Book of Wise Sayings: Selected Largely from Eastern SourcesClouston, W. A. (William Alexander)
Philosophy
Book of Wise Sayings: Selected Largely from Eastern Sources
Clouston, W. A. (William Alexander)
Maxims; Quotations
_Sa’dī._
460.
By the fall of water-drops the pot is filled: such is the increase
of riches, of knowledge, and of virtue.
_Hitopadesa._
461.
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._
462.
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._
463.
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._
464.
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._
465.
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._
466.
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.[26]
_Selden._
[26] See 406.
467.
Men’s minds are generally ingenious in palliating guilt in
themselves.
_Livy._
468.
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._
469.
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._
470.
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._
471.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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