Part 2
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'dí._
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.
_Bháravi._
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 Khayyám._
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.
_Firdausí._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
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.
_Firdausí._
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 Khayyám._
140.
Be thou generous, and gentle, and forgiving; as God hath scattered upon thee, scatter thou upon others.
_Sa'dí._
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'dí._
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.
_Ramáyána._
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.
_Firdausí._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
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 Khayyám._
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'dí._
181.
To the tongue which bringeth thee words without reason, the answer that best beseemeth thee is--silence.
_Nizámí._
182.
The man who talketh much and never acteth will not be held in reputation by anyone.
_Firdausí._
183.
Two sources of success are known: wisdom and effort; make them both thine own, if thou wouldst haply rise.
_Mágha._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
210.