Well-makers lead the water where they desire: fletchets bend the arrow, carpenters carve a log of wood; wise men fashion their own minds.
If a man speaks or acts an evil thought, evil follows him as the wheel follows the ox that draws the wagon.
Better to leave an evil deed undone, than to repent of it afterwards. A good deed calls forth no repentance.
If a man commits a wrong, let him not do it again. Suffering is the outcome of an evil deed. If a man does what is good, let him do it again. Happiness is the outcome of good deeds.
As by the falling of water-drops a pot is filled, so the fool becomes full of evil, though he gather it little by little.
He who lives for pleasure only, evil will overthrow, as the wind throws down a weak tree.
The fool who knows his foolishness may become wise; but the fool who thinks himself wise is a fool indeed.
To the evil-doer wrong appears sweet as honey; but when the fruit of wrong ripens, then he finds bitterness.
A hater may do great harm to a hater, and an enemy to an enemy; but a wrongly directed mind will do greater harm to itself.
As a creeper destroys the life of a tree upon which it finds support, so is the evil-doer his own greatest enemy.
The wicked man burns by his own deeds, as if burnt by fire.
