Ancient Proverbs and Maxims From Burmese Sources; or, The Nîti Literature/Appendix/A
A p p e n d i x.
A.—Old Indian Sayings.
[The following collection, as bearing upon parallel passages found in Burmese literature, was made a few years ago, and comprises only those maxims or sentiments which, by their pointedness or by their happiness of expression, seemed deserving of being put together as pearls upon a single thread.]
1.
Better one accomplished son than a hundred fools: one moon can dispel darkness; not so a myriad stars.
2.
As from a lump of clay a workman produces whatever he wishes, so a man obtains the destiny prepared by himself.
3.
Deeds are accomplished by effort, not wishes: deer, verily, do not enter into the mouth of a sleeping lion.
4.
So long as a fool is well-dressed and speaks nothing, even so long does he shine in an assembly.
5.
Glass by association with gold acquires an emerald lustre; by association with the good a fool becomes wise.
6.
Labour bestowed on the worthless is vain: even by a hundred efforts a crow cannot be made to talk like a parrot.
7.
As a river takes a brook to the sea, so does knowledge take a man to a king.
8.
As the heavens acquire light from the moon, so does a family from a wise son.
9.
Whosoever's name is not written with the pen in the enumeration of those who are learned, his mother is called barren; and those who have not obtained praise in charity and penance, in valour, science, and the acquisition of property, their mothers have no pleasure in them—they have only obtained the pain of giving them birth.
10.
Better silence far than speaking;
- Worse are kinsmen oft than fire;
There's no balm like friendly counsel,
- There's no enemy like ire.
Rogues have keener teeth than vipers;
- Brains outweigh the miser's hoard;
Better modesty than jewels,
- Tuneful lyre than kingly sword.[1]
11.
Wide is the difference between the body and the virtues of heart; the one lasts for a season, the other endures for eternity.
12.
Where a wise man is not to be found, there even one of little sense is commended: in a country devoid of large trees the castor-oil plant is accounted one.
13.
In misfortunes we know a friend, in battle a hero, an honest man in debt, a wife when fortunes disappear.
14.
The time of the wise passes away in the enjoyment of poetry and the sciences; that of fools, in vice, sleep, and quarrel,
15.
Avoid him who injures you in your absence and speaks sweetly in your presence: he is a bowl of poison with milk on the surface.
16.
Better be dashed to pieces on a rock, better insert the hand between the fangs of a poisonous snake, better fall into a fiery furnace, than ruin one's character by stains of infamy.
17.
When night comes, fear is at the threshold; at break of day it flies to the hills.
18.
19.
Long are the arms of a learned man.
20.
Cowards sink from toil and peril,
- Vulgar souls attempt and fail;
Men of metal, nothing daunted,
- Persevere till they prevail.
21.
As the sun in the east dispels the gloom of night, so can books dispel ignorance.
22.
Companionship with the base leads to vice: rivers of sweet water become undrinkable when they join the sea.
23.
Impossible is it for those consumed by desire to gain repose, as it is for two pieces of green wood to burn when rubbed in water.
24.
Reason is carried away tinder the influence of passion, just as a ship in a stormy sea.
25.
A bear's skin washed becomes not white: a wooden image, if beaten, does not acquire excellence.
26.
Treating an evil-doer kindly is like painting a picture on water; no one ploughs the air nor bathes the wind.
27.
28.
Will white ashes remove the smell of the wine-pot? Will a cord put on the neck make one twice-born?
29.
The eyeball is large; the pupil, through which we see, is small.
30.
Trees are bowed down with weight of fruit,
- Clouds big with rain hang low;
So good men humbly bear success,
- Nor overweening grow.
31.
A small deed honestly performed is a work of great merit: a small seed may grow into an extensive banyan tree.
32.
A scorpion's poison is in its tail, a fly's in its head; the poison of a snake is in its fangs; a bad man is poisonous altogether.
33.
The philosopher's stone in a fool's hand would vanish as fast as hailstones that come with the rain.
34.
What use of an eloquent man where there are no hearers? What use of a washerman in a country of naked beggars?
35.
Act in time: wait not to repair the tank after the water has escaped.
36.
37.
Science is a couch for the wise; reclining on it they feel no fatigue.
38.
A man of feeble character is like a reed shaken by the wind.
39.
Wealth without liberality is like riches still buried in the earth.
40.
Here, in this world, love's only fruit is won
When two true hearts are blended into one;
But when by disagreement love is blighted,
'Twere better that two corpses were united.[2]
41.
The washerman beats the cloth to remove the stains: a teacher chastises to make his pupil good.
42.
A crocodile in water can destroy an elephant; out of the stream it is overcome by a dog.
43.
Bust makes iron soft; the soul is softened by grief.
44.
The friendship of the bad is like the shadow of a precipitous bank, ready to crush him who sits beneath.
45.
46.
Good people are like the cocoanut; the bad, like the jujube, charming only in the exterior.
