The Good Book (78 page)

  5. A proverb is the wit of one and the wisdom of many.

  6. Patch grief with proverbs.

  7. Proverbs lie on the lips of fools.

  8. The wise make proverbs and fools repeat them.

Chapter 125: Prudence

  1. The prudent seldom err.

  2. Commend the sea, but keep ashore.

  3. Who walks barefoot must not plant thorns.

  4. Always have two irons in the fire.

  5. Precaution is better than cure.

  6. Prudence is always in season.

  7. Chance fights on the side of the prudent.

  8. Prudence keeps life safe, but does not always make it happy.

Chapter 126: Reason

  1. Listen to reason, or it will make itself felt.

  2. Reason rules the wise and cudgels the fool.

  3. What reason weaves, passion undoes.

  4. Few have strength enough to follow reason all the way.

  5. Reason does not come before years.

  6. Nothing is lasting when reason does not rule.

  7. Reason is the lamp of life.

  8. Reason panders to will.

Chapter 127: Reputation

  1. A good name keeps its lustre in the dark.

  2. A good reputation is a fair estate.

  3. A wounded reputation is seldom cured.

  4. Better not named than ill spoken of.

Chapter 128: Resolution

  1. Be resolved and the thing is done.

  2. Never tell your resolution beforehand.

  3. Set a stout heart to a steep hill.

Chapter 129: Revenge

  1. Revenge never comes too late.

  2. Those who meditate revenge keep their own wounds green.

  3. They meditate revenge who least complain.

  4. It costs more to revenge injuries than to bear them.

  5. Living well is the best revenge.

  6. The noblest vengeance is to forgive.

  7. Revenge may have leaden feet, but strikes with iron hands.

  8. Revenge is a fruit best left to ripen.

  9. Revenge is a confession of pain.

Chapter 130: Riches

  1. People are rich in proportion to the number of things they do not need.

  2. They are not fit for riches who are afraid to use them.

  3. Where wealth accumulates, people decay.

  4. Better to live rich than die rich.

  5. The rich have no faults.

  6. Riches are got with pain, kept with care, and lost with grief.

  7. Superfluous wealth can only buy superfluities.

  8. The pride of the rich makes the labours of the poor.

  9. The rich person’s wealth is the greatest enemy of his health.

10. Wealth is a good servant and a bad master.

11. Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.

