Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Goethe.
576.
No one ought to despond in adverse circumstances, for they may turn out to be the cause of good to us.[30]
Menander.
[30] Cf. Job V, 17; Heb. XII, 6.
577.
The constant man loses not his virtue in misfortune. A torch may point towards the ground, but its flame will still point upwards.
Bhartrihari.
578.
A man should never despise himself, for brilliant success never attends on the man who is contemned by himself.
Mahábhárata.
579.
It is the character of a simpleton to be a bore. A man of sense sees at once whether he is welcome or tiresome; he knows to withdraw the moment that precedes that in which he would be in the least in the way.
La Bruyère.
580.
The man of first rate excellence is virtuous in spite of instruction; he of the middle class is so after instruction; the lowest order of men are vicious in spite of instruction.
Chinese.
581.
Not to attend at the door of the wealthy, and not to use the voice of petition--these constitute the best life of a man.
Hitopadesa.
582.
What a man can do and suffer is unknown to himself till some occasion presents itself which draws out the hidden power. Just as one sees not in the water of an unruffled pond the fury and roar with which it can dash down a steep rock without injury to itself, or how high it is capable of rising; or as little as one can suspect the latent heat in ice-cold water.
Schopenhauer.
583.
Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not athirst for information; but, to be quite fair, we must admit that superior reticence is a good deal due to lack of matter. Speech is often barren, but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be sitting on one addled nest-egg; and, when it takes to cackling, will have nothing to announce but that addled delusion.
George Eliot.
584.
The sage who engages in controversy with ignorant people must not expect to be treated with honour; and if a fool should overpower a philosopher by his loquacity it is not to be wondered at, for a common stone will break a jewel.
Sa'dí.
585.
Success is like a lovely woman, wooed by many men, but folded in the arms of him alone who, free from over-zeal, firmly persists and calmly perseveres.
Bháravi.
586.
A feverish display of over-zeal, At the first outset, is an obstacle To all success; water, however cold, Will penetrate the ground by slow degrees.
Hitopadesa.
587.
Treat no one with disdain; with patience bear Reviling language; with an angry man Be never angry; blessings give for curses.[31]
Manu.
[31] Cf. Matt. V, II, 44.
588.
E'en as a traveller, meeting with the shade Of some o'erhanging tree, awhile reposes, Then leaves its shelter to pursue his way, So men meet friends, then part with them for ever.
Hitopadesa.
589.
Single is every living creature born, Single he passes to another world, Single he eats the fruit of evil deeds, Single, the fruit of good; and when he leaves His body, like a log or heap of clay, Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away: Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb, And bears him through the dreary, trackless gloom.
Manu.
INDEX.
Abilities, 17.
Absent friend, 496.
Abuse of the great, 398.
Actions to be avoided, 570.
