The ridiculous is produced by any defect that is unattended by pain, or fatal consequences; thus, an ugly and deformed countenance does not fail to cause laughter, if it is not occasioned by pain.
Aristotle.
293.
Happy the man who early learns the difference between his wishes and his powers.
Goethe.
294.
There is nothing more pitiable in the world than an irresolute man vacillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two, and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them.
Goethe.
295.
Beauty in a modest woman is like fire at a distance, or like a sharp sword: neither doth the one burn nor the other wound him that comes not too near them.
Cervantes.
296.
We are more sociable and get on better with people by the heart than the intellect.
La Bruyčre.
297.
A good man may fall, but he falls like a ball [and rebounds]; the ignoble man falls like a lump of clay.
Bhartrihari.
298.
Do not anxiously expect what is not yet come; do not vainly regret what is already past.
Chinese.
299.
The way to subject all things to thyself is to subject thyself to reason; thou shalt govern many if reason govern thee. Wouldst thou be a monarch of a little world, command thyself.
Quarles.
300.
If our inward griefs were written on our brows, how many who are envied now would be pitied. It would seem that they had their deadliest foe in their own breast, and their whole happiness would be reduced to mere seeming.
Metastasio.
301.
There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.
Hazlitt.
302.
Whoever brings cheerfulness to his work, and is ever active, dashes through the world's labours.
Tieck.
303.
Grossness is not difficult to define: it is obtrusive and objectionable pleasantry.
Theophrastus.
304.
Do not consider any vice as trivial, and therefore practise it; do not consider any virtue as unimportant, and therefore neglect it.
Chinese.
305.
To bad as well as good, to all, A generous man compassion shows; On earth no mortal lives, he knows, Who does not oft through weakness fall.
Rámáyana.
306.
The good extend their loving care To men, however mean or vile; E'en base Chándálas'[12] dwellings share Th' impartial sunbeam's silver smile.
Hitopadesa.
[12] Chándálas, or Pariahs, are the lowest, or of no caste.
307.
Let a man accept with confidence valuable knowledge even from a person of low degree, good instruction regarding duty even from a humble man, and a jewel of a wife even from an ignoble family.
Manu.
308.
We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.
Goethe.
309.
