Gold is obtained from a mine by digging it, but from a miser by digging the soul.
They say hope of spending is better than spending.One day thou seest the wish of the foe fulfilledThe gold remaining and the vile man dead.
Saadi Shirazi
The teeth of all men are blunted by sourness, but those of the qazi by sweetness.
Will prove that ten melon-fields are due to thee.
One of the ullemma had many eaters to provide for and only a slender income. This fact he communicated to a great man of whose character he entertained a very favourable opinion but his expectations were disappointed because the man made a wry face and averred that according to his opinion applications from respectable persons for aid are unbecoming.
Do not go because thou wilt embitter his life also.For the needful for which thou appliest, go with a fresh and smiling face.The man of joyful countenance will not be unsuccessful in his affairs.It is related that the great man augmented his stipend a little but considerably diminished his familiarity towards him and when he…
A parrot, having been imprisoned in a cage with a crow, was vexed by the sight and said: ‘What a loathsome aspect is this! What an odious figure! What cursed object with rude habits! 0 crow of separation, would that the distance of the east from the west were between us.’
The morn of a day of safety becomes evening to him.An ill-omened one like thyself is fit to keep thee companyBut where in the world is one like thee?More strange still, the crow was similarly distressed by the proximity of the parrot and, having become disgusted, was shouting ‘La haul’, and lamenting the vicissitudes of…
I was in Diarbekr, the guest of an old man, who possessed abundant wealth and a beautiful son. One night he narrated to me that he had all his life no other son but this boy, telling me that in the locality people resorted to a certain tree in a valley to offer petitions and that he had during many nights prayed at the foot of the said tree, till the Almighty granted him this son. I overheard the boy whispering to his companion: ‘How good it would be if I knew where that tree is that I might pray for my father to die.’ Moral: The gentleman is delighted that his son is intelligent and the boy complains that his father is a dotard.
The tomb of thy father.What good hast thou done to himTo expect the same from thy son?
An illustrious scholar, who was the tutor of a royal prince, had the habit of striking him unceremoniously and treating him severely. The boy, who could no longer bear this violence, went to his father to complain and when he had taken off his coat, the father’s heart was moved with pity. Accordingly he called for the tutor and said: ‘Thou dost not permit thyself to indulge in so much cruelty towards the children of my subjects as thou inflictest upon my son. What is the reason?’ He replied: ‘It is incumbent upon all persons in general to converse in a sedate manner and to behave in a laudable way but more especially upon padshahs because whatever they say or do is commented on by everybody, the utterances or acts of common people being of no such consequence.
His companions do not know one in a hundred.But if a padshah utters only one jestIt is borne from country to country.‘It is the duty of a royal prince’s tutor to train up the sons of his lord in refinement of morals-and Allah caused her to grow up as a beautiful plant-more diligently than the…
Do not pity the weakness of a foe because when he gains strength he will not spare thee.
There is marrow in every bone, a man in every coat.
A bareheaded and barefooted pedestrian who had arrived from Kufah with the Hejaz-caravan of pilgrims joined us, strutted about and recited:
I am neither a lord of subjects nor the slave of a potentate.Grief for the present, or distress for the past, does not trouble me.I draw my breath in comfort and thus spend my life.’A camel-rider shouted to him: ‘O dervish, where art thou going? Return, for thou wilt expire from hardships.’ He paid no…
I saw a religious man, who had fallen in love with a fellow to such a degree that he had neither strength to remain patient nor to bear the talk of the people but would not relinquish his attachment, despite of the reproaches he suffered and the grief he bore, saying:
Even if thou strike me with a sharp sword.After thee I have no refuge nor asylum.To thee alone I shall flee if I flee.I once reproached him, asking him what had become of his exquisite intellect so that it had been overcome by his base proclivity. He meditated a while and then said:‘Wherever love has…
A kind old man in Baghdad
The cruel little man so bit herThat blood flowed from the daughter’s lips.Next morning the father saw her thusAnd going to the bridegroom asked him:‘O mean wretch, what teeth are these?Chewest thou thus her lips? They are not leather.I do not say these words in jest,Leave joking off and enjoy her seriously.If ill humour becomes…