conduct, best, 214. + +Confidence, 268. + +Consolation, 346. + +Constancy of friends, 366. + +Contemporaries' approval, 156. + +Contentment, 10, 52, 101, 135, 334, 471, 538. + +Contrasts in life, 502. + +Controversy with ignorant men, 584. + +Conversation, 71. + + +Daily cares and duties, 503. + +Dangers reconcile foes, 274. + +Death, 26, 138, 461. + +Deception, 243. + +Deeds and words, 445. + +Delusions, 441. + +Deportment, 206. + +Derision of superiority, 521. + +Designs, 315, 405, 466. + +Difficulties, 425. + +Diligence, 189, 428. + +Discontent, 222, 520. + +Distinctions, invidious, 557. + +"Do unto others," etc., 372. + +Doctrine entering the ear only, 285. + +Dog's tail, 373. + +Doubt, 7. + +Dreams, 388, 389. + +Dull minds, 278. + + +Ears and tongue, 273. + +Eat moderately, 572. + +Education and morals, 348. + +Eminence, 563. + +Employment, want of, 11. + +Empty things, 410. + +Endurance, 582. + +Energy, 95, 149. + +Enjoyments, alloyed, 352, 353. + +Envy, 124, 168, 271, 343, 375, 525. + +Equality of men, 234. + +Errors in judgment, 64. + +Evil men reformed, 68. + +Evil not to be returned, 413. + +Evil plotters, 162, 569. + +Evil speaking, 321. + +Excellence and mediocrity, 60. + +Exertion, 134, 263, 468, 510. + +Expenditure, 176, 247, 511. + +Experience, 36. + + +Faculties of men limited, 120. + +Faith not to be forced, 408. + +Falsehood, 341. + +Fame of good and evil deeds, 277. + +Fame, worldly, 34, 158. + +Familiarity with the great, 255. + +Fancy, charm of, 514. + +Fashions, old, despised, 169. + +Fate and wishes, 376. + +Fate and youth, 122. + +Fathers and sons, 519. + +Faults, 20, 39, 41, 198, 219, 269, 347. + +Favours, conferring, 317. + +Fear, 339. + +Feeble characters, 446. + +Feeling, sudden transitions of, 127. + +Flattery, 13, 250, 251, 323, 459, 528. + +Foes and friends, 84. + +Foibles, men's, 322. + +Follies, 97. + +Folly's reward, 567. + +Fools, 108, 166, 181, 265, 415, 465, 541, 561, 574. + +Forgiveness, 329, 344. + +Fortune, 56, 173, 233, 249, 262, 276, 536, 552. + +Friends, 16, 98, 174, 432, 458, 478, 496, 544, 547, 588. + +Friendship, 24, 116, 309, 330, 346, 477. + +Frugality, 316. + + +Generosity, 140. + +Genius dull in society, 534. + +Gifts, 80, 456, 529. + +Giving, manner of, 354, 483. + +God, the best friend, 79. + +Gold beautifies, 422, 427. + +Golden mean, 21. + +Good, doing, 110, 136, 137, 145, 209. + +Good for evil, 25, 311. + +Good and bad men falling, 297. + +Good man, 15, 288. + +Good man's intellect, 89. + +Good name, 29, 289. + +Goodness, 73, 153, 238. + +Good son, 16. + +Good wife, 16. + +Good words, 457. + +Good work undone, 35. + +Gratitude, 317. + +Great men, intercourse with, 177. + +Great souls, qualities of, 78. + +Greed, 447. + +Grief, useless, 207, 324. + +Griefs, secret, 300, 378, 394. + +Grossness, 303. + +Guilty men, 386. + + +Handicraft, 451. + +Happiness, 58, 66, 70, 187, 253, 262, 311, 337, 363, 367, 406, + 523. + +Harsh words, 192. + +Hatred, 123, 447, 549. + +Health, 52. + +Heart, 62, 79, 129, 132, 545. + +Hearts and beauty, 179. + +Heaven's gate, 543. + +Hero, 406. + +Hoary head, 416. + +Home, 253, 406, 523. + +Humility, 150, 157. + +Husband, 161, 401, 490. + +Hypocrisy, 403. + + +Idleness, 424. + +Ignorance, 103, 198, 199, 290, 301, 355, 431. + +Imitativeness, 404. + +Impudence, 374. + +Increase, by degrees, 460. + +Independence, 581. + +Indiscreet men, 85. + +Inherent badness, 373. + +Injury rebounds, 126. + +Injury unjustifiable, 407, 413. + +Insignificance, man's individual, 308. + +Instruction, 