Part 24

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"Ah! a thousand thoughts of sorrow, and a hundred things of dread, By the fools unheeded, enter day by day the wise man's head."

"Of the day's impending dangers, Sickness, Death, and Misery, One will be; the wise man, waking, ponders which that one will be."

"Good things come not out of bad things; wisely leave a longed-for ill. Nectar being mixed with poison serves no purpose but to kill."

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"Give to poor men, son of Kûnti--on the wealthy waste not wealth; Good are simples for the sick man, good for nought to him in health."

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"Be his Scripture-learning wondrous, yet the cheat will be a cheat; Be her pasture ne'er so bitter, yet the cow's milk will taste sweet."

"Trust not water, trust not weapons; trust not clawed nor horned things; Neither give thy soul to women, nor thy life to Sons of Kings."

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"Look! the Moon, the silver roamer, from whose splendour darkness flies, With his starry cohorts marching, like a crowned king, through the skies: All his grandeur, all his glory, vanish in the Dragon's jaw; What is written on the forehead, that will be, and nothing more."

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"Counsel in danger; of it Unwarned, be nothing begun; But nobody asks a Prophet, Shall the risk of a dinner be run?"

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"Avarice begetteth anger; blind desires from her begin; A right fruitful mother is she of a countless spawn of sin."

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"Be second and not first!--the share's the same If all go well. If not, the Head's to blame."

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"Passion will be Slave or Mistress: follow her, she brings to woe; Lead her, 'tis the way to Fortune. Choose the path that thou wilt go."

"When the time of trouble cometh, friends may ofttimes irk us most: For the calf at milking-hour the mother's leg is tying-post."

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"In good-fortune not elated, in ill-fortune not dismayed, Ever eloquent in council, never in the fight affrayed, Proudly emulous of honour, steadfastly on wisdom set; These six virtues in the nature of a noble soul are met. Whoso hath them, gem and glory of the three wide worlds is he; Happy mother she that bore him, she who nursed him on her knee."

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"Small things wax exceeding mighty, being cunningly combined; Furious elephants are fastened with a rope of grass-blades twined."

"Let the household hold together, though the house be ne'er so small; Strip the rice-husk from the rice-grain, and it groweth not at all."

"Sickness, anguish, bonds, and woe Spring from wrongs wrought long ago."

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"Keep wealth for want, but spend it for thy wife, And wife, and wealth, and all, to guard thy life."