12. Rich people are at home everywhere.

13. A golden bit does not make a better horse.

14. They most enjoy riches who least need them.

15. The foolish sayings of the rich pass for wisdom.

Chapter 131: Right

  1. Right wrongs no one.

  2. The greatest right is the right to be wrong.

  3. We are not satisfied to be right unless we prove others to be wrong.

  4. Better do right without thanks than wrong without punishment.

Chapter 132: Self-control

  1. They are strong who conquer others, they are mighty who conquer themselves.

  2. Few are fit to be entrusted to themselves.

Chapter 133: Shame

  1. Shame lasts longer than poverty.

  2. Where there is shame, in time there may be grace.

  3. Who is lost to shame is lost.

  4. Who has no shame owns the world.

  5. In the land of the naked, clothes make shame.

Chapter 134: Silence

  1. Speech is often repented, silence rarely.

  2. Even silence may be eloquent.

  3. He is not a fool who knows how to keep silent.

  4. Silence catches a mouse.

  5. The wise say nothing in dangerous times.

  6. The silence of the people is a warning to the king.

  7. Beware a silent dog and still water.

  8. Silence is strength.

  9. Silent people are dangerous.

Chapter 135: Success

  1. Life begins only in success.

  2. Nothing is so impudent as success.

  3. Success alters manners.

  4. Success is never blamed.

  5. Success is the child of audacity.

  6. Success makes a fool seem wise.

  7. Many fail where one succeeds.

  8. Success has many friends.

Chapter 136: Teaching

  1. Better untaught than ill taught.

  2. They teach ill who teach all.

  3. Let them love the doctrine for the teacher’s sake.

  4. To teach is to learn.

Chapter 137: Temptation

  1. An open box tempts an honest person.

  2. A bad padlock invites a picklock.

  3. I was taken by a morsel, says the fish.

  4. It is easy to keep a castle that was never assaulted.

  5. Do not tempt a desperate person.

  6. The less the temptation, the greater the crime.

  7. Who is worse, tempter or tempted?

Chapter 138: Thieves

  1. A thief thinks everyone steals.

  2. A thief knows a thief as a wolf knows a wolf.

  3. The thief is a gentleman when stealing has made him rich.

  4. Call someone a thief and he will steal.

  5. They that will steal an egg will steal an ox.

  6. Little thieves are hanged, but great ones escape.

  7. To make thieves honest, trust them.

Chapter 139: Thought

  1. A moment’s thinking is an hour in words.

  2. A thought can take you prisoner.

  3. If people thought more they would act less.

  4. Think today, speak tomorrow.

  5. There is no harvest of thought without a seed-time of character.

  6. Our thoughts are often worse than we are.

  7. A human is merely a reed, the weakest in nature; but a thinking reed.

Chapter 140: Time

  1. Time subdues all things.

  2. An inch of time cannot be bought by an inch of gold.

  3. There is a time to fish, and a time to dry nets.

  4. A little time is enough to hatch a great mischief.

  5. As well have no time as make no good use of it.

  6. Present time lost is all time lost.

  7. Lost time is never found.

  8. Nothing treads so silently as the foot of time.

  9. In time the savage bull bears the yoke.

10. Time flies but leaves its shadow.

11. Time has a taming hand.

12. Time heals sorrow.

13. Time is the rider that breaks youth.

14. Time wasted is existence, time used is life.

15. To choose time is to save time.

16. Those who use time worst most complain of its brevity.

17. Time is the wisest of all counsellors.

18. There is no appeal from time past.

Chapter 141: Truth

  1. Truth is often paradoxical.

  2. Better suffer for truth than prosper by falsehood.

  3. To withhold truth is to bury gold.

  4. All great truths begin as blasphemies.

  5. A truth-teller finds all doors closed.

  6. A lie travels round the world while truth is still tying its shoes.

  7. Not all truths should be told.

  8. Craft needs clothes, but truth loves to go naked.

  9. Face to face the truth comes out.

10. Half the truth is often a great lie.

11. He who finds a truth lights a torch.

12. Truth gives wings to strength.

13. The truth explains everything.

14. In too much disputing the truth is lost.

15. To fool the world, tell the truth.

16. Truth is heavy; few can bear it.

17. Truth may languish but can never perish.

Chapter 142: Virtue

  1. Where there is no virtue there is no liberty.

  2. Virtue is not hereditary.

  3. Virtue never grows old.

  4. Virtue and sense are one.

  5. In justifying itself virtue debases itself.

  6. Virtue is sufficient for happiness.

  7. Conquer by virtue.

  8. Virtue is praised, and starves.

  9. Virtue overcomes envy.

10. Poverty does not destroy virtue, nor does prosperity bestow it.

Chapter 143: War

  1. War can only breed war.

  2. The first blow is as much as two.

  3. Few die well who die in battle.

  4. There was never a good war or a bad peace.

  5. War is death’s feast.

  6. To die or conquer are the terms of war.

  7. War devours the brave and spares the coward.

  8. War seeks its victims among the young.

  9. There is little reason in arms.

10. War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.

11. When war rages, the laws are dumb.

12. After a war many heroes present themselves.

Chapter 144: Wisdom

  1. A flow of words is no proof of wisdom.

  2. The doors of wisdom are never shut.

  3. It is sometimes wisdom to seem a fool.

  4. Wisdom asks fruit, folly asks flowers.

  5. Wisdom does not always go by years.

  6. The wise seek wisdom, the fool has found it.

  7. The wise hide their wisdom, the fool displays his folly.

  8. One’s chief wisdom consists in knowing one’s weakness.

  9. In youth and beauty wisdom is rare.

10. The wise are beyond harm.

11. All countries are home to the wise.

12. They are wise enough who have enough wit for their own affairs.

13. They seem wise who thrive.

14. We are wiser than we know.

15. No one is wise all the time.

16. It is easier to be wise for others than for oneself.

17. The wise are strong.

18. The wise learn many things from their foes.

19. No one is wise enough alone.

20. No one is the only wise one.

Chapter 145: Youth

  1. Green wood makes a hot fire.

  2. Youth is the fever of reason.

  3. Youth is drunkenness without wine.

  4. Reckless youth makes rueful age.

  5. If youth knew; if age could.

The Lawgiver

Chapter 1

  1. If one listens to the wisdom of those who sat in the councils of kings, and witnessed the government in many lands;

  2. One learns that whereas it is possible to rule lives and bodies, it is not so easy to try ruling minds – but nor is it right,

  3. For the human mind is a kingdom in itself, and wise rulers know where the borders of their own kingdoms lie.

  4. If people’s minds were as easily controlled as their tongues, every king would sit safely on his throne, and government by compulsion would cease;

  5. For all subjects would shape their lives according to the intentions of their rulers,

  6. And would count a thing true or false, good or evil, just or unjust, in obedience to their dictates.