580. + +Irresolution, 294. + + +Judge things by their merit, 196. + +Judgments, how formed, 259. + + +Kindness, 4, 5, 54, 92, 129, 305, 306, 311, 344. + +Kinsmen and strangers, 91. + +Knowledge, 3, 7, 43, 55, 201, 205, 218, 225, 286, 307, 355, + 396, 397, 416, 454, 508, 546. + + +Labour, 275, 429, 453, 506. + +Laughter, 47, 163, 186. + +Law, 463. + +Law and physic, 167. + +Learning, 40, 43, 143, 342, 449, 479, 491, 504, 509. + +Liars, 246. + +Liberality, 93, 94, 140, 241, 449, 498. + +Life, 23, 83, 125, 133, 144, 235, 287, 326, 365, 461, 502, + 535, 539. + +Loquacity, 182, 301, 359, 583. + +Loss, greatest, 406. + +Losses half felt, 216. + +Love, 314. + +Low-minded men, 485. + + +Man, an actor, 37. + +Man an intellectual animal, 128. + +Mankind, knowledge of, 369. + +"Many cooks," etc., 437. + +Marriage, 333. + +Mean, the golden, 21. + +Mediocrity and excellence, 60. + +Memory, 414. + +Men, difficult to know, 33. + +Men like ships, 409. + +Mental faculties, limited, 120. + +Mental offspring, 417. + +Mental and bodily qualifications, 204. + +Merit, innate, 433. + +Merit, true and false, 242. + +Merit without praise, 104. + +Middling fortune, 536. + +Mind, 115, 226, 229, 270, 279. + +Misanthropy, 336. + +Miser, 481. + +Misery, 357. + +Mistakes, 72. + +Modesty, 159, 282, 436, 522, 548. + +Money, 188, 190, 368, 573. + +Mothers' greatest joy, 566. + +Morning, lesson of the, 139. + + +Nature praises the Creator, 512. + +Neighbour, every man one's, 442. + +Neighbours and companions, 450. + +Night, silence of, 266. + +Noble birth, 434. + +Noble-minded men, 485. + +Novel-reading, 475. + + +Obliging others, 426. + +Old age, 439, 484. + +Old and new things, 196. + +Old man, 65. + +Opportunities, 185, 420. + +Oppression, 191. + +Origin, one common, 9. + +Outward perfection, 499. + + +Parents' affection, 154. + +Parsimony, 316. + +Passionate man, 74. + +Passions, 1, 2, 119, 280, 447. + +Past, present and future, 326. + +Patience, 42, 118, 135, 185, 207, 476. + +Peace, greatest, 406. + +Personal troubles, 31. + +Personation, 102. + +Physic and law, 167. + +"Physician, heal thyself," 421. + +Pity, 124. + +Place, things out of, 237. + +Plagiarism, 96. + +Plans, miscarried, 327. + +Pleasure, 337. + +Pleasure and pain, 353. + +Pleasure in others' welfare, 350. + +Poesy, 260. + +Poetaster, 217. + +Potter and clay, 377. + +Popular opinion, 76. + +Poverty, 44, 105, 121, 208, 245, 410, 422, 472. + +Praise and censure, 88, 104, 500, 501. + +Praise, how to merit, 130. + +Prayer, universal, 19. + +Prefaces to books, 550. + +Prejudices, 551. + +Premature actions, 264. + +Premature death, 122. + +Present affairs, 462. + +Present good despised, 213. + +Presents, 80, 456, 529. + +Pretence, 102. + +Pride, 107, 157, 159, 291, 338, 492, 497. + +Pride in religious works, 318. + +Profitable thing, 406. + +Progress, 487. + +Projects, 315, 405, 466. + +Promises, broken, 28. + +Prosperity, 10, 30, 56, 93, 175, 224, 350, 393, 477. + +Providence, 320. + +Purpose without power, 146. + +Pursuits, 203. + + +Rabble among gentry, 358. + +Rashness, 473, 559. + +Reality, 546. + +Reason, 14, 299, 559. + +Reckless life reformed, 68. + +Regrets, useless, 298, 486. + +Remorse, 220. + +Reprehension, 75. + +Reproof, harsh, 553. + +Resignation, 538. + +Resolution, 12, 263. + +Respect, hatred, pity, 123. + +Restraint, 141. + +Reticence, 18, 586. + +Reviling to be borne, 587. + +Riches, 148, 187, 210, 281, 400, 401, 470, 471, 536. + +Ridiculous, cause of the, 292. + +Righteousness, 443. + +Romances, 419. + + +Salvation, 