It is resignation and contentment that are best calculated to lead us safely through life. Whoever has not sufficient power to endure privations, and even suffering, can never feel that he is armour-proof against painful emotions; nay, he must attribute to himself, or at least to the morbid sensitiveness of his nature, every disagreeable feeling he may suffer.
Von Humboldt.
539.
Petrarch observes, that we change language, habits, laws, customs, manners, but not vices, not diseases, not the symptoms of folly and madness--they are still the same. And as a river, we see, keeps the like name and place, but not water, and yet ever runs, our times and persons alter, vices are the same, and ever be. Look how nightingales sang of old, cocks crowed, kine lowed, sheep bleated, sparrows chirped, dogs barked, so they do still: we keep our madness still, play the fool still; we are of the same humours and inclinations as our predecessors were; you shall find us all alike, much as one, we and our sons, and so shall our posterity continue to the last.
Burton.
540.
The mother of the useful arts is necessity, that of the fine arts is luxury; for father the former have intellect, the latter, genius, which itself is a kind of luxury.
Schopenhauer.
541.
The fool who knows his foolishness is wise so far, at least; but a fool who thinks himself wise, he is called a fool indeed.
Dhammapada.
542.
He who mixes with unclean things becomes unclean himself; he whose associations are pure becomes purer each day.
Talmud.
543.
Heaven's gate is narrow and minute,[29] It cannot be perceived by foolish men, Blinded by vain illusions of the world. E'en the clear-sighted, who discern the way And seek to enter, find the portal barred And hard to be unlocked. Its massive bolts Are pride and passion, avarice and lust.
Mahábhárata.
[29] Cf. Matt. VII, 14.
544.
Eschew that friend, if thou art wise, who consorts with thy enemies.
Sa'dí.
545.
Who can tell Men's hearts? The purest comprehend Such contradictions, and can blend The force to bear, the power to feel, The tender bud, the tempered steel.
Hindu Drama.
546.
Whosoever hath not knowledge, and benevolence, and piety knoweth nothing of reality, and dwelleth only in semblance.
Sa'dí.
547.
If thou shouldst find thy friend in the wrong reprove him secretly, but in the presence of company praise him.
Arabic.
548.
Modesty is attended with profit, arrogance brings on destruction.
Chinese.
549.
The greatest hatred, like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, is quiet.
Richter.
550.
Is a preface exquisitely written? No literary morsel is more delicious. Is the author inveterately dull? It is a kind of preparatory information, which may be very useful. It argues a deficiency of taste to turn over an elaborate preface unread: for it is the attar of the author's roses, every drop distilled at an immense cost. It is the reason of the reasoning, and the folly of the foolish.
Isaac D'Israeli.
551.
Vulgar prejudices are those which arise out of accident, ignorance, or authority; natural prejudices are those which arise out of the constitution of the human mind itself.
Hazlitt.
552.
Lament not Fortune's mutability, And seize her fickle favours ere they flee; If others never mourned departed bliss, How should a turn of Fortune come to thee?
Omar Khayyám.
553.
Harsh reproof is like a violent storm, soon washed down the channel; but friendly admonitions, like a small shower, pierce deep, and bring forth better reformation.
