Riches are for the comfort of life, and not life for the accumulation of riches.[16]
The eye of the avaricious man cannot be satisfied with wealth, any more than a well can be filled with dew.
A wicked rich man is a clod of earth gilded.
The liberal man who eats and bestows is better than the religious man who fasts and hoards.
Publish not men’s secret faults, for by disgracing them you make yourself of no repute.
He who gives advice to a self-conceited man stands himself in need of counsel from another.
The vicious cannot endure the sight of the virtuous, in the same manner as the curs of the market howl at a hunting-dog, but dare not approach him.
When a mean wretch cannot vie with any man in virtue, out of his wickedness he begins to slander him. The abject, envious wretch will slander the virtuous man when absent, but when brought face to face his loquacious tongue becomes dumb.
O thou, who hast satisfied thy hunger, to thee a barley loaf is beneath notice;—that seems loveliness to me which in thy sight appears deformity.
The ringlets of fair maids are chains for the feet of reason, and snares for the bird of wisdom.