121.
Poverty, we may say, surrounds a man with ready-made barriers, which if they do mournfully gall and hamper, do at least prescribe for him, and force on him, a sort of course and goal; a safe and beaten, though a circuitous, course. A great part of his guidance is secure against fatal error, is withdrawn from his control. The rich, again, has his whole life to guide, without goal or barrier, save of his own choosing, and, tempted, is too likely to guide it ill.
Carlyle.
122.
By Fate full many a heart has been undone,
And many a sprightly rose made woe-begone;
Plume thee not on thy lusty youth and strength:
Full many a bud is blasted ere its bloom.
Omar Khayyām.
123.
The best thing is to be respected, the next, is to be loved; it is bad to be hated, but still worse to be despised.
Chinese.
124.
To be envied is a nobler fate than to be pitied.
Pindar.
125.
He only does not live in vain
Who all the means within his reach
Employs—his wealth, his thought, his speech—
T’advance the weal of other men.
Sanskrit.
126.
If you injure a harmless person, the evil will fall back upon you, like light dust thrown up against the wind.
Buddhist.
127.
In the life of every man there are sudden transitions of feeling, which seem almost miraculous. At once, as if some magician had touched the heavens and the earth, the dark clouds melt into the air, the wind falls, and serenity succeeds the storm. The causes which produce these changes may have been long at work within us, but the changes themselves are instantaneous, and apparently without sufficient cause.
Longfellow.
128.
Man is an intellectual animal, therefore an everlasting contradiction to himself. His senses centre in himself, his ideas reach to the ends of the universe; so that he is torn in pieces between the two without the possibility of its ever being otherwise. A mere physical being or a pure spirit can alone be satisfied with itself.
Hazlitt.
129.
The pure in heart, who fear to sin,
The good, kindly in word and deed—
These are the beings in the world
Whose nature should be called divine.
Buddhist.
130.
If thou desirest that the pure in heart should praise thee, lay aside anger; be not a man of many words; and parade not thy virtues in the face of others.
Firdausī.
131.
A wise man takes a step at a time; he establishes one foot before he takes up the other: an old place should not be forsaken recklessly.
Sanskrit.
132.
The fish dwell in the depths of the waters, and the eagles in the sides of heaven; the one, though high, may be reached with the arrow, and the other, though deep, with the hook; but the heart of man at a foot’s distance cannot be known.*
Burmese.
* Cf. Proverbs, XXV, 3.
133.
The life of man is the incessant walk of nature, wherein every moment is a step towards death. Even our growing to perfection is a progress to decay. Every thought we have is a sand running out of the glass of life.
Feltham.
134.
I have observed that as long as a man lives and exerts himself he can always find food and raiment, though, it may be, not of the choicest description.
Goethe.
135.
There are no riches like the sweetness of content, nor poverty comparable to the want of patience.
R. Chamberlain.
136.
’Tis not for gain, for fame, from fear
That righteous men injustice shun,
And virtuous men hold virtue dear:
An inward voice they seem to hear,
Which tells them duty must be done.
Mahābhārata.
137.
As far and wide the vernal breeze
Sweet odours waft from blooming trees,
So, too, the grateful savour spreads
To distant lands of virtuous deeds.
Sanskrit.
138.
In this world, however little happiness may have been our portion, yet have we no desire to die. Whether he can speak of life as cheerful and delicate, or as full of pain, anxiety, and sorrow, never yet have I seen one who wished to die.
Firdausī.
139.
When morning silvers the dark firmament,
Why shrills the bird of dawning his lament?
It is to show in dawn’s bright looking-glass
How of thy careless life a night is spent.
Omar Khayyām.
140.
Be thou generous, and gentle, and forgiving; as God hath scattered upon thee, scatter thou upon others.
Sa’dī.
141.
In the body restraint is good; good is restraint in speech; in thought restraint is good: good is restraint in all things.
Dhammapada.
142.
Men say that everyone is naturally a lover of himself, and that it is right that it should be so. This is a mistake; for in fact the cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved, so that he passes a wrong judgment upon what is just, good, and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honour what belongs to himself, in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself or by another.
Plato.
143.
A man eminent in learning has not even a little virtue if he fears to practise it. What precious things can be shown to a blind man when he holds a lamp in his hand?
Hitopadesa.
144.
The first forty years of our life give the text, the next thirty furnish the commentary upon it, which enables us rightly to understand the true meaning and connection of the text with its moral and its beauties.
Schopenhauer.
145.
Good actions lead to success, as good medicines to a cure: a healthy man is joyful, and a diligent man attains learning; a just man gains the reward of his virtue.
Hitopadesa.
146.
Purpose without power is mere weakness and deception; and power without purpose is mere fatuity.
Sa’dī.
147.
Suffering is the necessary consequence of sin, just as when you eat a sour fruit a stomach complaint ensues.
Burmese.
148.
Riches disclose in a man’s character the bad qualities formerly concealed in his poverty.
Arabic.
149.
Whate’er the work a man performs,
The most effective aid to its completion—
The most prolific source of true success—
Is energy, without despondency.
Ramāyāna.
150.
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practise, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.
Selden.
151.
Authority intoxicates,
And makes mere sots of magistrates;
The fumes of it invade the brain,
And make men giddy, proud, and vain;
By this the fool commands the wise,
The noble with the base complies,
The sot assumes the rule of wit,
And cowards make the base submit.
Butler.
152.
No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.
Goethe.
153.
Increase in goodness as long as thou art here, that, when thou departest, in that thou mayest still be joyful. According to our words and deeds in this life will be the remembrance of us in the world.
Firdausī.
154.
Parents’ affection is best shown by their teaching their children industry and self-denial.
Burmese.
155.
There are three things to beware of through life: when a man is young, let him beware of his appetites; when he is middle-aged, of his passions; and when old, of covetousness, especially.
Confucius.
156.
He who has given satisfaction to the best of his time has lived for ages.
Schiller.
157.
I never yet found pride in a noble nature nor humility in an unworthy mind.
Feltham.
158.
Worldly fame is but a breath of wind, that blows now this way, now that, and changes name as it changes sides.
Dante.
159.
True modesty and true pride are much the same thing. Both consist in setting a just value on ourselves—neither more nor less.
Hazlitt.
160.
Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another.
Richter.
161.
A foolish husband fears his wife; a prudent wife obeys her husband.
Chinese.
162.
He who devises evil for another falls at last into his own pit, and the most cunning finds himself caught by what he had prepared for another. But virtue without guile, erect like the lofty palm, rises with greater vigour when it is oppressed.
Metastasio.
163.
Laughing is peculiar to man, but all men do not laugh for the same reason. There is the attic salt which springs from the charm in the words, from the flash of wit, from the spirited and brilliant sally. There is the low joke which arises from scurrility and idle conceit.
Goldoni.
164.
The woman who is resolved to be respected can make herself be so even amidst an army of soldiers.
Cervantes.
165.
Petty ambition would seem to be a mean craving after distinction.
Theophrastus.
166.
It is an old observation that wise men grow usually wiser as they grow older, and fools more foolish.
Wieland.
167.
Use law and physic only for necessity. They that use them otherwise abuse themselves into weak bodies and light purses. They are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse recreations.
Quarles.
168.
In some dispositions there is such an envious kind of pride that they cannot endure that any but themselves should be set forth as excellent; so that when they hear one justly praised they will either openly detract from his virtues; or, if those virtues be, like a clear and shining light, eminent and distinguished, so that he cannot be safely traduced by the tongue, they will then raise a suspicion against him by a mysterious silence, as if there were something remaining to be told which overclouded even his brightest glory.
Feltham.
169.
Every man thinks with himself, I am well, I am wise, and laughs at others; and ’tis a general fault amongst them all, that which our forefathers approved—diet, apparel, humours, customs, manners—we deride and reject in our time as absurd.
Burton.
170.
Repeated sin destroys the understanding
And he whose reason is impaired repeats
His sins. The constant practising of virtue
Strengthens the mental faculties, and he
Whose judgment stronger grows acts always right.
Mahābhārata.
171.
