Book of Wise Sayings | Page 8

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