47.
Unpleasant speech is often salutary: drops of bitter medicine produce a beneficial effect.
48.
Friendship with the good is permanent: even when broken, the fibres of the lotus-stalks are connected.
49.
As the spokes of a wheel are attached to the nave, so are all things attached to life.
50.
The good man, like a bounding ball,
Springs ever upward from his fall;
The wicked falls like lumps of clay,
And crumbles into dust away.
51.
Let a man act so by day that he may live happily by night.
52.
He by whom swans are made white, and parrots green, and peacocks variegated in hue, he will provide thy sustenance.
53.
When men are ripe for slaughter, even straws turn into thunderbolts.
54.
55.
The streams of rivers flow on and return not; so day and night take with them the life of mortals.
56.
As a man extracts gold from stones, let him also receive what is valuable from all quarters—from a raving mad-man or a chattering fool.
57.
For a man of energy Meru is not too high to be ascended, nor the ocean too extensive to be crossed.
58.
Show compassion to all: the moon withholds not its light from the house of a Châṇḍâla.
59.
There should be no companionship with a wicked man: charcoal, when hot, burns; when cold, it blackens the hand.
60.
Treachery is of crimes the blackest,
- Avarice is a world of vice;
Truth is nobler than penance,
- Purity than sacrifice.
61.
Companionship with the bad is easily severed; the good, like vessels of gold, are hard to break and easily united.
62.
63.
Affliction is the touchstone of friendship.
64.
An elephant may be stopped by a kick; for the headstrong there is no remedy.
65.
As a showman displays his puppets while he himself remains concealed, so God governs mankind unseen by them.
66.
The weak should ally themselves with the strong: a rivulet reaches the sea by the river's aid.
67.
The sky seems as if limited and a firefly looks like fire, but the one has no bounds and the other no fire.
68.
Let a sinner listen to the Scriptures, he will not relinquish his vile nature: though a coal be washed in milk, its blackness does not disappear.
69.
Fire burns without speaking; the sun shines silently; silently the earth supports all creatures, moving and stationary.
70.
71.
A man is only half until he finds a wife: a childless house is like a cemetery.
72.
A house without a wife is like a desert; she is the best physician for many a suffering.
73.
A tranquil lake conceals an alligator: anger is often hidden under an appearance of joy.
74.
No honey without a sting; no rose without a thorn.
75.
The man of means is eloquent,
Brave, handsome, noble, wise;
All qualities with gold are sent,
And vanish when it flies.
76.
The desires of the heart are insatiable; those of the stomach may be soon gratified.
77.
What use is knowledge to a senseless man? of what use a mirror to one without eyes?
78.
79.
One dry tree by friction destroys a whole forest; one vile man ruins the whole family.
80.
Anoint an ass and he feels not your kindness; he turns upon you and kicks you.
81.
Mortals possess no goods of their own, but we hold as stewards things which belong to the gods: when they require them, they take them away again.
82.
The learning of men is from books; women obtain theirs from nature.
83.
Amass that wealth which has nothing to fear from kings or thieves, and which will desert thee not at the hour of death.
84.
Better a woman blind than one too beautiful.
85.
Give women food, dress, gems, and all that's nice,
But tell them not your plans, if you are wise:
If you have aught to do, and want to do it,
Don't ask a woman's counsel, or you'll rue it.
86.
87.
Books are endless, time is short: let a man, therefore, extract the substance, just as a swan extracts the milk which is mixed with water.
88.
Nectar becomes poison if kept too long.
89.
To obtain merit is like roiling a stone up a hill; to fall into evil, like rolling it down a mountain-side.
90.
The repetition of idle words becomes an ox: it is like chewing the cud.
91.
A Brahman can make what is not divine divine, and what is divine not divine.
92.
A hungry snake devours its own eggs: a woman pinched by hunger may desert her own child.
93.
The winkings of men's eyes are numbered all by him:[3] he wields the universe as gamesters handle dice.
94.
Time, like a brilliant steed with seven rays,
And with a thousand eyes, imperishable,
Full of fecundity, bears all things onward.[4]
95.
I'd sooner live in mountain caves
- With lions, bears, and apes,
Than dwell in Indra's heavenly halls
- With brainless human shapes.[5]
96.
To argue with a fool is as if to bring the dead to life.
97.
A moth is caught by glare, a fish by a bait; a man is ensnared by desire.
98.
Truth is weightier than sacrifice.
99.
Wealth is a great perverter.
100.
The society of the good is a medicine.
101.
Be generous: the tree does not refuse its shadow to the man who cuts it with his axe.
102.
Have not too many enemies: a fierce serpent may be killed by a swarm of insects.
103.
Poisonous trees, though watered with nectar, do not produce wholesome fruits.
104.
As wood is consumed by the fire to which it gives rise, so a foolish man is ruined by his own greed.
105.
Thou canst not gather what thou dost not sow;
As thou dost plant the tree, so will it grow.