life

Sages eat slow, devotees half satisfy their appetite, recluses only eat to preserve life, youths until the dishes are removed, old men till they begin to perspire, but qalandars till no room remains in the bowels for drawing breath and no food on the table for anybody.

A slave to constipation spends two sleepless nights,
One night from repletion and another from distress.

If there were no craving of the stomach, no bird would enter the snare of the fowler; nay, he would not even set the snare.

Whoever does not listen to advice will have occasion to hear reproof.

If admonition enters not thy ear
Be silent when I blame thee.

To strike one’s fist on a lion, and to grasp the sharp edge of a sword with the hand, is not the part of an intelligent man.

Do not fight or try thy strength with a furious man.
Hide thy hands in thy arm-pits to avoid his finger-nails.

If every night were to be the night of Qadr, the night of Qadr would be without Qadr.

If all stones were rubies of Badakhshan,
The price of rubies and of stones would be the same.

From a body without a heart obedience does not arise and a husk without a kernel is no stock in trade.

Not everyone who is brisk in dispute is correct in business.
Many a stature concealed by a sheet
If revealed appears to be the mother of one’s mother.

Who acquires science and does not practise it, resembles him who possesses an ox but does not use him to plough or to sow seed.

Whoever associates with bad people will see no good.

If an angel associates with a demon
He will learn from him fear, fraud and hypocrisy.
Of the wicked thou canst learn only wickedness.
A wolf will not take to sewing jackets.

Nothing is better for an ignorant man than silence, and if he were to consider it to be suitable, he would not be ignorant.

If thou possessest not the perfection of excellence
It is best to keep thy tongue within thy mouth.
Disgrace is brought on a man by his tongue.
A walnut, having no kernel, will be light.
A fool was trying to teach a donkey,
Spending all his time and efforts in the task.
A sage observed: ‘O ignorant man, what sayest thou?

Affairs succeed by patience and a hasty man fails.

I saw with my eyes in the desert
That a slow man overtook a fast one.
A galloping horse, fleet like the wind, fell back
Whilst the camel-man continued slowly his progress.