Book of Wise Sayings
_Goethe._
254.
If with a stranger thou discourse, first learn,
By strictest observation, to discern
If he be wiser than thyself, if so,
Be dumb, and rather choose by him to know;
But if thyself perchance the wiser be,
Then do thou speak, that he may learn by thee.
_Randolph._
255.
Being continually in people's sight, by the satiety which it
creates, diminishes the reverence felt for great characters.
_Livy._
256.
There is a great difference between one who can feel ashamed before
his own soul and one who is only ashamed before his fellow men.
_Talmud._
257.
By rousing himself, by earnestness, by restraint and control the
wise man may make for himself an island which no flood can
overwhelm.
_Dhammapada._
258.
The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to
think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities
they will not complain of the want of them in us.
_Hazlitt._
259.
To form a judgment intuitively is the privilege of few; authority
and example lead the rest of the world. They see with the eyes of
others, they hear with the ears of others. Therefore it is very easy
to think as all the world now think; but to think as all the world
will think thirty years hence is not in the power of every one.
_Schopenhauer._
260.
Poesy is a beauteous damsel, chaste, honourable, discreet, witty,
retired, and who keeps herself within the limits of propriety. She
is a friend of solitude; fountains entertain her, meadows console
her, woods free her from ennui, flowers delight her; in short, she
gives pleasure and instruction to all with whom she communicates.
_Cervantes._
261.
How can we learn to know ourselves? By reflection, never, but by our
actions. Attempt to do your duty, and you will immediately find what
is in you.
_Goethe._
262.
Man is supreme lord and master
Of his own ruin and disaster,
Controls his fate, but nothing less
In ordering his own happiness:
For all his care and providence
Is too feeble a defence
To render it secure and certain
Against the injuries of Fortune;
And oft, in spite of all his wit,
Is lost by one unlucky hit,
And ruined with a circumstance,
And mere punctilio of a chance.
_Butler._
263.
There is nothing in this world which a resolute man, who exerts
himself, cannot attain.
_Somadeva._
264.
Ere need be shown, some men will act,
As trees may fruit without a flower;
To some you speak with no result,
As seeds may die, and yield no grain.
_Hindu Poetess._
265.
Seven things characterise the wise man, and seven the blockhead. The
wise man speaks not before those who are his superiors, either in
age or wisdom. He interrupts not others in the midst of their
discourse. He replies not hastily. His questions are relevant to the
subject, his answers, to the purpose. In delivering his sentiments
he taketh the first in order first, the last, last. What he
understands not he says, "I understand not." He acknowledges his
error, and is open to conviction. The reverse of all this
characterises the blockhead.
_Talmud._
266.
How absolute and omnipotent is the silence of the night! And yet the
stillness seems almost audible. From all the measureless depths of
air around us comes a half sound, a half whisper, as if we could
hear the crumbling and falling away of the earth and all created
things in the great miracle of nature--decay and reproduction--ever
beginning, never ending--the gradual lapse and running of the sand
in the great hour-glass of Time.
_Longfellow._
267.
What avails your wealth, if it makes you arrogant to the poor?
_Arabic._
268.
All confidence is dangerous unless it is complete; there are few
circumstances in which it is not better either to hide all or to
tell all.
_La Bruyere._
269.
It is well that there is no one without a fault, for he would not
have a friend in the world: he would seem to belong to a different
species.
_Hazlitt._
270.
The mind alike,
Vigorous or weak, is capable of culture,
But still bears fruit according to its nature.
'Tis not the teacher's skill that rears the scholar:
The sparkling gem gives back the glorious radiance
It drinks from other light, but the dull earth
Absorbs the blaze, and yields no gleam again.
_Bhavabhuti._
271.
One man envies the success in life of another, and hates him in
secret; nor is he willing to give him good advice when he is
consulted, except it be by some wonderful effort of good feeling,
and there are, alas, few such men in the world. A real friend, on
the other hand, exults in his friend's happiness, rejoices in all
his joys, and is ready to afford him the best advice.
