Book of Wise Sayings
he that would reform a vice learn to affect its mere contrary, and
in time he shall see the springing blossoms of a happy restoration.
_R. Chamberlain._
341.
The more weakness the more falsehood; strength goes straight: every
cannon ball that has in it hollows and holes goes crooked.
_Richter._
342.
Learning dissipates many doubts, and causes things otherwise
invisible to be seen, and is the eye of everyone who is not
absolutely blind.
_Hitopadesa._
343.
Very distasteful is excessive fame
To the sour palate of the envious mind,
Who hears with grief his neighbours good by name,
And hates the fortune that he ne'er shall find.
_Pindar._
344.
A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this,
that when the injury began on his part the kindness should begin on
ours.
_Tillotson._
345.
Time, which gnaws and diminishes all things else, augments and
increases benefits, because a noble action of liberality done to a
man of reason doth grow continually by his generously thinking of it
and remembering it.
_Rabelais._
346.
Were all thy fond endeavours vain
To chase away the sufferer's smart,
Still hover near, lest absence pain
His lonely heart.
For friendship's tones have kindlier power
Than odorous fruit, or nectared bowl,
To soothe, in sorrow's languid hour,
The sinking soul.
_Sa'di._
347.
The faults of others are easily perceived, but those of oneself are
difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like
chaff, but his own fault he hides as a cheat hides the false dice
from the gamester.
_Dhammapada._
348.
Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to
make a good man.
_Aristotle._
349.
Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked
together in a kind of necessary connection.
_Livy._
350.
Enjoy thou the prosperity of others,
Although thyself unprosperous; noble men
Take pleasure in their neighbours' happiness.
_Mahabharata._
351.
Neither live with a bad man nor be at enmity with him; even as if
you take hold of glowing charcoal it will burn you, if you take hold
of cold charcoal it will soil you.
_Buddhist._
352.
In the sandal-tree are serpents, in the water lotus flowers, but
crocodiles also; even virtues are marred by the vicious--in all
enjoyments there is something which impairs our happiness.
_Hitopadesa._
353.
There is no pleasure of life sprouting like a tree from one root but
there is some pain joined to it; and again nature brings good out of
evil.
_Menander._
354.
The manner of giving shows the character of the giver more than the
gift itself. There is a princely manner of giving and accepting.
_Lavater._
355.
Perfect ignorance is quiet, perfect knowledge is quiet; not so the
transition from the former to the latter.
_Carlyle._
356.
Superstition is the religion of feeble minds; and they must be
tolerated in an admixture of it in some trifling or enthusiastic
shape or other; else you will deprive weak minds of a resource found
necessary to the strongest.
_Burke._
357.
Fair words without good deeds to a man in misery are like a saddle
of gold clapped upon a galled horse.
_Chamberlain._
358.
There is a rabble among the gentry as well as the commonalty; a sort
of plebeian heads whose fancy moves with the same wheel as these
men--in the same level with mechanics, though their fortunes do
sometimes gild their infirmities and their purses compound for their
follies.
_Sir Thomas Browne._
359.
It is a common remark that men talk most who think least; just as
frogs cease their quacking when a light is brought to the
water-side.
_Richter._
360.
Our time is like our money; when we change a guinea the shillings
escape as things of small account; when we break a day by idleness
in the morning, the rest of the hours lose their importance in our
eyes.
_Sir Walter Scott._
361.
Vociferation and calmness of character seldom meet in the same
person.
_Lavater._
362.
Wit and wisdom differ. Wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is in
bringing about ends.
_Selden._
363.
Real and solid happiness springs from moderation.
_Goethe._
364.
In all the world there is no vice
Less prone t'excess than avarice;
It neither cares for food nor clothing:
Nature's content with little, that with nothing.
_Butler._
365.
Beside the streamlet seated, mark how life glides on:
That sign, how swift each moment goes, to me's enough.
Behold this world's delights, and view its various pains:
If not to you, the joy it shows to me's enough.
_Hafiz._
366.
The lake no longer water holds--
Off fly the fowls, the lilies stay:
If friends are friends when wealth is gone,
The lily's constancy they share.
_Hindu Poetess._
367.
Let us be well persuaded that everyone of us possesses happiness in
proportion to his virtue and wisdom, and according as he acts in
obedience to their suggestion.
_Aristotle._
368.
All property which comes to hand by means of violence, or infamy, or
baseness, however large it may be, is tainted and unblest. On the
other hand, whatever is obtained by honest profit, small though it
be, brings a blessing with it.[17]
_Akhlak-i-Jalali._
[17] See 44.
369.
We should know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble
one another.
_Goethe._
370.
Root out the love of self, as you might the autumn lotus with your
hand.
_Buddhist._
371.
Whoever has the seed of virtue and honour implanted in his breast
will drop a sympathising tear on the woes of his neighbour.
_Nakhshabi._
372.
Do naught to others which, if done to thee, would cause thee pain:
this is the sum of duty.[18]
_Mahabharata._
[18] Cf. Matt. VII, 12.
373.
A bad man, though raised to honour, always returns to his natural
course, as a dog's tail, though warmed by the fire and rubbed with
oil, retains its form.[19]
_Hitopadesa._
[19] Cf. Arab proverb: "A dog's tail never can be made
straight."
374.
The man who cannot blush, and who has no feelings of fear, has
reached the acme of impudence.
_Menander._
375.
It is the usual consolation of the envious, if they cannot maintain
their superiority, to represent those by whom they are surpassed as
inferior to some one else.
_Plutarch._
376.
Such as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of
wishes: one links on to another; the whole man is bound in the chain
of wishing for ever.
_Seneca._
377.
I do remember stopping by the way,
To watch a potter thumping his wet clay;
And with its all-obliterated tongue
It murmured, "Gently, brother, gently, pray!"
_Omar Khayyam._
378.
If you only knew the evils which others suffer, you would willingly
submit to those which you now bear.
_Philemon._
379.
Children form a bond of union than which the human heart finds none
more enduring.
_Livy._
380.
The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy,
And its best flavour temperance gives to joy.
_Juvenal._
381.
To our own sorrows serious heed we give,
But for another's we soon cease to grieve.
_Pindar._
382.
Can anything be more absurd than that the nearer we are to our
journey's end, we should lay in the more provision for it?
_Cicero._
383.
Set about whatever you intend to do; the beginning is half the
battle.
_Ausonius._
384.
All smatterers are more brisk and pert
Than those who understand an art;
As little sparkles shine more bright
Than glowing coals that gave them light.
_Butler._
385.
No prince, how great soever, begets his predecessors, and the
noblest rivers are not navigable to the fountain.
_A. Marvell._
386.
The guilty man may escape, but he cannot be sure of doing so.
_Epicurus._
387.
In everything you will find annoyances, but you ought to consider
whether the advantages do not predominate.
_Menander._
388.
Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have
most occupied the thoughts during the day.
_Herodotus._
389.
Sleeping, we image what awake we wish;
Dogs dream of bones, and fishermen of fish.[20]
_Theocritus._
[20] Cf. Arab proverb: "The dream of the cat is always about
mice."
390.
A man who does not endeavour to _seem_ more than he is will
generally be thought nothing of. We habitually make such large
deductions for pretence and imposture that no real merit will stand
against them. It is necessary to set off our good qualities with a
certain air of plausibility and self-importance, as some attention
to fashion is necessary.
_Hazlitt._
391.
There is nothing more beautiful than cheerfulness in an old face,
and among country people it is always a sign of a well-regulated
life.
_Richter._
392.
From things which have been obtained after having been long desired