257. + +Sea-margins of thought, 516. + +Secrets, 99, 221, 288, 489, 505. + +Seeming to be more than one is, 390. + +Self-conceit, 112. + +Self-conquest, 223. + +Self-contemning, 578. + +Self-control, 280. + +Self-depreciation, 282. + +Self-dissatisfaction, 46. + +Self-judging, 524. + +Self-knowledge, 152, 261. + +Self-love, 142, 370. + +Self-palliation, 467. + +Self-praises, 412. + +Self-reliance, 115. + +Self-seeking men, 338. + +Self-valuation, 328. + +Sensuality, 423. + +Serve from lowest station upwards, 335. + +Shadows of the mind, 226. + +Shame, 90, 256, 374. + +Silence, 22, 180, 244, 254, 438, 444, 465, 474, 556. + +Simpletons, bores, 579. + +Simplicity, 435, 488, 568. + +Sin, repeated, 170, 448. + +Single are we born, etc., 589. + +Slander, 69, 412, 560. + +Smatterers, 384. + +Society, 27, 258, 537. + +Son, good, 16. + +Sorrows, 6, 50, 61, 185, 381. + +Sparing and spending, 511. + +Speech, 180, 254, 438, 474. + +Strangers and kinsmen, 91. + +Stupidity, 515. + +Style in writing, 284. + +Subtle and dull minds, 278. + +Subtle-witted men, 278. + +Success, 149, 183, 578, 583. + +Successes, unexpected, 53. + +Suffering, 147. + +Superiority, 57, 527. + +Superstition, 356. + +Sweep your own doorstep, 507. + +Sympathy, 371. + + +Taciturnity, 244, 526, 583. + +Talents and character, 576. + +Talkativeness, 182, 301, 359, 583. + +Temperance, 380. + +Temptation, 106. + +Things good and bad, 59. + +Things long desired, 392. + +Things to be guarded against, 155. + +Things universally valued, 399. + +Think before speaking, 474. + +Thorns and roses, 331. + +Thought, 114, 402, 516. + +Time, 79, 113, 325, 360. + +Titles of books, 283. + +To-day and to-morrow, 530, 531. + +Toil and pleasure, 349. + +Tongue and ears, 273. + +Trials, 51. + +Troubles, 202. + +Truth, lovers of, 246. + +Truth and severity, 332. + + +Undertakings of the careless, 313. + +Universe, lessons of the, 48. + + +Vacant mind, 229. + +Valour, 449. + +Vanity, cure of, 494. + +Vaticination, 462. + +Vices, 304, 340. + +Vicissitudes, 584. + +Virtue, 532, 589. + +Vociferation, 361. + +Voice, the human, 455. + + +Weak and strong men, 236. + +Wealth, 77, 115, 148, 187, 210, 267, 400, 440, 449. + +Wicked associates, 215. + +Wicked, unstable, 411. + +Wickedness, odious in the learned, 469. + +Wife, 16, 161, 194, 200, 231, 232, 401, 406. + +Wisdom, 171, 482, 584. + +Wise men, 131, 227, 265, 533, 584. + +Wish, father to the thought, 212. + +Wishes, vain, 486. + +Wishes and powers, 293. + +Wit and fancy, 555. + +Wit and wisdom, 362, 558. + +Woman, 45, 164, 178, 230, 495, 509, 517. + +Words cannot be recalled, 228. + +Words, harsh, 192. + +Words without deeds, 211. + +World, a beautiful book, 49. + +Worldly fame and pleasure, 34, 158. + +Worst thing, 406. + +Wretched not to be mocked, 63. + +Writings, like dishes, books, like beauty, 96. + + +Years, early, misspent, 480. + +Youth, negligence in, 81. + +Youth returns not, 319. + + +Zeal, excessive, 586. + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + In the original, all letters a, i, u had macrons instead of + accents, except for the word Chandalas, which appears as printed. + + Item 54: Mahhabharata _changed to_ Mahabharata + Item 92: Mahabahrata _changed to_ Mahabharata + Item 115: Depend not an _changed to_ Depend not on + Item 306: Chandalas' _changed to_ Chandalas' + Item 434: Goldini _changed to_ Goldoni + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Book of Wise Sayings, by W. 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