Hark! ye who vainly toil and wealth
          Amass—­O sinful men, the soul
          Will leave its nest; where then will be
          The buried treasure that you lose?

The eye of the avaricious man cannot be satisfied with wealth, any more than a well can be filled with dew.

A wicked rich man is a clod of earth gilded.

The liberal man who eats and bestows is better than the religious man who fasts and hoards.

Publish not men’s secret faults, for by disgracing them you make yourself of no repute.

He who gives advice to a self-conceited man stands himself in need of counsel from another.

The vicious cannot endure the sight of the virtuous, in the same manner as the curs of the market howl at a hunting-dog, but dare not approach him.

When a mean wretch cannot vie with any man in virtue, out of his wickedness he begins to slander him.  The abject, envious wretch will slander the virtuous man when absent, but when brought face to face his loquacious tongue becomes dumb.

O thou, who hast satisfied thy hunger, to thee a barley loaf is beneath notice;—­that seems loveliness to me which in thy sight appears deformity.

The ringlets of fair maids are chains for the feet of reason, and snares for the bird of wisdom.

When you have anything to communicate that will distress the heart of the person whom it concerns, be silent, in order that he may hear it from some one else.  O nightingale, bring thou the glad tidings of the spring, and leave bad news to the owl!

It often happens that the imprudent is honoured and the wise despised.  The alchemist died of poverty and distress, while the blockhead found a treasure under a ruin.

Covetousness sews up the eyes of cunning, and brings both bird and fish into the net.

Although, in the estimation of the wise, silence is commendable, yet at a proper season speech is preferable.[17]

   [17] “Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we
        are not athirst for information; but, to be quite fair,
        we must admit that superior reticence is a good deal due
        to the lack of matter.  Speech is often barren, but
        silence does not necessarily brood over a full nest. 
        Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all
        the while be sitting on one addled nest-egg; and when it
        takes to cackling will have nothing to announce but that
        addled delusion.”—­George Eliot’s Felix Holt.

Two things indicate an obscure understanding:  to be silent when we should converse, and to speak when we should be silent.

Put not yourself so much in the power of your friend that, if he should become your enemy, he may be able to injure you.

* * * * *

Our English poet Young has this observation in his Night Thoughts: