Proverbs

[letric]

Hope is the last thing to abandon the unhappy.

[letric]

The African race is an indiarubberball; the harder you dash it to the ground, the higher it will rise,
African proverb

[letric]

There is no disputing a proverb, a fool, and the truth

[letric]

A complete Christian must have the works of a Papist, the words of a Puritan, and the faith of a Protestant.

Traditionally, Catholics teaching has stressed the value of good works while Protestantism has insisted that salvation comes through faith alone; the proverb implies that Puritans are noted for neither faith nor works but only "words".

[Scorpio]

Clothes do not make the man.

[letric]

To have a stomach and lack meat; to have meat and lack a stomach; to be in bed and cannot rest; are great miseries.
"Stomach" here means "appetite"

[letric]

Brevity is the soul of wit.

A quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet (1600). In this original context "wit" meant "wisdom" rather than "clever humour"

[letric]

He must have leave to speak who cannot hold his tongue.

A reference to the often impolite insistence of the talkative to voice their opinions.

[letric]

One man may steal a horse, while another may not look over a hedge.

Implies that though personal favour or prejudice, the misdeed of one person may be overlooked while a trivial action by another is condemned. To "look over a hedge" was formerly a euphemism for urinating in the open air (men).

[letric]

Every man must know his own business best.

[simplecandice]

Young ladies must be seen and not heard.

[letric]

No man is born wise or learned

[letric]

Honest men marry soon, wise men not at all

[letric]

What the fool does in the end, the wise man does at the beginning.

There are two possible implications: that fool only learns through his errors, or that that fools procrastinate.

[Scorpio]

Discretion is the better part of valour.

[Scorpio]

A great talker is a great liar

(similar to)

Empty Vessels make most noise.

[letric]

Affairs, like salt fish, ought to be a good while a-soaking.

The reference is to fish treated with salt as a preservative.

[letric]

Hurry bequeaths disappointments.

(African proverb)

[letric]

Nothing is to be presumed on, or despaired of.

(The proverb adapts a saying of St, Augustine of Hippo (4th-5th century AD), who wrote of two thieves crucified with Christ: "Do not despair; one of the the thieves was saved. Do not presume, one of the thieves was damned."

[letric]

Look to this day

Dreams of yesterday whisper to me; visions of tomorrow beckon. Yet it is today where I must live, here where the current of life quickens my blood, electrifying each moment.

Adapted from KALIDASA, INDIAN PLAYWRIGHT (5TH CENTURY)

[letric]

Awaiting the butterfly

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down, may alight upon you.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

[letric]

Open your eyes

I open my eyes to the wonder of being. Delighted at the way my life turns out, amazed at the beauty of it all, I am happy.

Modern Affirmation

[Scorpio]

As you sow, so shall you reap.

[Scorpio]

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

[Scorpio]

Procastination is the thief of time.