One night, he reflected: “Merit is concealed beneath a silent tongue. If I remain thus silent, how will men know that I am learned?” Therefore he indulged in speech, and his friends and enemies alike found him to be the most ignorant man in Egypt. His followers dispersed and his glory vanished. So he went on a journey and wrote on the wall of a mosque: “Had I but seen myself in the mirror of understanding I should not imprudently have torn the veil from off my mind. Although deformed, I exposed my figure in the thought that I was handsome.” A little-talker has a high reputation. Silence is dignity, and the concealer of blemishes. Express not in haste the thoughts of thy mind, for thou canst reveal them when thou wilt. The beasts are silent, and men are endowed with speech—idle talkers are worse than the beasts. STORY ILLUSTRATING THE FOLLY OF IMPERTINENCE In the course of a dispute some one uttered improper words and was, in consequence, seized and nearly throttled. “O thou conceited fellow!” said an experienced man, “if thy mouth had been closed like a bud, thou wouldst not have seen thy skirt torn like a flower.” Dost thou not see that fire is nothing but a flame, which at any moment can be quenched with water? If a man possess merit, the merit speaks for itself, not the owner of the merit. If thou hast not the purest musk, claim not to possess it; if thou hast, it makes itself known by its perfume. DISCOURSE ON SLANDER Speak no evil concerning the good or the wicked, for thus thou wrongest the former and makest an enemy of the latter. Know that he who defames another revealeth his own faults. If thou speak evil of any one, thou art sinful, even though what thou sayest be true. STORY CONCERNING THE SAME SUBJECT To one who stretched his tongue in slander, a wise man said: “Speak not evil of any one before me, so that I may not think ill of thee. Although his dignity is lowered, thine own honour is not increased thereby.” WHY THIEVING IS BETTER THAN SLANDERING Some one said: “Thieving is better than back-biting.” I replied: “That is strange to me. What good seest thou in thieving that thou givest it preference to slander?” “Thieves,” he explained, “live by virtue of their strength and daring. The slanderer sins and reaps nothing.” SADI AND HIS ENVIOUS CLASS-FRIEND A fellow-student at Nezamiah displayed malevolence towards me, and I informed my tutor, saying: “Whenever I give more proper answers than he the envious fellow becomes offended.” The professor replied: “The envy of thy friend is not agreeable to thee, but I know not who told thee that back-biting was commendable. If he seek perdition through the path of envy, thou wilt join him by the path of slander.” STORY OF SADI’S CHILDHOOD