Book of Wise Sayings by W. A. Clouston (best books to read ever txt) 📕
Sa'dí.
43.
A man who has learnt little grows old like an ox: his flesh grows, but his knowledge does not grow.
Dhammapada.
44.
Unsullied poverty is always happy, while impure wealth brings with it many sorrows.
Chinese.
45.
Both white and black acknowledge women's sway, So much the better and the wiser too, Deeming it most convenient to obey, Or possibly they might their folly rue.[6]
Persian.
[6] Cf. Pope:
Would men but follow what the sex advise, All things would prosper, all the world grow wise.
46.
We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.
Hazlitt.
47.
No one is more profoundly sad than he who laughs too much.
Richter.
48.
The heaven that rolls around cries aloud to you while it displays its eternal beauties, and yet your eyes are fixed upo
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Hitopadesa.
All the blessings of a household come through the wife, therefore should her husband honour her.
Talmud.
Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, but in order that we might see how much the author knows.
Goethe.
All that is old is not therefore necessarily excellent; all that is new is not despicable on that account alone. Let what is really meritorious be pronounced so by the candid judge after due investigation; blockheads alone are influenced by the opinion of others.
Hindu Drama.
One of the diseases of this age is the multitude of books. It is a thriftless and a thankless occupation, this writing of books: a man were better to sing in a cobbler’s shop, for his pay is a penny a patch; but a book-writer, if he get sometimes a few commendations from the judicious, he shall be sure to reap a thousand reproaches from the malicious.
Barnaby Rich.
We rather confess our moral errors, faults, and crimes than our ignorance.
Goethe.
The angel grows up in divine knowledge, the brute, in savage ignorance, and the son of man stands hesitating between the two.
Persian.
She is a wife who is notable in her house; she is a wife who beareth children; she is a wife whose husband is as her life; she is a wife who is obedient to her lord. The wife is half the man; a wife is man’s dearest friend; a wife is the source of his religion, his worldly profit, and his love. He who hath a wife maketh offerings in his house. Those who have wives are blest with good fortune. Wives are friends, who, by their kind and gentle speech, soothe you in your retirement. In your distresses they are as mothers, and they are refreshment to those who are travellers in the rugged paths of life.
Mahābhārata.
He that is ambitious of fame destroys it. He that increaseth not his knowledge diminishes it. He that uses the crown of learning as an instrument of gain will pass away.
Talmud.
While the slightest inconveniences of the great are magnified into calamities, while tragedy mouths out their sufferings in all the strains of eloquence, the miseries of the poor are entirely disregarded; and yet some of the lower ranks of people undergo more real hardships in one day than those of a more exalted station suffer in their whole lives.
Goldsmith.
It is impossible for those who are engaged in low and grovelling pursuits to entertain noble and generous sentiments. Their thoughts must always necessarily be somewhat similar to their employments.
Demosthenes.
The interval is immense between corporeal qualifications and sciences: the body in a moment is extinct, but knowledge endureth to the end of time.
Hitopadesa.
If thou lackest knowledge, what hast thou then acquired? Hast thou acquired knowledge, what else dost thou want?
Talmud.
Be modest and simple in your deportment, and treat with indifference whatever lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race; obey God.
Marcus Aurelius.
Bootless grief hurts a man’s self, but patience makes a jest of an injury.
R. Chamberlain.
Poverty without debt is independence.
Arabic.
Just as the track of birds that cleave the air
Is not discovered, nor yet the path of fish
That skim the water, so the course of those
Who do good actions is not always seen.
Mahābhārata.
He who has wealth has friends; he who has wealth has relations; he who has wealth is a hero among the people; he who has wealth is even a sage.
Hitopadesa.
Like a beautiful flower, full of colour but without scent, are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly.
Dhammapada.
When men are doubtful of the true state of things, their wishes lead them to believe in what is most agreeable.
Arrianus.
Most men the good they have despise,
And blessings which they have not prize:
In winter, wish for summer’s glow,
In summer, long for winter’s snow.
Sanskrit.
The best conduct a man can adopt is that which gains him the esteem of others without depriving him of his own.
Talmud.
Whoso associates with the wicked will be accused of following their ways, though their principles may have made no impression upon him; just as if a person were in the habit of frequenting a tavern, he would not be supposed to go there for prayer, but to drink intoxicating liquor.
Sa’dī.
The loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have not regarded its tenure as secure.
Goethe.
The dull-hued turkey apes the gait
Of lordly peacock, richly plumed;
And thus the poetaster shows
When he would fain his verse recite.
Hindu Poetess.
Knowledge acquired by a man of low degree places him on a level with a prince, as a small river attains the irremeable ocean; and his fortune is then exalted.
