“However much you study, you cannot know without action. A donkey laden with books is neither an intellectual nor a wise man. Empty of essence, what learning has he whether upon him is firewood or book?”

There is a difference between him who claspeth his mistress in his arms, and him whose eyes are fixed on the door expecting her.

A little beauty is preferable to much wealth.

Whoever acquires knowledge but does not practice it is as one who ploughs but does not sow.

Religion is only in the service of the people; it is not in the rosary and the prayer-carpet.

He who learns, and makes no use of his learning, is a beast of burden with a load of books. Does the ass comprehend whether he carries on his back a library or a bundle of faggots?

It’s no virtue to gain the whole world. Just gain the heart of one person.

Whoever gives advice to a heedless man is himself in need of advice.

If a piece of worthless stone can bruise a cup of gold, its worth is not increased, nor that of the gold diminished.

Whoever interrupts the conversation of others to make a display of his fund of knowledge, makes notorious his own stock of ignorance.

Kings stand more in need of the company of the intelligent than the intelligent do of the society of kings.

When a man appreciates only eating and sleeping, what excellence has he over the reptiles?

When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; and when it is full, the spirit becomes body.

A wise man among the ignorant is as a beautiful girl in the company of blind men.

Were the diver to think on the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl.

Take care what you say before a wall, as you cannot tell who may be behind it.

None can be so true to your secret as yourself.