When she saw him overthrow a tiger, and elephant-bodied:
‘If thou hadst remembered the time of thy infancy
How helpless thou wast in my arms
Thou would’st this day not have been harsh
For thou art a lion-like man, and I an old woman.’
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Galenus saw a fool hanging on with his hands to the collar of a learned man and insulting him, whereon he said: ‘If he were learned he would not have come to this pass with an ignorant man.’
Nor does a scholar fight with a contemptible fellow.If an ignorant man in his rudeness speaks harshlyAn intelligent man tenderly reconciles his heart.Two pious men keep a hair between them untornAnd so does a mild with a headstrong man.If however both sides are foolsIf there be a chain they will snap it.An ill-humoured man insulted…
Even after falling into mud a jewel retains its costliness, and dust, although it may rise into the sky, is as contemptible as before. Capacity without education is deplorable and education without capacity is thrown away. Ashes are of high origin because the nature of fire is superior, but as they have no value of their own, they are similar to earth and the price of sugar arises not from. the cane but from its own quality.
The birth of a prophet therein could not enhance its worth.Display thy virtue if thou hast any, not thy origin.The rose is the offspring of thorns and Abraham of Azer.
Having become tired of my friends in Damascus, I went into the desert of Jerusalem and associated with animals till the time when I became a prisoner of the Franks, who put me to work with infidels in digging the earth of a moat in Tarapolis, when one of the chiefs of Aleppo, with whom I had formerly been acquainted, recognized me and said: ‘What state is this?’ I recited:
Wishing to attend upon no one but God.Imagine what my state at present isWhen I must be satisfied in a stable of wretches.The feet in chains with friendsIs better than to be with strangers in a garden.’He took pity on my state and ransomed me for ten dinars from the captivity of the Franks, taking…
A royal prince, having inherited abundant treasures from his father, opened the hand of liberality and satisfied his impulse of generosity by lavishing without stint benefits upon the army and the population.
Place it on fire, it will smell like ambergris.If thou wishest to be accounted great, be liberalBecause grain will not grow unless it be sown.One of his courtiers began heedlessly to admonish him, saying: ‘Former kings have by their exertions accumulated this wealth and deposited it for a useful purpose. Cease this movement because calamities…
I have heard that a royal prince of short stature and mean presence,
glancing on him with aversion and contempt but he had the shrewdnessand penetration to guess the meaning and said: ‘O father, a punyintelligent fellow is better than a tall ignorant man, neither iseverything bigger in stature higher in price. A sheep is nice to eatand an elephant is carrion.’The smallest mountain on earth is Jur;…
One who had for a considerable time not seen his friend asked him where he had been and said he had been longing. He replied: ‘To be longing is better than to be satisfied.’
We shall not soon let go thy skirt from the hand.He who sees his sweetheart at long intervalsIs after all better off than if he sees too much of her.When thou comest with friends to visit meAlthough thou comest in peace thou art attacking.If my sweetheart associates one moment with strangersIt wants but little and…