Book of Wise Sayings
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