Part 5
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'dí._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
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'dí._
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'dí._
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.
_Bháravi._
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 Bruyère._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
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 Bruyère._
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 Bruyère._
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?
_Mahábhárata._
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.
_Firdausí._
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'dí._[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.
_Nakhshabí._
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 incensèd 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.
_Mahábhárata._
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 Khayyám._
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.
_Firdausí._
532.
Virtue beameth from a generous spirit as light from the moon, or as brilliancy from Jupiter.
_Nizámí._
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 Bruyère._
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.
_Mahábhárata._
[29] Cf. Matt. VII, 14.
544.
Eschew that friend, if thou art wise, who consorts with thy enemies.
_Sa'dí._
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'dí._
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 Khayyám._
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.