If you wish to know how much preferable wisdom is to gold, then observe: if you change gold you get silver for it, but your gold is gone; but if you exchange one sort of wisdom for another, you obtain fresh knowledge, and at the same time keep what you possessed before.
Talmud.
172.
The man who listens not to the words of affectionate friends will give joy in the time of distress to his enemies.
Hitopadesa.
173.
It is a proverbial expression that every man is the maker of his own fortune, and we usually regard it as implying that every man by his folly or wisdom prepares good or evil for himself. But we may view it in another light, namely, that we may so accommodate ourselves to the dispositions of Providence as to be happy in our lot, whatever may be its privations.
Von Humboldt.
174.
Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thy equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best of the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there.
Quarles.
175.
Assume in adversity a countenance of prosperity, and in prosperity moderate thy temper.
Livy.
176.
Mark this! who lives beyond his means
Forfeits respect, loses his sense;
Where’er he goes, through the seven births,
All count him knave: him women hate.
Hindu Poetess.
177.
Be cautious in your intercourse with the great; they seldom confer obligations on their inferiors but from interested motives. Friendly they appear as long as it serves their turn, but they will render no assistance in time of actual need.
Talmud.
178.
Man, though he be gray-headed when he comes back, soon gets a young wife. But a woman’s time is short within which she can expect to obtain a husband. If she allows it to slip away, no one cares to marry her. She sits at home, speculating on the probability of her marriage.
Aristophanes.
179.
Hearts are like tapers, which at beauteous eyes
Kindle a flame of love that never dies;
And beauty is a flame, where hearts, like moths,
Offer themselves a burning sacrifice.
Omar Khayyām.
180.
When thou utterest not a word thou hast laid thy hand upon it; when thou hast uttered it, it hath laid its hand on thee.
Sa’dī.
181.
To the tongue which bringeth thee words without reason, the answer that best beseemeth thee is—silence.
Nizāmī.
182.
The man who talketh much and never acteth will not be held in reputation by anyone.
Firdausī.
183.
Two sources of success are known: wisdom and effort; make them both thine own, if thou wouldst haply rise.
Māgha.
184.
The worse the ill that fate on noble souls
Inflicts, the more their firmness; and they arm
Their spirits with adamant to meet the blow.
Hindu Drama.
185.
Opportunities lose not, for all delay is madness;
’Mid bitter sorrow patience show, for ’tis the key of gladness.
Turkish.
186.
Man is the only animal with the powers of laughter, a privilege which was not bestowed on him for nothing. Let us then laugh while we may, no matter how broad the laugh may be, and despite of what the poet says about “the loud laugh that speaks the vacant mind.” The mind should occasionally be vacant, as the land should sometimes lie fallow, and for precisely the same reason.
Egerton Smith.
187.
The man of affluence is not in fact more happy than the possessor of a bare competency, unless, in addition to his wealth, the end of his life be fortunate. We often see misery dwelling in the midst of splendour, whilst real happiness is found in humbler stations.
Herodotus.
188.
Love of money is the disease which renders us most pitiful and grovelling, and love of pleasure is that which renders us most despicable.
Longinus.
189.
He who labours diligently need never despair. We can accomplish every thing by diligence and labour.
Menander.
190.
Lost money is bewailed with deeper sighs
Than friends, or kindred, and with louder cries.
Juvenal.
191.
In one short verse I here express
The sum of tomes of sacred lore:
Beneficence is righteousness,
Oppression’s sin’s malignant core.
Sanskrit.
192.
A wound inflicted by arrows heals, a wood cut down by an axe grows, but harsh words are hateful—a wound inflicted by them does not heal. Arrows of different sorts can be extracted from the body, but a word-dart cannot be drawn out, for it is seated in the heart.
Mahābhārata.
193.
To address a judicious remark to a thoughtless man is a mere threshing of chaff.
Hitopadesa.
194.
All the blessings of a household come through the wife, therefore should her husband honour her.
Talmud.
195.
Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, but in order that we might see how much the author knows.
Goethe.
196.
All that is old is not therefore necessarily excellent; all that is new is not despicable on that account alone. Let what is really meritorious be pronounced so by the candid judge after due investigation; blockheads alone are influenced by the opinion of others.