Hitopadesa.
An evil-minded man is quick to see
His neighbour’s faults, though small as mustard seed;
But when he turns his eyes towards his own,
Though large as bilva fruit, he none descries.
Mahābhārata.
Two persons die remorseful: he who possessed and enjoyed not, and he who knew but did not practise.
Sa’dī.
With regard to a secret divulged and kept concealed, there is an excellent proverb, that the one is an arrow still in our possession, the other is an arrow sent from the bow.
Jāmī.
The thing we want eludes our grasp,
Some other thing is given; sometimes
Our wish is gained, and gifts unsought
Are ours; these all are God’s own work.
Hindu Poetess.
If a man conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greater of conquerors.*
Dhammapada.
* Cf. Prov. XVI, 32.
The man who is in the highest state of prosperity, and who thinks his fortune is most secure, knows not if it will remain unchanged till the evening.
Demosthenes.
Amongst all possessions knowledge appears pre-eminent. The wise call it supreme riches, because it can never be lost, has no price, and can at no time be destroyed.
Hitopadesa.
The shadows of the mind are like those of the body. In the morning of life they all lie behind us, at noon we trample them under foot, and in the evening they stretch long, broad, and deepening before us.
Longfellow.
He who is full of faith and modesty, who shrinks from sin, and is full of learning, who is diligent, unremiss, and full of understanding—he, being replete with these seven things, is esteemed a wise man.
Burmese.
If your foot slip, you may recover your balance, but if your tongue slip, you cannot recall your words.
Telugu.
A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as the hollow mountain returns all sounds.
Chinese.
Women are ever masters when they like,
And cozen with their kindness; they have spells
Superior to the wand of the magicians;
And from their lips the words of wisdom fall,
Like softest music on the listening ear.
Firdausī.
A man cannot possess anything that is better than a good wife, or anything that is worse than a bad one.
Simonides.
The wife of bad conduct—constantly pleased with quarrelling—she is known by wise men to be cruel Old Age in the form of a wife.
Panchatantra.
I have often thought that the cause of men’s good or ill fortune depends on whether they make their actions fit with the times. A man having prospered by one mode of acting can never be persuaded that it may be well for him to act differently, whence it is that a man’s Fortune varies, because she changes her times and he does not his ways.
Machiavelli.
By nature all men are alike, but by education very different.
Chinese.
Whilom, ere youth’s conceit had waned, methought
Answers to all life’s problems I had wrought;
But now, grown old and wise, too late I see
My life is spent, and all my lore is nought.
Omar Khayyām.
Weak men gain their object when allied with strong associates: the brook reaches the ocean by the river’s aid.
Māgha.
A swan is out of place among crows, a lion among bulls, a horse among asses, and a wise man among fools.
Burmese.
Whosoever does not persecute them that persecute him; whosoever takes an offence in silence; he who does good because of love; he who is cheerful under his sufferings—these are the friends of God, and of them the Scripture says, “They shall shine forth like the sun at noontide.”
Talmud.
It is intolerable that a silly fool, with nothing but empty birth to boast of, should in his insolence array himself in the merits of others, and vaunt an honour which does not belong to him.
Boileau.
Ask not a man who his father was but make trial of his qualities, and then conciliate or reject him accordingly. For it is no disgrace to new wine, if only it be sweet, as to its taste, that it was the juice [or daughter] of sour grapes.
Arabic.
The sun opens the lotuses, the moon illumines the beds of water-lilies, the cloud pours forth its water unasked: even so the liberal of their own accord are occupied in benefiting others.
Bhartrihari.
We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth.
Goethe.
Men are so simple, and yield so much to necessity, that he who will deceive may always find him that will lend himself to be deceived.
Machiavelli.
Obstinate silence implies either a mean opinion of ourselves, or a contempt for our company; and it is the more provoking, as others do not know to which of these causes to attribute it—whether humility or pride.
Hazlitt.
If thou desire not to be poor, desire not to be too rich. He is rich, not that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is poor, not that enjoys little, but he that wants too much. The contented mind wants nothing which it hath not; the covetous mind wants, not only what it hath not, but likewise what it hath.
Quarles.
Those noble men who falsehood dread
In wealth and glory ever grow,
As flames with greater brightness glow
With oil in ceaseless flow when fed.
But like to flames with water drenched,
Which, faintly flickering, die away,
So liars day by day decay,
Till all their lustre soon is quenched.
Sanskrit.
Watch over thy expenditure, for he who through vain glory spendeth uselessly what he hath on empty follies, will receive neither return nor praise from anyone.
Firdausī.
If thou art a man, speak not much about thine own manliness, for not
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