_Herodotus._
272.
This body is a tent which for a space
Does the pure soul with kingly presence grace;
When he departs, comes the tent-pitcher, Death,
Strikes it, and moves to a new halting-place.
_Omar Khayyam._
273.
Speak but little, and that little only when thy own purposes require
it. Heaven has given thee two ears but only one tongue, which means:
listen to two things, but be not the first to propose one.
_Hafiz._
274.
The natural hostility of beasts is laid aside when flying from
pursuers; so also when danger is impending the enmity of rivals is
ended.
_Bharavi._
275.
He who toils with pain will eat with pleasure.
_Chinese._
276.
A day of fortune is like a harvest-day, we must be busy when the
corn is ripe.
_Goethe._
277.
The fame of good men's actions seldom goes beyond their own doors,
but their evil deeds are carried a thousand miles' distance.
_Chinese._
278.
A subtle-witted man is like an arrow, which, rending little surface,
enters deeply, but they whose minds are dull resemble stones dashing
with clumsy force, but never piercing.
_Magha._
279.
It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in, and
flighty, rushing wheresoever it listeth: a tamed mind brings
blessings.
_Dhammapada._
280.
The man who every sacred science knows,
Yet has not strength to keep in check the foes
That rise within him, mars his Fortune's fame,
And brings her by his feebleness to shame.
_Bharavi._
281.
What a rich man gives and what he consumes, that is his real worth.
_Hitopadesa._
282.
He who does not think too much of himself is much more esteemed than
he imagines.
_Goethe._
283.
It is a kind of policy in these days to prefix a fantastical title
to a book which is to be sold; for as larks come down to a day-net,
many vain readers will tarry and stand gazing, like silly
passengers, at an antic picture in a painter's shop that will not
look at a judicious piece.
_Burton._
284.
With many readers brilliancy of style passes for affluence of
thought: they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable gold
mines under the ground.
_Longfellow._
285.
The doctrine that enters only into the ear is like the repast one
takes in a dream.
_Chinese._
286.
Adorn thy mind with knowledge, for knowledge maketh thy worth.
_Firdausi._
287.
Men hail the rising sun with glee,
They love his setting glow to see,
But fail to mark that every day
In fragments bears their life away.
All Nature's face delight to view,
As changing seasons come anew;
None sees how each revolving year
Abridges swiftly man's career.
_Ramayana._
288.
The good man shuns evil and follows good; he keeps secret that which
ought to be hidden; he makes his virtues manifest to all; he does
not forsake one in adversity; he gives in season: such are the marks
of a worthy friend.
_Bhartrihari._
289.
No one hath come into the world for a continuance save him who
leaveth behind him a good name.[11]
_Sa'di._
[11] Cf. 29.
290.
Gross ignorance produces a dogmatic spirit. He who knows nothing
thinks he can teach others what he has himself just been learning.
He who knows much scarcely believes that what he is saying is
unknown to others, and consequently speaks with more hesitation.
_La Bruyere._
291.
When you see a man elated with pride, glorying in his riches and
high descent, rising even above fortune, look out for his speedy
punishment; for he is only raised the higher that he may fall with a
heavier crash.
_Menander._
292.
The ridiculous is produced by any defect that is unattended by pain,
or fatal consequences; thus, an ugly and deformed countenance does
not fail to cause laughter, if it is not occasioned by pain.
_Aristotle._
293.
Happy the man who early learns the difference between his wishes and
his powers.
_Goethe._
294.
There is nothing more pitiable in the world than an irresolute man
vacillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two,
and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them.
_Goethe._
295.
Beauty in a modest woman is like fire at a distance, or like a sharp
sword: neither doth the one burn nor the other wound him that comes
not too near them.
_Cervantes._
296.
We are more sociable and get on better with people by the heart than
the intellect.
_La Bruyere._
297.
A good man may fall, but he falls like a ball [and rebounds]; the
ignoble man falls like a lump of clay.
_Bhartrihari._
298.
Do not anxiously expect what is not yet come; do not vainly regret
what is already past.