Book of Wise Sayings by W. A. Clouston (best books to read .txt) š
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Theophrastus.
Do not consider any vice as trivial, and therefore practise it; do not consider any virtue as unimportant, and therefore neglect it.
Chinese.
To bad as well as good, to all,
A generous man compassion shows;
On earth no mortal lives, he knows,
Who does not oft through weakness fall.
RÄmÄyana.
The good extend their loving care
To men, however mean or vile;
Eāen base ChĆ”ndĆ”lasā* dwellings share
Thā impartial sunbeamās silver smile.
Hitopadesa.
* ChƔndƔlas, or Pariahs, are the lowest, or of no caste.
Let a man accept with confidence valuable knowledge even from a person of low degree, good instruction regarding duty even from a humble man, and a jewel of a wife even from an ignoble family.
Manu.
We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.
Goethe.
The friendships formed between good and evil men differ. The friendship of the good, at first faint like the morning light, continually increases; the friendship of the evil at the very beginning is like the light of midday, and dies away like the light of evening.*
Bhartrihari.
* In many parts of the East there is practically no twilight.
A hundred long leagues is no distance for him who would quench the thirst of covetousness; but a contented mind has no solicitude for grasping wealth.
Hitopadesa.
The noble-minded dedicate themselves to the promotion of the happiness of othersāeven of those who injure them. True happiness consists in making happy.
BhÄravi.
A benefit given to the good is like characters engraven on a stone; a benefit given to the evil is like a line drawn on water.
Buddhist.
The undertaking of a careless man succeeds not, though he use the right expedients: a clever hunter, though well placed in ambush, kills not his quarry if he falls asleep.
BhÄravi.
All love, at first, like generous wine,
Ferments and frets until ātis fine;
But when ātis settled on the lee,
And from thā impurer matter free,
Becomes the richer still the older,
And proves the pleasanter the colder.
Butler.
Safe in thy breast close lock up thy intents,
For he that knows thy purpose best prevents.
Randolph.
Frugality should ever be practised, but not excessive parsimony.
Hitopadesa.
He who receives a favour must retain a recollection of it for all time to come; but he who confers should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid and ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred on him, and to talk of it, is little different from a reproach.
Demosthenes.
Pride not thyself on thy religious works,
Give to the poor, but talk not of thy gifts:
By pride religious merit melts away,
The merit of thy alms, by ostentation.
Manu.
The empty beds of rivers fill again;
Trees leafless now renew their vernal bloom;
Returning moons their lustrous phase resume;
But man a second youth expects in vain.*
Somadeva.
* Cf. Job, XIV, 7.
Shall He to thee His aid refuse
Who clothes the swan in dazzling white,
Who robes in green the parrot bright,
The peacocks decks in rainbow hues?*
Hitopadesa.
Cf. Matt. VI, 25, 26.
A bad man is as much pleased as a good man is distressed to speak ill of others.
MahÄbhÄrata.
Every bird has its decoy, and every man is led and misled in his own peculiar way.
Goethe.
There is such a grateful tickling in the mind of man in being commended that even when we know the praises which are bestowed on us are not our due, we are not angry with the authorās insincerity.
Feltham.
Too much to lament a misery is the next way to draw on a remediless mischief.
R. Chamberlain.
There is no remembrance which time doth not obliterate, nor pain which death doth not put an end to.
Cervantes.
Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.
Longfellow.
Plans that are wise and prudent in themselves are rendered vain when the execution of them is carried on negligently and with imprudence.
Guicciardini.
Every man stamps his value on himself. The price we challenge for ourselves is given us. Man is made great or little by his own will.
Schiller.
Hath any wronged thee, be bravely revenged. Slight it, and the workās begun; forgive it, and ātis finished. He is below himself that is not above an injury.
Quarles.
As gold is tried by the furnace, and the baser metal shown, so the hollow-hearted friend is known by adversity.
Metastasio.
