Book of Wise Sayings | Page 3

striking.[2]
Mahábhárata.
[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 Khayyám.
20.
In no wise ask about the faults of others, for he who reporteth the faults of others will report thine also.
Firdausí.
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.
Bháravi.
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]
Mahábhárata.
[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'dí.
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