The Good Book (73 page)

  2. They who have lost their credit are dead to the world.

  3. They pay severely who require credit.

  4. No man ever lost credit but he who had none to begin with.

  5. The poor have no credit.

  6. Who loses credit has nothing else to lose.

Chapter 43: Crime

  1. Crimes may be secret, but are never secure.

  2. They act the third crime who defend the first.

  3. They who do what they should not, will feel what they would not.

  4. The contagion of crime is like the plague.

  5. We easily forget crimes known only to ourselves.

  6. One may thrive on crime, but not for long.

  7. Crime needs crime to conceal it.

  8. To share your friend’s crime is to make it your own.

  9. No crime is founded on reason.

10. Criminals are punished to amend others.

11. No one lives who is without a crime.

12. Successful crime is called virtue.

13. Who is content with one crime only?

14. Who profits from a crime commits the crime.

Chapter 44: Custom

  1. Custom is the plague of the wise and the idol of fools.

  2. Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the grave.

  3. Custom reconciles us to everything.

  4. Tyrant custom makes a slave of reason.

  5. A cake and a bad custom ought to be broken.

  6. Custom is a deceiving schoolteacher.

  7. So many countries, so many customs.

  8. A good custom is surer than law.

  9. Choose the best; custom will make it easy.

10. We care more about what is done against custom than against nature.

Chapter 45: Danger

  1. Who loves danger will perish by it.

  2. As soon as there is life there is danger.

  3. Danger and delight grow on one stalk.

  4. Danger is next neighbour to security.

  5. Danger is the best remedy for danger.

  6. Danger is the spur of great minds.

  7. Danger will wink at opportunity.

  8. Dangers bring fears, fears bring more dangers.

  9. Dangers foreseen are soonest prevented.

10. Who fears danger in time seldom feels it.

11. They that would sail without danger will never go to sea.

12. If the danger seems slight, time to beware.

13. There is no one who is not dangerous to someone.

14. No danger, no glory.

15. Danger comes the sooner when despised.

16. They are happy whom others’ perils make wary.

17. Who dares dangers overcomes them before incurring them.

18. The danger that is nearest we least dread.

19. Without danger the game is cold.

20. Fear the goat from the front, the horse from behind, and human beings all round.

21. One who would scratch a bear must have iron nails.

Chapter 46: Death

  1. Few have luck, all have death.

  2. The dead feel no cold.

  3. The deathbed reveals the heart.

  4. The dying can do nothing easy.

  5. A good death honours a whole life.

  6. Gentle death is the ebb of care.

  7. Death has many doors to let out life.

  8. Death is only an incident in life.

  9. Death makes high and low equal.

10. Death is the period of all pain.

11. Death opens the gate of fame and shuts the gate of envy.

12. Death takes no bribes.

13. Death will seize the doctor too.

14. Happy are they who die before they call for death.

15. Who fears death lives not.

16. They that once are born, once must die.

17. How sweet is death to those who weep.

18. It is as natural to die as to be born.

19. It is not death but dying which is terrible.

20. Peace, rest and sleep are all we know of death.

21. The dead are soon forgotten.

22. The dead have few friends.

23. The doors of death are always open.

24. To be content with death is better than to desire it.

25. To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.

26. We weep when we are born, not when we die.

27. Death pays all debts.

28. It is only the dead who do not return.

29. There is no dying by proxy.

30. To die quickly is a privilege.

31. All men are born richer than they die.

32. It is not death but a shameful death that is dreadful.

33. The whole earth is a sepulchre for the famous.

34. To die well is a chief part of virtue.

35. It takes four of the living to carry one dead from the house.

36. Death is rest from labour and misery.

37. Death is sometimes a gift.

38. Death overtakes all who flee.

39. They have gone to the majority.

40. It is uncertain where death awaits you, so expect it everywhere.

41. The fear of death is worse than death.

42. The life of the dead is in the memory of the living.

43. The earth rests lightly on those on whom life lay heavily.

44. There is a remedy for everything but death.

45. A good death is better than a bad life.

46. Death reveals truth.

47. The young might, the old must.

Chapter 47: Debt

  1. Whoever is in debt lives in a net.

  2. A pound of care pays not a penny of debt.

  3. Better to bed supperless than to rise indebted.

  4. Debt is the mother of folly and crime.

  5. Who gets out of debt gets rich.

  6. Industry pays debts, despair increases them.

  7. Loans and debts make worries and frets.

  8. Never spend money before you have it.

  9. Out of debt, out of danger.

10. Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.