Hindu Drama.
197.
One of the diseases of this age is the multitude of books. It is a thriftless and a thankless occupation, this writing of books: a man were better to sing in a cobbler’s shop, for his pay is a penny a patch; but a book-writer, if he get sometimes a few commendations from the judicious, he shall be sure to reap a thousand reproaches from the malicious.
Barnaby Rich.
198.
We rather confess our moral errors, faults, and crimes than our ignorance.
Goethe.
199.
The angel grows up in divine knowledge, the brute, in savage ignorance, and the son of man stands hesitating between the two.
Persian.
200.
She is a wife who is notable in her house; she is a wife who beareth children; she is a wife whose husband is as her life; she is a wife who is obedient to her lord. The wife is half the man; a wife is man’s dearest friend; a wife is the source of his religion, his worldly profit, and his love. He who hath a wife maketh offerings in his house. Those who have wives are blest with good fortune. Wives are friends, who, by their kind and gentle speech, soothe you in your retirement. In your distresses they are as mothers, and they are refreshment to those who are travellers in the rugged paths of life.
Mahābhārata.
201.
He that is ambitious of fame destroys it. He that increaseth not his knowledge diminishes it. He that uses the crown of learning as an instrument of gain will pass away.
Talmud.
202.
While the slightest inconveniences of the great are magnified into calamities, while tragedy mouths out their sufferings in all the strains of eloquence, the miseries of the poor are entirely disregarded; and yet some of the lower ranks of people undergo more real hardships in one day than those of a more exalted station suffer in their whole lives.
Goldsmith.
203.
It is impossible for those who are engaged in low and grovelling pursuits to entertain noble and generous sentiments. Their thoughts must always necessarily be somewhat similar to their employments.
Demosthenes.
204.
The interval is immense between corporeal qualifications and sciences: the body in a moment is extinct, but knowledge endureth to the end of time.
Hitopadesa.
205.
If thou lackest knowledge, what hast thou then acquired? Hast thou acquired knowledge, what else dost thou want?
Talmud.
206.
Be modest and simple in your deportment, and treat with indifference whatever lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race; obey God.
Marcus Aurelius.
207.
Bootless grief hurts a man’s self, but patience makes a jest of an injury.
R. Chamberlain.
208.
Poverty without debt is independence.
Arabic.
209.
Just as the track of birds that cleave the air
Is not discovered, nor yet the path of fish
That skim the water, so the course of those
Who do good actions is not always seen.
Mahābhārata.
211.
Like a beautiful flower, full of colour but without scent, are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly.
Dhammapada.
212.
When men are doubtful of the true state of things, their wishes lead them to believe in what is most agreeable.
Arrianus.
213.
Most men the good they have despise,
And blessings which they have not prize:
In winter, wish for summer’s glow,
In summer, long for winter’s snow.
Sanskrit.
214.
The best conduct a man can adopt is that which gains him the esteem of others without depriving him of his own.
Talmud.
215.
Whoso associates with the wicked will be accused of following their ways, though their principles may have made no impression upon him; just as if a person were in the habit of frequenting a tavern, he would not be supposed to go there for prayer, but to drink intoxicating liquor.
Sa’dī.
216.
The loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have not regarded its tenure as secure.
Goethe.
217.
The dull-hued turkey apes the gait
Of lordly peacock, richly plumed;
And thus the poetaster shows
When he would fain his verse recite.
Hindu Poetess.
218.
Knowledge acquired by a man of low degree places him on a level with a prince, as a small river attains the irremeable ocean; and his fortune is then exalted.
Hitopadesa.
219.
An evil-minded man is quick to see
His neighbour’s faults, though small as mustard seed;
But when he turns his eyes towards his own,
Though large as bilva fruit, he none descries.
Mahābhārata.
220.
Two persons die remorseful: he who possessed and enjoyed not, and he who knew but did not practise.
Sa’dī.
221.
With regard to a secret divulged and kept concealed, there is an excellent proverb, that the one is an arrow still in our possession, the other is an arrow sent from the bow.
