Clumsy jesting is no joke.
Better to starve free than be a fat slave
Self-conceit may lead to self destruction.
Persuasion is better than force.
Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of it.
If these town gods can't detect the thieves who steal from their own temples, it's hardly likely they'll tell me who stole my spade.