11. It is an empty purse which is full of other people’s money.

12. Debt is the worst kind of poverty.

13. They are rich enough who owe nothing.

14. Debts turn the free into slaves.

15. A light debt makes a debtor, a heavy debt makes an enemy.

16. Debt and gratitude are different things.

17. Debt is grievous to an honourable person.

18. The sick sleep, but debtors lie awake.

19. You cannot pay debts with tears.

Chapter 48: Deceit

  1. Deceit invites deceit.

  2. They cry wine and sell vinegar.

  3. If the world will be gulled, must it be gulled?

  4. One dupe is as impossible as one twin.

  5. The easiest person to deceive is oneself.

  6. There is a twofold pleasure in deceiving the deceiving.

  7. Distrust justifies deceit.

  8. One might outwit another, but not all the others.

  9. The surest way to invite deceit is to think oneself cleverer.

10. We are often deceived by what we love.

11. Who would not be deceived must have as many eyes as hairs on his head.

Chapter 49: Deeds

  1. A deed well done pleases the heart.

  2. Better not the deed than to weep it done.

  3. Our deeds shape us as much as we them.

  4. Our deeds are sometimes better than our thoughts.

  5. The reward for a good deed is the deed itself.

  6. The shortest answer is doing.

  7. We know better than we do.

  8. We live in deeds, not years.

  9. Living requires less life than doing.

10. A good person is silent about a good deed.

11. All are the children of their works.

Chapter 50: Delay

  1. Delay is better than disaster.

  2. Delay in revenge gives a heavier blow.

  3. Delay is preferable to error.

  4. Desire is nourished by delay.

  5. We hate delay, yet it makes us wise.

  6. We may delay, but time will not.

  7. Every delay that postpones pleasure is long.

  8. Who delays, gathers.

Chapter 51: Desire

  1. Desire has no rest.

  2. First deserve, then desire.

  3. They begin to die who cease to desire.

  4. Desire often outlives performance.

  5. The fewer desires, the more peace.

  6. We live in our desires, not in our achievements.

  7. People are led by their desires like a horse in halter.

  8. There is no desire for what is unknown.

  9. We most desire what we ought not to have.

Chapter 52: Despair.

  1. Despair is an evil counsellor.

  2. Despair and boldness both banish fear.

  3. Despair ruins some, presumption ruins many.

  4. To despair of winning is to assure defeat.

  5. Despair doubles strength.

  6. Despair often wins battles.

Chapter 53: Difficulty

  1. Who accounts all things easy will have many difficulties.

  2. Everything is difficult before it is easy.

  3. Difficulty is the daughter of idleness.

  4. A difficulty is a light; an impossibility is the sun.

  5. Many things difficult to design are easy in performance.

  6. Nothing is too difficult to a willing mind.

  7. It is difficulties that show what men are.

  8. Even easy things become difficult when done reluctantly.

  9. The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

Chapter 54: Disease

  1. Diseases are the tax on ill pleasures.

  2. A disease will have its course.

  3. Each season has its own disease.

  4. Who was never ill dies the first fit.

  5. Sickness comes on horseback, but goes away on foot.

  6. Sickness is felt, health not at all.

  7. There is no curing the sick who believe themselves well.

  8. No one is ever untouched by disease and sorrow.

  9. Meet the disease on its way.

10. To hide disease is fatal.

11. The beginning of health is to know the disease.

Chapter 55: Doubt

  1. An honest person can never surrender an honest doubt.

  2. Who doubts nothing knows nothing.

  3. The wise are prone to doubt.

Chapter 56: Dreams

  1. All men of action are dreamers.

  2. Foolish people have foolish dreams.

  3. Love’s dreams seldom come true.

  4. None thrive for long on the happiest dreams.

  5. The more people dream, the less they believe.

Chapter 57: Drunkenness

  1. Liquor talks loud when it escapes the jug.

  2. The best cure for drunkenness is to see a drunk.

  3. A drunkard can soon be made to dance.

  4. Let drunkards alone and they will fall by themselves.

  5. What is in the sober person’s heart is on the drunkard’s tongue.

  6. Drunkenness is voluntary madness.

Chapter 58: Eating

  1. One must eat though every tree were a gallows.

  2. Better bide the cook than the doctor.

  3. More have been killed by suppers than cured by doctors.

  4. Eat, and welcome; fast, and heartily welcome.

  5. Eat enough, and it will make you wise.