Teach thy tongue to say, “I do not know.”

The birds of the air despise a miser.

If thy goods sell not in one city, take them to another.

Victuals prepared by many cooks will be neither cold nor hot.[100]

  [100] Too many cooks spoil the broth.—­English Proverb.

Two pieces of money in a large jar make more noise than a hundred.[101]

  [101] Two farthings and a thimble
        In a tailor’s pocket make a jingle.—­English Saying.

Into the well which supplies thee with water cast no stones.[102]

  [102] “Don’t speak ill of the bridge that bore you safe over
        the stream” seems to be the European equivalent.

When love is intense, both find room enough upon one bench; afterwards, they may find themselves cramped in a space of sixty cubits.[103]

  [103] Python, of Byzantium, was a very corpulent man.  He once
        said to the citizens, in addressing them to make friends
        after a political dispute:  “Gentlemen, you see how stout
        I am.  Well, I have a wife at home who is still stouter. 
        Now, when we are good friends, we can sit together on a
        very small couch; but when we quarrel, I do assure you,
        the whole house cannot contain us.”—­Athenaeus, xii.

The place honours not the man; it is the man who gives honour to the place.

Few are they who see their own faults.[104]

  [104] Compare Burns: 

O wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

Thy friend has a friend, and thy friend’s friend has a friend:  be discreet.[105]

[105] See the Persian aphorisms on revealing secrets, ante,
p. 48.—­Burns, in his “Epistle to a Young Friend,” says: 

Aye free aff hand your story tell
When wi’ a bosom crony,
But still keep something to yoursel’
Ye scarcely tell to ony.

Poverty sits as gracefully upon some people as a red saddle upon a white horse.

Rather be thou the tail among lions than the head among foxes.[106]

[106] The very reverse of our English proverb, “Better to be
the head of the commonalty than the tail of the gentry.”

The thief who finds no opportunity to steal considers himself an honest man.

Use thy noble vase to-day, for to-morrow it may perchance be broken.

Descend a step in choosing thy wife; ascend a step in choosing thy friend.

A myrtle even in the dust remains a myrtle.[107]

  [107] Saadi has the same sentiment in his Gulislan—­see
        ante, p. 49.

Every one whose wisdom exceedeth his deeds, to what is he like?  To a tree whose branches are many and its roots few; and the wind cometh and plucketh it up, and overturneth it on its face.[108]

  [108] See also Saadi’s aphorisms on precept and practice,
        ante, p. 47.