If you consult a wise man, his wisdom becomes yours.
Confide your secret to one only, and hear the counsel of a thousand. (In the multitude of counsellors there is safety. PROV. xi. 14.)
A counsellor is a trusted man.
When men consult together, they are led by the wisest among them.
The knowledge of two is better than the knowledge of one. Two heads are better than one.
Let your counsellor be one who fears God.
Consult a man of experience, for he gives you what has cost him much, and for which you give nothing.
A man who is older than yourself by a day is more experienced than you by a year.
Consult an older man and a younger, then decide for yourself.
The wisest may need the advice of others.
He who is wise, and consults others, is a whole man; he who has a wise opinion of his own, and seeks no counsel from others, is half a man; and he who has no opinion of his own, and seeks no advice, is no man at all.
No man can be sorry for seeking advice, or happy if he blindly follows out his own thoughts.
If it were not for the faculty of speech, man would be nothing more than a silent picture or a contemptible animal.
The tongue is the best part of man.
Man is hidden behind his tongue.
A man's talk shows what kind of mind he has.
What you write is the truest thing that can be said of you.
The words of eloquent men are like a mighty army, and their writings like glittering swords.
Note down in writing what you learn. All knowledge which is not committed to writing is lost.
The best handwriting is that which is most easily read.
A bad pen is like an unruly, undutiful child.
If you value a book you will read it through.
If you write a book, be ready to encounter criticism.
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
A book is an eloquent, silent companion, or a speaking friend answering and questioning you.
Books are the food of minds.
There is something wise in every proverb.
The tongues of men are the pens of truth.
Poets, love-stricken, ramble up and down in every valley.
Poetry is one of the musical instruments of Satan.
Wise men are silent.
Silence is often more eloquent than words.
Be not hasty with your tongue. If words are silver, silence is gold.
Not all that is known should be said.
Silence is a wise thing, but they who observe it are few.
When the mind becomes large speech becomes little.
Restrain your tongue from saying anything but what is good.
An unguarded word may do you great harm.
A man who talks much is open to much blame.
The most faulty of men are they that are most loquacious in matters which do not concern them.
To guard his tongue is one of the best traits in a man's character.
Man is saved from much evil if he guard his tongue.
The tongue is a lion which must be chained, and a sharp sword which must be sheathed.
Nothing on earth is so deserving of a long imprisonment as the tongue.
Beware of saying anything of which you may be ashamed.
It is better to regret a thing which you did not say than a thing which you did say.
A slip of the foot is safer than a slip of the tongue. A false step may break a bone which can be set, but a slip of the tongue cannot be undone.
A thrust of the tongue is sharper than the thrust of a lance.
A word may cause much trouble, destroy a home, or open a grave.
A great tree grows out of a small seed.
The difference between loquacity and silence is like the difference between the noisy frog and the silent whale.
Wisdom is made up of ten parts—nine of which are silence, and the tenth is brevity of language.
A man conceals his ignorance by his silence.
He who says what he should not say, will have to hear what he would not like to hear.
He who talks much does little.
What is said at night the day blots out.
Koran. O ye that believe, fear God and be truthful! Verily God recompenseth the truthfulness of the truthful.
Traditions. Be ever truthful, for truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to heaven.
Veracity brings peace to the heart.
No man's religion can be right until his heart become right, nor can his heart become right until his tongue is right.
Keep to the truth though it may harm thee, and keep away from falsehood though it may profit thee.
A man can be perfect only when he speaks the truth and acts according to the truth.
Proverbs. Truth is the sword of God, which always cleaves when it smites.
Truth is armed with horns.
By truth man is saved from evil.
If falsehood saves from trouble truth saves much more.
When thou speakest be truthful, and when thou actest be gentle.
An ignorant man who is true is better than a clever man who is false.
There are two kinds of truthfulness, and the greatest of them is that which may do thee harm.
If truth and falsehood were pictured they would be represented by a terrible lion and a cunning fox.
It is better to die a truthful man than to live the life of a liar.
Koran. Be true to a covenant, for a covenant holds a man responsible. Be faithful to your pledged covenants and keep your oaths.
Traditions. A man who keeps not his word has no religion.
A true man's word is like an oath.
