If you like to get friendship from a man, say only a good word about him in his absence. If you like to pacify a dog, say a good word to his face.
Life gives to every slave an empty gla.s.s to fill it either with tears or with hopes.
When G.o.d wishes to punish a man He lets him be born among the rough neighbours.
The night rebuked the clouds because they were so black. The wolf rebuked the dog because he was so wicked.
It is better to be as patient as G.o.d than as righteous as G.o.d.
By true prayer we confess our sins; by false prayer we report our deeds to G.o.d.
Every welcome guest may fail to come, except death, the most unwelcome.
The gra.s.s asked a cow: "Is it right that you eat me and tread on me?" "I don"t know," replied the cow; "but tell me: Is it right that the gra.s.s grows up from the bodies of my parents and will grow up from my own body?"
Solitude is full of G.o.d. Worldly clamour is G.o.dless. In solitude one feels both eternity of time and immensity of s.p.a.ce. In worldly clamour one feels eternity and immensity only when death intervenes.
The birds think that men cannot understand each other. Why should not men think better of birds?
The wise man feels G.o.d most in the silence of night; the child most in the crash of lightnings and in the rolling waters.
Three persons rushed the same way: a child, a learned man and a poor man. "Where to?" asked the angel.
"To grow old quickly and to see G.o.d," said the child.
"To acquire profit and learning, and to know G.o.d," said the learned man.
"To become rich and to serve G.o.d," said the poor man.
The angel said:
"If the clear eyes of a child cannot see G.o.d, how can the dim eye of pa.s.sionate man see Him?
"If the simple mind of the unlearned man cannot know G.o.d, how can the bewildered mind of a learned man know Him?
"If a poor man cannot serve G.o.d with his heart, how can a rich one serve Him with gold?"
If you marry, you will repent; if you do not marry, you will likewise repent.
We never repent our brutality as much as our vulgarity. In being brutal we are equal to animals, but in being vulgar we are below them.
When two blind men sit quarrelling about what is light, they are like two men quarrelling about what is G.o.d.
A bird speaks and you do not understand, but G.o.d does, for it speaks his language. A lion speaks and you do not understand, but G.o.d does. The lion speaks his language.
A brook speaks, and you stand on the bank and do not understand it, but G.o.d does. He made the brook"s language.
An oak speaks, and you wonder what it may say, but G.o.d does not wonder.
He made the oak"s language.
The devil has hopes as a man has, for he hopes that at the end G.o.d will listen to him, and the man hopes that at the end all men will listen to G.o.d.
Every murder means also partly a suicide.
If you oppose a boastful man, he will believe his own words and hate you. If you listen to him silently and go from him silently, he will feel himself punished, and will follow you and ask you, if you believed his words.
What represents a boastful man? Poverty in spirit or in heart and wealth in words.
The universe is too big for you to ask it to serve you, and you are too little to hope to change it.
Blood binds men with a thread, but love binds them with a metal band.
The bonds of blood hold longer, The bonds of love hold stronger.
Easier it is for the sun to hate its own light than for a mother to hate her own son.
When men are quarrelling about the land, G.o.d is standing among them and whispering: "I am the Proprietor!"
G.o.d may be either accompanying or pursuing you. It depends upon you.
A lake at the foot of a mountain is a mirror for the mountain; just so is the past a mirror for mankind.
A pine-tree looks towards heaven expecting with confidence rain, snow, or light. You can protect yourself from rain, snow and light, but there is no roof to protect you from death.
Our life is obscure, our death is obscure; G.o.d is the only light of both.
Our body is fragile, our soul is fragile; G.o.d is the only strength of both. Our works are dust, our hopes are dust; G.o.d only makes both enduring.
From three sides G.o.d encircles us; He remains behind us in the past, He is with us in the present, and He awaits us in the future.
Death relieves a rich man more than a poor one, for from the poor man it takes only life, while from the rich it takes both life and fortune.
If you cannot admire the animal"s dull life, you must at least admire its noiseless death.
The sea, when asked why it roared, replied: "To show men how petty their noisy quarrels are."
An oak, when asked in what way it thought oaks superior to men, said: "We oaks are more decent in taking our food, for we hide our mouths and eat only in the darkness under the earth."