76. "If you see an intelligent man who tells you where true treasures are to be found, who shows you what is to be avoided, and who administers reproofs, follow that wise man: it will be better, not worse, for those who follow him."
78. "Do not have evildoers for friends, do not have low people; have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men."
80. "Well-makers lead the water wherever they like, fletchers bend the arrow, carpenters bend a log of wood, wise people fashion themselves."
81. "As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, wise people falter not amidst blame and praise."
94. "The gods even envy him whose senses have been subdued, like horses well broken in by the driver, who is free from pride and free from frailty."
97. "The man who is free from credulity, but knows the uncreated, who has cut all ties, removed all temptations renounced all desires, he is the greatest of men." A saying which is almost identical with "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit better than he that taketh a city" (Prov. xvi. 32). Those Christians who believe in works of supererogation, and trust to stores of merit laid up by certain saints, who have lashed their bodies and otherwise injured themselves, may read the following opinion with profit:—
108. "Whatever a man sacrifices in this world as an offering or as an oblation for a whole year in order to gain merit, the whole of it is not worth a quarter; reverence shown to the righteous is better."
Respecting evil, we find the following:—
116. "If a man would hasten towards the good, he should keep his thought away from evil; if a man does what is good slothfully, his mind delights in evil."
117. "If a man commits a sin, let him not do it again, let him not delight in sin; pain is the outcome of evil."