Be truthful in what you say, faithful to your promise, and careful of what is entrusted to you.
A pledged word is as if you had made the gift.
Proverbs. A true man keeps his promise.
A pledged word has the same value as a debt.
The promise of a true man is a greater obligation than a debt.
That man is a hypocrite who prays and fasts, but is untruthful in what he says, false to his word, and unfaithful in discharging a trust.
To keep a secret is a divine law.
A secret is a trust, and to betray it is perfidy.
The least of all noble traits is to keep a secret, and the greatest is to forget it.
He controls himself most who hides a secret from his friends.
When a secret is known to more than two, it becomes public.
He who seeks a place to hide his secret reveals it.
Walls have ears.
It is unwise to confide a secret to two tongues and four ears.
Your secret is your captive, betray it and you become its captive.
A man should be a tomb in which a secret is deposited.
If you keep your secret you are safe, and it will be to your sorrow if you reveal it.
Hearts are the depositaries of secrets, lips their locks, and tongues their keys.
The hearts of the wise are the fortresses of secrets.
Deceit does more harm to the deceitful than to the deceived.
If a man commit these three things they will rise against him in judgment and punishment—aggression, perfidy, and deceit.
To be true to the perfidious is perfidy, and to deceive the deceitful is lawful.
In deceiving your neighbour be more wary than when he is trying to deceive you.
When one would deceive you, and you feign to be deceived, you have deceived him.
He who would deceive one who cannot be deceived is only deceiving himself.
He who allows himself to be deceived by what his enemy says is the greatest enemy to himself.
A wise man neither deceives nor is deceived.
If a man believe in a stone it will do him good.
Self-deception is one of the forms of folly.
Most men think well of themselves, and this is self-delusion.
Vain desires are rarely realised, but they may give comfort in sorrow or pleasure in empty hope.
A man obtains only what he strives for.
He who seeks and struggles shall find.
Struggles bring the most unlikely things within reach.
When a man makes up his mind to do a thing it becomes easy for him to do it.
If you have a clear thought, be decided, and hesitate not—if you decide, hesitate not, but carry it out speedily.
You must be ready to confront difficulties if you would realise your hopes.
It is the part of man to strive, and not to rely on the favours of Fortune.
Not every one who seeks shall find, nor every one who is indifferent be denied.
Beware of giving up hope in what you earnestly seek.
A wise man perseveres, and is not easily turned away.
Not by fitful efforts, but by constancy, is an end secured.
The most profitable labour is that which is most persevering—though it may not be strenuous.
A moderate success is better than overwhelming work.
Success comes to him who abjures procrastination.
The world is the booty of the skilful.
The most wonderful thing in the world is the success of a fool and the failure of a wise man.
A pleasing manner is a great aid to success.
It is the duty of man to do his utmost, but he is not responsible for success.
Do not undertake a work for which you are not competent.
What can a tirewoman do with an ugly face?
Opportunities move like clouds, or pass rapidly like meteors.
Seize a thief before he seizes you.
Take advantage of the light of day before the night sets in.
Seize on opportunities, for they are either a spoil if improved, or a grief if neglected.
Good judgment means a seizure of opportunities.
Keep quiet until the occasion presents itself.
An action may be good if done at a fitting season, or evil if done at an improper time.
Procrastination means evil.
Put your bread into the oven while it is hot.
If you undertake a work do it speedily.
Profit by occasions when they turn up, and do not worry about an evil which has not yet come.
Time is a sharp sword—strike with it before you are struck by it.
If you have not sown, and see a reaper in the field, you will regret a lost opportunity.
Economy saves half the cost of living.
The value of economy is equal to half of your profits.
Frugality saves a man from poverty.
Little with economy is better than much with waste.
Poverty with freedom from debt is great wealth.
If you count beforehand you will thrive.
The sea is made up of drops and the mountain of grains.
My son, take a middle course between stinginess and extravagance, parsimony and prodigality.
Extravagance dissipates great riches, and economy increases them when they are small.
Extravagance ever leads to misery and ruin.
Extravagance does as much harm to life as it adds to the pleasures of living.
In all things take a middle course.
Charity lies between two charities—one to yourself, the other to your needy fellow man.
