The wife of one of his neighbours jokingly remarked: “Honey is bitter to one of sour temper.”
It is wrong to eat bread at the table of one whose face is as wrinkled with frowns as the cloth on which it is served.
O sir! add not to thine own burdens, for an evil temper brings disaster in its train.
If thou hast not a sweet tongue like Sadi, thou hast neither gold nor silver.
Story illustrating the Forbearance of Good Men
I have heard that a debased drunkard caught a pious man by the collar. The latter received his blows in silence, and in forbearance lifted not his head.
A passer-by remarked: “Art thou not a man? It is a pity to be patient with this ignorant fellow.”
The pious man replied: “Speak not thus to me. A foolish drunkard collars one by the neck in the thought that he is fighting with a lion; there is no fear that a learned man will contend with an inebriated fool.”
The virtuous follow this rule in life—when they suffer oppression they display kindness.