Love your wife like yourself, honour her more than yourself. Whosoever lives unmarried lives without joy, without comfort, without blessing. Descend a step in choosing a wife. If thy wife is small, bend down to her and whisper into her ear. He who forsakes the love of his youth, GOD’S altar weeps for him. He who sees his wife die before him, has, as it were, been present at the destruction of the sanctuary itself, around him the world grows dark. It is woman alone through whom GOD’S blessings are vouchsafed to a house. She teaches the children, speeds the husband to the place of worship and instruction, welcomes him when he returns, keeps the house godly and pure, and GOD’S blessings rest upon all these things. He who marries for money, his children shall be a curse to him. After the thief runs the theft; after the beggar, poverty. While thy foot is shod, smash the thorn. When the ox is down, many are the butchers. Luck makes rich, luck makes wise. If you wish to hang yourself, choose a big tree. When the pitcher falls upon the stone, woe unto the pitcher; when the stone falls upon the pitcher, woe unto the pitcher; whatever befalls, woe unto the pitcher. Youth is a garland of roses, age a crown of thorns. Be thou the cursed, not he who curses. Be of them that are persecuted, not of them that persecute. Look at Scripture, there is not a single bird more persecuted than the dove, yet GOD has chosen her to be offered up on His altar. The bull is hunted by the lion, the sheep by the wolf, the goat by the tiger. And GOD said, “Bring Me a sacrifice not from them that persecute, but from them that are persecuted.” “Hath GOD pleasure in the meat and blood of sacrifices?” asks the prophet. No; He has not so much ordained as permitted them. It is for yourselves, He says, not for Me that you offer, Like a king, who sees his son carousing daily with all manner of evil companions: You shall henceforth eat and drink entirely at your will at my own table, he says. They offered sacrifices to demons and devils, for they loved sacrificing, and would not do without it. And the LORD said, “Bring your offerings to Me, you shall then at least offer to the true GOD.” Even when the gates of heaven are shut to prayer, they are open to tears. The reward of good works is like dates, sweet and late to ripen. Life is a passing shadow, says the Scripture. Is it the shadow of a tower, of a tree? A shadow that prevails for a while? No, it is the shadow of a bird in his flight,--away speeds the bird, and there is neither bird nor shadow.