If you are too soft you will be squeezed, and if you are too dry you will be broken.
He who spends and reckons not, ends in ruin and knows not.
He who buys cheap meat will regret his purchase when it is served up.
Man is like an ear of wheat shaken by the wind—sometimes up and sometimes down.
Man is a target to the accidents of time.
One day for us, and one day against us.
With to-day there is to-morrow.
To every Moses there is a Pharaoh.
There is no day which has not its opposite.
The changes of fortune show what a man is made of.
There is no joy which is not followed by sorrow.
When Fortune brings a great good, she follows it by a great evil.
Fortune gives lavishly, and then turns round and takes away.
When a man has attained his highest hope, let him expect that its downfall is near by.
When a thing waxes to perfection it begins rapidly to wane.
When distress reaches its utmost, relief is close at hand.
What is past is dead.
Every ascent has a descent, and every trouble has an end.
Do not worry—between one twinkle of the eye and that which follows it things may change.
I have looked far and wide, and saw nothing on the faces of men but looks of perplexity or regret.
To complain of one's grief, except to God, is an humiliation.
He who thinks that Fortune will always favour him is a fool.
Follow the tracks of the fortunate man and you will come to fortune.
God is with them that are patient. God loveth them that are patient (Koran).
Patience is one-half of religious duty.
There are two kinds of patience—one is for something which you desire, the other in something which you hate; and he is a strong man who can combine them both.
Patience is mostly needed at the first shock.
Grief is dispelled by patience.
The device of a man who hath no device is patience.
So long as there is a claimant, no just case is ever lost.
Patience is a bitter cup, which the strong alone can drink.
A misfortune is one, but it becomes two to the impatient.
Patience is one of the gifts of heaven.
He who is impatient to hear one word will have to listen to many words.
Difficulties can be overcome only by patience.
It is a good omen when your messenger is delayed.
Rarely does a patient man fail in obtaining that which he seeks.
Be patient—every cloud dissipates, and every evil which does not continue is a small thing.
He who receives the strokes is not like him who counts them.
Contentment is to refrain from coveting what others have.
Contentment is a treasure which is inexhaustible.
The most thankful of men is he who is contented.
He who seeks riches must seek them in contentment.
Give freely, and be content with little.
A contented man is happy in life.
Life is a vanishing space of time, and he alone vanquishes its changing fortunes who lives in contentment.
Be content with what God has given you, and you will be the richest of men.
If you cannot have what you want, be content with what you have.
If all cannot be obtained, a part may be attained.
There is relief in despair.
God loves a cheerful man.
A main part of friendship is cheerfulness.
Cheerfulness denotes a generous nature, as a flower denotes fruit.
The first duty of a host is cheerfulness.
He who is sparing in cheerfulness is more sparing in doing a kindness.
A cheerful countenance is a presage of good.
A bright face and bright eyes are a greater boon than a rich inheritance.
The expression of the eyes shows what is in the heart.
An expression of the face may be more eloquent than that of the tongue.
The face of an enemy betrays his secret thoughts.
No one has ever harboured a secret which may not be discovered by a slip of the tongue or an expression of the face.
Hope for good from one who has a beautiful face.
A gloomy look is an omen of ill, and a bright face is good news.
Life has no cloud to an ignorant man, to one who heeds not past or future events, and to him who deceives himself and constrains his soul to seek and hope for what is impossible.
War is an evil thing to both victor and vanquished.
It is better to avoid than to make war.
The most honourable death is on the battlefield.
To die in battle from a thousand cuts of the sword is easier than to die in bed.
He who incites soldiers to courage in action is of more value than a thousand fighting men.
An army to a king is like wings to a bird.
To carry out a well-devised plan in war is more effectual than strokes and thrusts.
A battle is fought by feints and stratagems.
What an easy thing is a battle to one who looks on at a distance!
Patient constancy is the key to victory.
Two wolves kill a lion. Two weak men vanquish one that is strong.
Beware of aggression in war—for it can lead to no glory in victory.
To overcome the weak has all the shame of a defeat.
A butcher is not frightened at the sight of a multitude of sheep.
To retire from an unsuccessful battle is defeat.
Magnanimity to captives, and mercy to the fallen, are a hymn of praise to God for victory.