Jāmī.
222.
The thing we want eludes our grasp,
Some other thing is given; sometimes
Our wish is gained, and gifts unsought
Are ours; these all are God’s own work.
Hindu Poetess.
223.
If a man conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greater of conquerors.*
Dhammapada.
* Cf. Prov. XVI, 32.
224.
The man who is in the highest state of prosperity, and who thinks his fortune is most secure, knows not if it will remain unchanged till the evening.
Demosthenes.
225.
Amongst all possessions knowledge appears pre-eminent. The wise call it supreme riches, because it can never be lost, has no price, and can at no time be destroyed.
Hitopadesa.
226.
The shadows of the mind are like those of the body. In the morning of life they all lie behind us, at noon we trample them under foot, and in the evening they stretch long, broad, and deepening before us.
Longfellow.
227.
He who is full of faith and modesty, who shrinks from sin, and is full of learning, who is diligent, unremiss, and full of understanding—he, being replete with these seven things, is esteemed a wise man.
Burmese.
228.
If your foot slip, you may recover your balance, but if your tongue slip, you cannot recall your words.
Telugu.
229.
A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as the hollow mountain returns all sounds.
Chinese.
230.
Women are ever masters when they like,
And cozen with their kindness; they have spells
Superior to the wand of the magicians;
And from their lips the words of wisdom fall,
Like softest music on the listening ear.
Firdausī.
231.
A man cannot possess anything that is better than a good wife, or anything that is worse than a bad one.
Simonides.
232.
The wife of bad conduct—constantly pleased with quarrelling—she is known by wise men to be cruel Old Age in the form of a wife.
Panchatantra.
233.
I have often thought that the cause of men’s good or ill fortune depends on whether they make their actions fit with the times. A man having prospered by one mode of acting can never be persuaded that it may be well for him to act differently, whence it is that a man’s Fortune varies, because she changes her times and he does not his ways.
Machiavelli.
234.
By nature all men are alike, but by education very different.
Chinese.
235.
Whilom, ere youth’s conceit had waned, methought
Answers to all life’s problems I had wrought;
But now, grown old and wise, too late I see
My life is spent, and all my lore is nought.
Omar Khayyām.
236.
Weak men gain their object when allied with strong associates: the brook reaches the ocean by the river’s aid.
Māgha.
237.
A swan is out of place among crows, a lion among bulls, a horse among asses, and a wise man among fools.
Burmese.
238.
Whosoever does not persecute them that persecute him; whosoever takes an offence in silence; he who does good because of love; he who is cheerful under his sufferings—these are the friends of God, and of them the Scripture says, “They shall shine forth like the sun at noontide.”
Talmud.
239.
It is intolerable that a silly fool, with nothing but empty birth to boast of, should in his insolence array himself in the merits of others, and vaunt an honour which does not belong to him.
Boileau.
241.
The sun opens the lotuses, the moon illumines the beds of water-lilies, the cloud pours forth its water unasked: even so the liberal of their own accord are occupied in benefiting others.
Bhartrihari.
242.
We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth.
Goethe.
243.
Men are so simple, and yield so much to necessity, that he who will deceive may always find him that will lend himself to be deceived.
Machiavelli.
244.
Obstinate silence implies either a mean opinion of ourselves, or a contempt for our company; and it is the more provoking, as others do not know to which of these causes to attribute it—whether humility or pride.
Hazlitt.
245.
If thou desire not to be poor, desire not to be too rich. He is rich, not that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is poor, not that enjoys little, but he that wants too much. The contented mind wants nothing which it hath not; the covetous mind wants, not only what it hath not, but likewise what it hath.
Quarles.
246.
Those noble men who falsehood dread
In wealth and glory ever grow,
As flames with greater brightness glow
With oil in ceaseless flow when fed.
But like to flames with water drenched,
Which, faintly flickering, die away,
So liars day by day decay,
Till all their lustre soon is quenched.
Sanskrit.
247.
Watch over thy expenditure, for he who through vain glory spendeth uselessly what he hath on empty follies, will receive neither return nor praise from anyone.
