It is safer to be silent than to reveal one's secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it.

But for the cravings of the belly not a bird would have fallen into the snare; nay, nay, the fowler would not have spread his net. The belly is chains to the hands and fetters to the feet. He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God.

However much you study, you cannot know without action. A donkey laden with books is neither an intellectual nor a wise man. Empty of essence, what learning has he whether upon him is firewood or book?

Have patience. Everything is difficult before it is easy.

The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.

He who learns, and makes no use of his learning, is a beast of burden with a load of books. Does the ass comprehend whether he carries on his back a library or a bundle of faggots?

Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.