The first part of anger is madness and the second is regret.
Passion and blindness are inseparable mates.
Beware of anger, for it ends in the humiliation of apology.
Anger leads to all kinds of evil.
When you are angry be silent.
It is not a trait of noble character to be hasty either in anger or in revenge.
The anger of a fool reveals itself in what he says, and the anger of a wise man in what he does.
Quarrelsomeness is a contemptible habit.
Call not yourself a man so long as you are angry.
Of all men God abhors most an implacable enemy.
Of all things nothing is so bad as the making of enemies.
Of all evils nothing is so hard to be borne as the triumph of an enemy.
Rejoice not over a fallen man—he may rise and you may fall.
Despise no enemy, however insignificant he may be—see how the shadow of the earth causes an eclipse of the moon, or how a midge brings a tear to the eye of a lion.
He who makes enemies shall have many a restless night.
He who has many enemies, let him expect a downfall.
When anger is repressed by reason of inability to do immediate harm, it retires into the heart in the form of malice and breeds these vices—envy, triumph over the enemy's ill, repulsion of friendly approaches, contempt, slander, derision, personal violence, and injustice.
The first thing which shall be taken up in the Day of Judgment is murder.
Man is a building made by God, and he who destroys the building of God shall be demolished.
Put no man to undeserved death, for God forbids murder.
Announce violent death to the murderer, and poverty to the adulterer, though after a season.
The difference between envy and emulation is, that in the first the desire is for the cessation of a good enjoyed by another, and in the second the desire is for the possession of a similar good.
An envious man is angry with God for His favours to other men.
Every favoured man is envied.
A lordly man is always an object of admiration or of envy.
Beware of envy, for it shows itself in you, not in him whom you envy.
Envy is a disease for which there is no cure.
Envy is a disease which does more harm to the envious than to the envied.
All enmity may be overcome except that which comes from envy.
There can be no peace in the heart of an envious man.
A man cannot be happy if he be malicious, envious, or ill-tempered.
Keep your affairs to yourself, for every favoured man is an object of envy.
Envy may be cured only by a sure knowledge that it is a cause of much pain to you and no evil to him whom you envy—so you must shun it if you would not be an enemy to yourself and a friend to your enemy.
Envy consumes man, as rust corrodes iron.
He who strains his neck to look at one above him gets nothing but pain.
Envy no man except him who is good.
Beware of rashness, for it has well been called the Mother of Regrets.
He who acts hastily either makes a blunder, or comes very near it.
He who is deliberate is either right, or very nearly so.
A hasty act comes from the Evil One, and a deliberate act from God.
Haste is the resort of the weak.
Hopes are never realised by sloth.
A lazy man can never succeed in life.
It is one of the signs of weakness to leave things to fate.
A lazy man loses what is due to him.
Weakness and sloth lead to ruin.
A man gets tired of having nothing to do, as he gets tired of work.
If work is hard, want of work is a great evil.
Youth, riches, and leisure are the great corrupters of life.
The head of an idle man is the workshop of Satan.
Avarice and faith in God can never live together in the heart of man.
Avarice and ill-nature have no place in the heart of a good man.
Avarice is the parent of all evil dispositions.
The riches of an avaricious man go either to naught or to an heir.
He who is close-fisted shall be treated in a like manner.
A man who is miserly to himself cannot be generous to others.
An avaricious man is more lavish of his life than of his money.
A liberal man lives on his riches, a miser is eaten up by them.
A miser lives the life of a poor man in this world, and will be judged as a rich man in the world to come.
He who makes his morsel large will be choked.
Avarice is the murderer of the miser.
Greed is the mate of sorrow.
Strong wine is not more destructive to reason than greed.
An old man continues to be young in two things—love of money and love of life.
To God alone I make my plaint of sorrow and grief (Koran12, 86).
To bewail grief, except to God, is an humiliation.
Lamentation is the weapon of the weak.
A good man sees his own faults and is blind to the faults of others.
Censure your friend by kindness, and return the evil which he may have done to you by acts of favour.
To blame a friend is better than to lose him.
No man is free from faults.
If you count your friend's faults you will have no friend left.
An absent man has his apology with him.