Firdausī.
248.
If thou art a man, speak not much about thine own manliness, for not every champion driveth the ball to the goal.
Sa’dī.
249.
The potter forms what he pleases with soft clay, so a man accomplishes his works by his own act.
Hitopadesa.
250.
No man of high and generous spirit is ever willing to indulge in flattery; the good may feel affection for others, but will not flatter them.
Aristotle.
251.
An ass will with his long ears fray
The flies that tickle him away;
But man delights to have his ears
Blown maggots in by flatterers.
Butler.
252.
Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss.
Montaigne.
253.
He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
Goethe.
254.
If with a stranger thou discourse, first learn,
By strictest observation, to discern
If he be wiser than thyself, if so,
Be dumb, and rather choose by him to know;
But if thyself perchance the wiser be,
Then do thou speak, that he may learn by thee.
Randolph.
255.
Being continually in people’s sight, by the satiety which it creates, diminishes the reverence felt for great characters.
Livy.
256.
There is a great difference between one who can feel ashamed before his own soul and one who is only ashamed before his fellow men.
Talmud.
257.
By rousing himself, by earnestness, by restraint and control the wise man may make for himself an island which no flood can overwhelm.
Dhammapada.
258.
The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities they will not complain of the want of them in us.
Hazlitt.
259.
To form a judgment intuitively is the privilege of few; authority and example lead the rest of the world. They see with the eyes of others, they hear with the ears of others. Therefore it is very easy to think as all the world now think; but to think as all the world will think thirty years hence is not in the power of every one.
Schopenhauer.
260.
Poesy is a beauteous damsel, chaste, honourable, discreet, witty, retired, and who keeps herself within the limits of propriety. She is a friend of solitude; fountains entertain her, meadows console her, woods free her from ennui, flowers delight her; in short, she gives pleasure and instruction to all with whom she communicates.
Cervantes.
261.
How can we learn to know ourselves? By reflection, never, but by our actions. Attempt to do your duty, and you will immediately find what is in you.
Goethe.
262.
Man is supreme lord and master
Of his own ruin and disaster,
Controls his fate, but nothing less
In ordering his own happiness:
For all his care and providence
Is too feeble a defence
To render it secure and certain
Against the injuries of Fortune;
And oft, in spite of all his wit,
Is lost by one unlucky hit,
And ruined with a circumstance,
And mere punctilio of a chance.
Butler.
263.
There is nothing in this world which a resolute man, who exerts himself, cannot attain.
Somadeva.
264.
Ere need be shown, some men will act,
As trees may fruit without a flower;
To some you speak with no result,
As seeds may die, and yield no grain.
Hindu Poetess.
265.
Seven things characterise the wise man, and seven the blockhead. The wise man speaks not before those who are his superiors, either in age or wisdom. He interrupts not others in the midst of their discourse. He replies not hastily. His questions are relevant to the subject, his answers, to the purpose. In delivering his sentiments he taketh the first in order first, the last, last. What he understands not he says, “I understand not.” He acknowledges his error, and is open to conviction. The reverse of all this characterises the blockhead.
Talmud.
266.
How absolute and omnipotent is the silence of the night! And yet the stillness seems almost audible. From all the measureless depths of air around us comes a half sound, a half whisper, as if we could hear the crumbling and falling away of the earth and all created things in the great miracle of nature—decay and reproduction—ever beginning, never ending—the gradual lapse and running of the sand in the great hour-glass of Time.
Longfellow.
267.
What avails your wealth, if it makes you arrogant to the poor?
Arabic.
268.
All confidence is dangerous unless it is complete; there are few circumstances in which it is not better either to hide all or to tell all.
La Bruyère.
269.
It is well that there is no one without a fault, for he would not have a friend in the world: he would seem to belong to a different species.
Hazlitt.
270.
The mind alike,
Vigorous or weak, is capable of culture,
But still bears fruit according to its nature.
’Tis not the teacher’s skill that rears the scholar:
The sparkling gem gives back the glorious radiance
It drinks from other light, but the dull earth
Absorbs the blaze, and yields no gleam again.
Bhavabhūti.