Be watchful, for the world lasts but a moment, and a moment spent with wisdom is better than an age with folly.
Why fix we thus our minds upon this caravanserai? Our friends have departed and we are on the road. After us, the same flowers will bloom in the garden, together will friends still sit.
When thou comest to Shiraz,[39] dost thou not cleanse thyself from the dust of the road?
Soon, O thou polluted with the dust of sin, wilt thou journey to a strange city. Weep, and wash with thy tears thy impurities away.
Moral from an Incident in Sadi’s Childhood
I remember that, in the time of my childhood, my father (may God’s mercy be upon him every moment!), bought me a gold ring. Soon after, a hawker took the ring from my hand in exchange for a date-fruit.
When a child knows not the value of a ring he will part with it for a sweetmeat. Thou, too, didst not recognise the value of life, but indulged thyself in vain pleasures.
In the Day of Judgment, when the good will attain to the highest dignity and mount from the bottommost depths of the earth to the Pleiades, thy head will hang forward in shame, for thy deeds will gather around thee.