He who compels you to blame him has made up his mind to forsake you.
Open blame is better than secret malice.
Blame not, nor boast, until a year and a half shall have passed away.
He who has a needle under his arm it will prick him.
There is no wood which has no smoke in it.
Among all snakes there is not one that is good.
You are your own enemy.
The advantages of marriage are purity of life, children, pleasures of home, and the happiness of exertion for the comfort of wife and children.
This life is a joy, and its greatest delight is a good wife.
An honourable marriage is a stepping-stone to honour.
Take a wife not for her beauty, but for her virtues.
Chastity united to beauty makes a wife perfect.
Three things contribute to long life—a large house, an obedient wife, and a swift horse.
The violence of love vanishes soon after marriage. If the love of bride and bridegroom were to endure, the Resurrection Day would be at hand.
A man has no portion in the love of women when he becomes grey, or when he loses his fortune.
The lover's eye is blind.
The disgrace of a woman is abiding.
Take the high-road, though it turn; and marry a woman of good birth, though she may have been passed by.
Women are the snares of Satan.
Happy is the woman who dies before her husband.
It is better to have a thousand enemies out of the house than one in it.
The girl who has many suitors, and makes no choice of one of them, is doomed to become an old maid.
Children are a gift from God.
A child is a flower which has come down from Paradise.
Nothing is dearer than a child, except a grandchild.
When your son is young, train him; when he is grown, make a brother of him.
That child is loved most who is young until he is grown up, or sick until he recovers, or absent until he returns home.
Your riches and your children are a temptation to you (Koran).
Happy is the woman who has first daughters, then sons.
If you do not train up your child, time will do it.
The training of children is like chewing stones.
Your riches and children are your enemies—beware of them (Koran).
The joy of parents in their children prolongs life.
Sorrow for a child is a burning fire in the heart.
He who is not tender to his child shall find no tenderness in God to him.
Your children are not too many for Death, nor is your money too much for a rapacious governor.
When your father and mother become old, and you take them into your house, say not a word of impatience to them, nor rebuke them, but speak graciously, and be humble to them, and say: "O my God, be merciful to them, even as they tended me when I was young" (Koran).
Be dutiful to your father, and your son shall be dutiful to you.
He who is ill-mannered to his father will be ill-treated by his son.
The good-will of parents procures the good-will of God.
The central gate of heaven is open to the man who has been dutiful to his parents.
Paradise is open at the command of mothers.
You, and all that you have, belong to your father.
A daughter is always proud of her father.
An unmarried daughter has a broken wing.
A man who has no brother is like one who has a left arm and no right. A brother is a wing.
When evil befalls you, you will know the value of a brother.
Your brother is he who shares your distress.
The same regard is due to the eldest brother from the youngest as that which is due to a parent from his child.
God helps him who helps his brother. Who forsakes his brother will be forsaken by God.
A man is a mirror in which his brother's likeness is seen.
The best man among you is he who is best to his relations.
Blood does not become water.
Honour your tribe, for they are the wing with which you fly.
The measure of a man's greatness is that of his tribe (clan, party).
Be friendly to your relations, but do not depend on your relationship.
If it were not for my own arm, my mouth would have nothing to eat.
A friend is a second self and a third eye.
A true man is he who remembers his friend when he is absent, when he is in distress, and when he dies.
A friend is known only in adversity.
If your friend is sweet, do not eat him up.
If you would keep a friend, do not lend him money nor borrow from him.
Keep to your old friends—your new friends will not be so constant.
You may find in a friend a brother who was not born of your mother.
The noblest man is he whose friendship may be easily obtained, and whose enmity can be incurred only with difficulty.
He is a weak man who can make no friends, and still weaker is he who loses them.
When my vine was laden with grapes, my friends were many; when the grapes were finished, my friends disappeared.
Friendship may come down by inheritance from ancestors, and so may hatred.
Nothing makes us feel so lonely as solitude, and nothing makes us so cheerful as freedom from evil companions.
Without human companions, Paradise itself would be an undesirable place to live in.
A man's character is judged by the character of his companions.
Smoke is no less an evidence of fire than that a man's character is that of the character of his associates.
He who associates with a suspected person will himself be suspected.