Book of Wise Sayings by W. A. Clouston (best books to read .txt) 📖
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Demosthenes.
A man ought not to return evil for evil, as many think, since at no time ought we to do an injury to our neighbour.*
Plato.
* Cf. Rom. XII, 19; 1 Thess. V, 15.
In all that belongs to man you cannot find a greater wonder than memory. What a treasury of all things! What a record! What a journal of all! As if provident Nature, because she would have man circumspect, had furnished him with an account-book, to carry always with him. Yet it neither burthens nor takes up room.
Feltham.
He who will not freely and sadly confess that he is much a fool is all a fool.
Fuller.
The man with hoary head is not revered as aged by the gods, but only he who has true knowledge; he, though young, is old.
Manu.
No fathers and mothers think their own children ugly, and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.
Cervantes.
In thy apparel avoid singularity, profuseness, and gaudiness. Be not too early in the fashion, nor too late. Decency is half way between affectation and neglect. The body is the shell of the soul, apparel is the husk of that shell; the husk often tells you what the kernel is.
Quarles.
We have more faith in a well-written romance while we are reading it than in common history. The vividness of the representations in the one case more than counterbalances the mere knowledge of the truth of facts in the other.
Hazlitt.
It is easy to lose important opportunities, and difficult to regain them; therefore when they present themselves it is the more necessary to make every effort to retain them.
Guicciardini.
Among wonderful things is a sore-eyed man who is an oculist.
Arabic.
Gold gives the appearance of beauty even to ugliness; but everything becomes frightful with poverty.
Boileau.
When the scale of sensuality bears down that of reason, the baseness of our nature conducts us to most preposterous conclusions.
R. Chamberlain.
Idleness is a great enemy to mankind. There is no friend like energy, for, if you cultivate that, it will never fail.
Bhartrihari.
The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.
Goethe.
We must oblige everybody as much as we can; we have often need of assistance from those inferior to ourselves.
La Fontaine.
We magnify the wealthy man, though his parts be never so poor. The poor man we despise, be he never so well qualified. Gold is the coverlet of imperfections. It is the fool’s curtain, which hides all his defects from the world.
Feltham.
There is nothing more operative than sedulity and diligence. A man would wonder at the mighty things which have been done by degrees and gentle augmentations. Diligence and moderation are the best steps whereby to climb to any excellence, nay, it is rare that there is any other other way.
Feltham.
In sooth, it is a shame to choose rather to be still borrowing in all places, from everybody, than to work and win.
Rabelais.
Behaviour is a mirror in which every one shows his image.
Goethe.
There is nothing more daring than ignorance.
Menander.
It is not easy to stop the fire when the water is at a distance; friends at hand are better than relations afar off.
Chinese.
The lustre of a virtuous character cannot be defaced, nor can the vices of a vicious man ever become lucid. A jewel preserves its lustre, though trodden in the mud, but a brass pot, though placed upon the head, is brass still.
Panchatantra.
Noble birth is an accident of fortune, noble actions characterise the great.
Goldoni.
Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.
Hazlitt.
When anyone is modest, not after praise, but after censure, then he is really so.
Richter.
Experience has always shown, and reason shows, that affairs which depend on many seldom succeed.
Guicciardini.
Give not thy tongue too great a liberty, lest it take thee prisoner. A word unspoken is like thy sword in thy scabbard; if vented, the sword is in another’s hand.* If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.
Quarles.
* Cf. 221; also Metastasio:
Voce dal fuggita
Poi richiamar non vale;
Non si trattien lo strale
Quando dall’ arco uscì.
[The word that once escapes the tongue cannot be recalled; the arrow cannot be detained which has once sped from the bow.]
The old lose one of the greatest privileges of man, for they are no longer judged by their contemporaries.
Goethe.
When the man of a naturally good propensity has much wealth it injures his advancement in wisdom; when a worthless man has much wealth it increases his faults.
Chinese.
In youth a man is deluded by other ideas than those which delude him in middle life, and again in his decay he embraces other ideas.
Mahābhārata.
To consider, Is this man of our own or an alien? is a mark of little-minded persons; but the whole earth is of kin to the generous-hearted.*
Panchatantra.
* Cf. Luke, X, 29, ff.
Skill in advising others is easily attained by men; but to practise righteousness themselves is what only a few can succeed in doing.
