Book of Wise Sayings by W. A. Clouston (best books to read .txt) 📖
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R. Chamberlain.
Poverty is not dishonourable in itself, but only when it arises from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.
Plutarch.
Do nothing rashly; want of circumspection is the chief cause of failure and disaster. Fortune, wise lover of the wise, selects him for her lord who ere he acts reflects.
Bhāravi.
First think, and if thy thoughts approve thy will,
Then speak, and after, what thou speak’st fulfil.
Randolph.
It cannot but be injurious to the human mind never to be called into effort: the habit of receiving pleasure without any exertion of thought, by the mere excitement of curiosity, and sensibility, may be justly ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel-reading.
Coleridge.
Patience is the chiefest fruit of study; a man that strives to make himself different from other men by much reading gains this chiefest good, that in all fortunes he hath something to entertain and comfort himself withal.
Selden.
Friendship throws a greater lustre on prosperity, while it lightens adversity by sharing in its griefs and troubles.
Cicero.
There is nothing more becoming a wise man than to make choice of friends, for by them thou shalt be judged what thou art. Let them therefore be wise and virtuous, and none of those that follow thee for gain; but make election rather of thy betters than thy inferiors; shunning always such as are poor and needy, for if thou givest twenty gifts and refuse to do the like but once, all that thou hast done will be lost, and such men will become thy mortal enemies.
Sir W. Raleigh, to his Son.
Learning is like Scanderbeg’s sword, either good or bad according to him who hath it: an excellent weapon, if well used; otherwise, like a sharp razor in the hand of a child.
R. Chamberlain.
The greater part of mankind employ their first years to make their last miserable.
La Bruyère.
I hate the miser, whose unsocial breast
Locks from the world his useless stores.
Wealth by the bounteous only is enjoyed,
Whose treasures, in diffusive good employed,
The rich return of fame and friends procure,
And ’gainst a sad reverse a safe retreat secure.
Pindar.
Wisdom alone is the true and unalloyed coin for which we ought to exchange all things, for this and with this everything is bought and sold—fortitude, temperance, and justice; in a word, true virtue subsists with wisdom.
Plato.
If thou intendest to do a good act, do it quickly, and then thou wilt excite gratitude; a favour if it be slow in being conferred causes ingratitude.
Ausonius.
’Tis those who reverence the old
That are the men versed in the Faith;
Worthy of praise while in this life,
And happy in the life to come.
Buddhist.
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.
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.
Mahābhārata.
Let him take heart who does advance, even in the smallest degree.
Plato.
A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.*
Chinese.
* Cf. Pope, in his Epitaph on the poet Gay:
Of manners gentle, of affections mild;
In wit a man, simplicity, a child.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When men will not be reasoned out of a vanity, they must be ridiculed out of it.
L’Estrange.
Women are ever in extremes, they are either better or worse than men.
La Bruyère.
An absent friend gives us friendly company when we are well assured of his happiness.
Goethe.
The man of worth is really great without being proud; the mean man is proud without being really great.
Chinese.
Liberality consists less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.
La Bruyère.
Outward perfection without inward goodness sets but the blacker dye on the mind’s deformity.
R. Chamberlain.
As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, so wise men falter not amidst blame or praise.
Dhammapada.
Of what avail is the praise or censure of the vulgar, who make a useless noise like a senseless crow in a forest?
Mahābhārata.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Firdausī.
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’dī.*
* See also 429, 453.
Let every man sweep the snow from before his own doors, and not busy himself about the frost on his neighbour’s tiles.
Chinese.
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.
Women’s wealth is beauty, learning, that of men.
Burmese.
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.
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.
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.
Nakhshabī.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reprove not in their wrath incensèd 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.
It is not flesh and blood, it is the heart, that makes fathers and sons.
Schiller.
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.
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.
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.
Happy the man who lives at home, making it his business to regulate his desires.
La Fontaine.
It is true that men are no fit judges of themselves, because commonly they
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