Book of Wise Sayings by W. A. Clouston (best books to read .txt) 📖
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Lavater.
Perfect ignorance is quiet, perfect knowledge is quiet; not so the transition from the former to the latter.
Carlyle.
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.
Fair words without good deeds to a man in misery are like a saddle of gold clapped upon a galled horse.
Chamberlain.
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.
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.
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.
Vociferation and calmness of character seldom meet in the same person.
Lavater.
Wit and wisdom differ. Wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is in bringing about ends.
Selden.
Real and solid happiness springs from moderation.
Goethe.
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.
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.
Hāfiz.
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.
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.
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.*
Akhlak-i-Jalālī.
* See 44.
We should know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble one another.
Goethe.
Root out the love of self, as you might the autumn lotus with your hand.
Buddhist.
Whoever has the seed of virtue and honour implanted in his breast will drop a sympathising tear on the woes of his neighbour.
Nakhshabī.
Do naught to others which, if done to thee, would cause thee pain: this is the sum of duty.*
Mahābhārata.
* Cf. Matt. VII, 12.
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.*
Hitopadesa.
* Cf. Arab proverb: “A dog’s tail never can be made straight.”
The man who cannot blush, and who has no feelings of fear, has reached the acme of impudence.
Menander.
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.
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.
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 Khayyām.
If you only knew the evils which others suffer, you would willingly submit to those which you now bear.
Philemon.
Children form a bond of union than which the human heart finds none more enduring.
Livy.
The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy,
And its best flavour temperance gives to joy.
Juvenal.
To our own sorrows serious heed we give,
But for another’s we soon cease to grieve.
Pindar.
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.
Set about whatever you intend to do; the beginning is half the battle.
Ausonius.
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.
No prince, how great soever, begets his predecessors, and the noblest rivers are not navigable to the fountain.
A. Marvell.
The guilty man may escape, but he cannot be sure of doing so.
Epicurus.
In everything you will find annoyances, but you ought to consider whether the advantages do not predominate.
Menander.
Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have most occupied the thoughts during the day.
Herodotus.
Sleeping, we image what awake we wish;
Dogs dream of bones, and fishermen of fish.*
Cf. Arab proverb: “The dream of the cat is always about mice.”
Theocritus.
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.
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.
From things which have been obtained after having been long desired men almost never derive the pleasure and delight which they had anticipated.
Guicciardini.
Seest thou good days? Prepare for evil times. No summer but hath its winter. He never reaped comfort in adversity that sowed not in prosperity.
Quarles.
Every man knows his own but not others’ defects and miseries; and ’tis the nature of all men still to reflect upon themselves their own misfortunes, not to examine or consider other men’s, not to confer themselves with others; to recount their own miseries but not their good gifts, fortunes, benefits which they have, to ruminate on their adversity, but not once to think on their prosperity, not what they have but what they want.
Burton.
Some people, you would think, are made up of nothing but title and genealogy; the stamp of dignity defaces in them the very character of humanity, and transports them to such a degree of haughtiness that they reckon it below them to exercise good nature or good manners.
L’Estrange.
He alone is poor who does not possess knowledge.
Talmud.
It is not enough to know; we must apply what we know. It is not enough to will; we must also act.
Goethe.
Words of blame from those who are hostile to a great man cannot injure him. The moon is not hurt when barked at by a dog.
Arabic.
The value of three things is justly appreciated by all classes of men: youth, by the old; health, by the diseased; and wealth, by the needy.
Omar Khayyām.
As one might nurse a tiny flame,
The able and far-seeing man,
E’en with the smallest capital,
Can raise himself to wealth.
Buddhist.
By a husband wealth is accumulated; by a wife is its preservation.
Burmese.
It is very hard for the mind to disengage itself from a subject on which it has been long employed. The thoughts will be rising of themselves from time to time, though we have given them no encouragement, as the tossings and fluctuations of the sea continue several hours after the winds are laid.
Addison.
Hypocrisy will serve as well
To propagate a church as zeal;
As persecution and promotion
Do equally advance devotion:
So round white stones will serve, they say,
As well as eggs, to make hens lay.
Butler.
Man differs from other animals particularly in this, that he is imitative, and acquires his rudiments of knowledge in this way; besides, the delight in imitation is universal.
Aristotle.
The hooting fowler seldom takes much game. When a man has a project in his mind, digested and fixed by consideration, it is wise to keep it secret till the time that his designs arrive at their despatch and perfection. He is unwise who brags much either of what he will do or what he shall have, for if what he speaks of fall not out accordingly, instead of applause, a mock and scorn will follow him.
Feltham.
What is the most profitable? Fellowship with the good. What is the worst thing in the world? The society of evil men. What is the greatest loss? Failure in one’s duty. Where is the greatest peace? In truth and righteousness. Who is the hero? The man who subdues his senses. Who is the best beloved? The faithful wife. What is wealth? Knowledge. What is the most perfect happiness? Staying at home.
Bhartrihari.
If a man says that it is right to give every one his due, and therefore thinks within his own mind that injury is due from a just man to his enemies but kindness to his friends, he was not wise who said so, for he spoke not the truth, for in no case has it appeared to be just to injure any one.*
Plato.
* Cf. Matt. V, 43, 44.
Faith is like love, it cannot be forced. Therefore it is a dangerous operation if an attempt be made to introduce or bind it by state regulations; for, as the attempt to force love begets hatred, so also to compel religious belief produces rank unbelief.
Schopenhauer.
We are like vessels tossed on the bosom of the deep; our passions are the winds that sweep us impetuously forward; each pleasure is a rock; the whole life is a wide ocean. Reason is the pilot to guide us, but often allows itself to be led astray by the storms of pride.
Metastasio.
Empty is the house of a childless man; as empty is the mind of a bachelor; empty are all quarters of the world to an ignorant man; but poverty is total emptiness.
Hitopadesa.
The wicked have no stability, for they do not remain in consistency with themselves; they continue friends only for a short time, rejoicing in each other’s wickedness.
Aristotle.
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