The rose does not bloom without thorns. True, but would that the thorns did not outlive the rose.
Richter.
Truth from the mouth of an honest man and severity from a good-natured man have a double effect.
Hazlitt.
Most virgins marry, just as nuns
The same thing the same way renounce;
Before theyāve wit to understand
The bold attempt, they take in hand;
Or, having stayed and lost their tides,
Are out of season grown for brides.
Butler.
The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.
Johnson.
In all things, to serve from the lowest station upwards is necessary. To restrict yourself to a trade is best. For the narrow mind, whatever he attempts is still a trade; for the higher, an art; and the highest in doing one thing does all, or, to speak less paradoxically, in the one thing which he does rightly he sees the likeness of all that is done rightly.
Goethe.
Misanthropy ariseth from a man trusting another without having sufficient knowledge of his character, and, thinking him to be truthful, sincere, and honourable, finds a little afterwards that he is wicked, faithless, and then he meets with another of the same character. When a man experiences this often, and more particularly from those whom he considered his most dear and best friends, at last, having frequently made a slip, he hates the whole world, and thinks that there is nothing sound at all in any of them.
Plato.
Pleasure, most often delusive, may be born of delusion. Pleasure, herself a sorceress, may pitch her tents on enchanted ground. But happiness (or, to use a more accurate and comprehensive term, solid well-being) can be built on virtue alone, and must of necessity have truth for its foundation.
Coleridge.
Entangled in a hundred worldly snares,
Self-seeking men, by ignorance deluded,
Strive by unrighteous means to pile up riches.
Then, in their self-complacency, they say,
āThis acquisition I have made to-day,
That will I gain to-morrow, so much pelf
Is hoarded up already, so much more
Remains that I have yet to treasure up.
This enemy I have destroyed, him also,
And others in their turn, I will despatch.
I am a lord; I will enjoy myself;
Iām wealthy, noble, strong, successful, happy;
Iām absolutely perfect; no one else
In all the world can be compared to me.
Now will I offer up a sacrifice,
Give gifts with lavish hand, and be triumphant.ā
Such men, befooled by endless vain conceits,
Caught in the meshes of the worldās illusion,
Immersed in sensuality, descend
Down to the foulest hell of unclean spirits.*
MahÄbhÄrata.
* Cf. Luke, XII, 17-20; see also 291.
There needs no other charm, nor conjuror,
To raise infernal spirits up, but Fear,
That makes men pull their horns in, like a snail,
Thatās both a prisoner to itself and jail;
Draws more fantastic shapes than in the grains
Of knotted wood, in some menās crazy brains,
When all the cocks they think they are, and bulls,
Are only in the insides of their skulls.
Butler.
He that rectifies a crooked stick bends it the contrary way, so must 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.
The more weakness the more falsehood; strength goes straight: every cannon ball that has in it hollows and holes goes crooked.
Richter.
Learning dissipates many doubts, and causes things otherwise invisible to be seen, and is the eye of everyone who is not absolutely blind.
Hitopadesa.
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 neāer shall find.
Pindar.
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.
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.
Were all thy fond endeavours vain
To chase away the suffererās smart,
Still hover near, lest absence pain
His lonely heart.
For friendshipās tones have kindlier power
Than odorous fruit, or nectared bowl,
To soothe, in sorrowās languid hour,
The sinking soul.
SaādÄ«.
The faults of others are easily perceived, but those of oneself are difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbourās faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides as a cheat hides the false dice from the gamester.
Dhammapada.
Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to make a good man.
Aristotle.
Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection.
Livy.
Enjoy thou the prosperity of others,
Although thyself unprosperous; noble men
Take pleasure in their neighboursā happiness.
MahÄbhÄrata.
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.
In the sandal-tree are serpents, in the water lotus flowers, but crocodiles also; even virtues are marred by the viciousāin all enjoyments there is something which impairs our happiness.
Hitopadesa.
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.
The manner
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