Hitopadesa.
Hast thou not perfect excellence, ’tis best
To keep thy tongue in silence, for ’tis this
Which shames a man; as lightness does attest
The nut is empty, nor of value is.
Sa’dī.
Understand a man by his deeds and words; the impressions of others lead to false judgment.
Talmud.
A man of feeble character resembles a reed that bends with every gust of wind.
Māgha.
There is no fire like passion; there is no shark like hatred; there is no snare like folly; there is no torrent like greed.
Dhammapada.
Commit a sin twice, and it will not seem to thee a sin.
Talmud.
Liberality attended with mild language; learning without pride; valour united with mercy; wealth accompanied with a generous contempt of it—these four qualities are with difficulty acquired.
Hitopadesa.
Inquire about your neighbour before you build, and about your companions before you travel.
Arabic.
Though you may yourself abound in treasure, teach your son some handicraft; for a heavy purse of gold and silver may run to waste, but the purse of the artisan’s industry can never get empty.
Sa’dī.
It is an observation no less just than common that there is no stronger test of a man’s real character than power and authority, exciting, as they do, every passion, and discovering every latent vice.
Plutarch.
Rather skin a carcass for pay in the public streets than be idly dependent on charity.
Talmud.
Knowledge produces mildness of speech; mildness of speech, a good character; a good character, wealth; wealth, if virtuous actions attend it, happiness.
Hitopadesa.
O how wonderful is the human voice! It is indeed the organ of the soul. The intellect of man sits enshrined visibly upon his forehead and in his eye; and the heart of man is written upon his countenance. But the soul reveals itself in the voice only, as God revealed himself to the prophet in the still small voice, and in a voice from the Burning Bush. The soul of man is audible, not visible. A sound alone betrays the flowing of the eternal fountain invisible to man.
Longfellow.
Every gift, though small, is in reality great, if it be given with affection.*
Philemon.
* See also 80.
Good words, good deeds, and beautiful expressions
A wise man ever culls from every quarter,
E’en as a gleaner gathers ears of corn.
Mahābhārata.
In poverty and other misfortunes of life men think friends to be their only refuge. The young they keep out of mischief, to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
Aristotle.
Heed not the flatterer’s fulsome talk,
He from thee hopes some trifle to obtain;
Thou wilt, shouldst thou his wishes baulk,
Ten hundred times as much of censure gain.
Sa’dī.
By the fall of water-drops the pot is filled: such is the increase of riches, of knowledge, and of virtue.
Hitopadesa.
We deliberate about the parcels of life, but not about life itself, and so we arrive all unawares at its different epochs, and have the trouble of beginning all again. And so finally it is that we do not walk as men confidently towards death, but let death come suddenly upon us.
Seneca.
It is no very good symptom, either of nations or individuals, that they deal much in vaticination. Happy men are full of the present, for its bounty suffices them; and wise men also, for its duties engage them. Our grand business undoubtedly is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what clearly lies at hand.
Carlyle.
Law does not put the least restraint
Upon our freedom, but maintain’st;
Or, if it does, ’tis for our good,
To give us freer latitude:
For wholesome laws preserve us free,
By stinting of our liberty.
Butler.
It is only necessary to grow old in order to become more indulgent. I see no fault committed that I have not been myself inclined to.
Goethe.
Even a blockhead may respect inspire,
So long as he is suitably attired;
A fool may gain esteem among the wise,
So long as he has sense to hold his tongue.
Hitopadesa.
A wise man should never resolve upon anything, at least, never let the world know his resolution, for if he cannot reach that he is ashamed.*
Selden.
* See 406.
Men’s minds are generally ingenious in palliating guilt in themselves.
Livy.
Prosperity is acquired by exertion, and there is no fruit for him who doth not exert himself: the fawns go not into the mouth of a sleeping lion.
Hitopadesa.
Wickedness, by whomsoever committed, is odious, but most of all in men of learning; for learning is the weapon with which Satan is combated, and when a man is made captive with arms in his hand his shame is more excessive.
Sa’dī.
He that will give himself to all manner of ways to get money may be rich; so he that lets fly all he knows or thinks may by chance be satirically witty. Honesty sometimes keeps a man from growing rich, and civility from being witty.
Selden.
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