穷理查智慧书摘录
1. Great talkers, little doers.
2. The poor have little, beggars none, the rick too much, enough not one.
3. The proof of gold is fire, the proof of woman, gold; the proof of man, a woman.
4. Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please.
5. Better slip with foot than tongue.
6. Without justice, courage is weak.
7. All things are easy to industry, all things difficult to sloth.
8. Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.
9. He that is rick need not live sparingly, and he that can live sparingly need not be rich.
10. Approve not of him who commends all you say.
11. Humility makes great man twice honorable.
12. Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, avarice all things.
13. It is better to take many injuries than to give one.
14. If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.
15. He that can have patience can have what he will.
16. If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few.
17. He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows, nor judge all he sees.
18. he that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.
19. He that can compose himself, is wiser than he that composes books.
20. After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser.
21. Three good meals a day is bad living.
22. The noblest question in the world is: what good may I do in it?
23. If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.
24. It’s less discredit to abridge petty charges, than to stoop to petty gettings.
25. Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good throughout.
26. At a great pennyworth, pause a while.
27. Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
28. Hear no ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy.
29. Fear to do ill, and you need fear nought else.
30. When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.
31. Lend money to an enemy, and you’ll gain him, to a friend, and you’ll lose him.
32. They who have nothing to trouble them, will be troubled at nothing.
33. Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no ambition corrupt thee, no example sway thee, no persuasion move thee, to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so shalt thou always live jollily: for a good conscience is a continual Christmas.
34. Have you something to do tomorrow; do it today.
35. Eat few suppers, and you’ll need few medicines.
36. Excess in all other things whatever, as well as in meat and drink, is also to be avoided.
37. In prosperous fortunes be modest and wise, the greatest may fall, and the lowest may rise: but insolent people that fall in disgrace, are wretched and no-body pities their case.
38. Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits. Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.
39. As pride increases, fortune declines.
40. A fully belly is the mother of all evil.
41. You may talk too much on the best of subjects.
42. No gains without pains.
43. It’s easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
44. It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to deceive himself.
45. Women and wine, game and deceit, make the wealth small and the wants great.
46. Good sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want.
47. We are not so sensible of the greatest health as of the least sickness.
48. A good example is the best sermon.
49. Despair ruins some, presumption many.
50. Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.
51. What maintains one vice would bring up two children.
52. A slip of the foot you may soon recover; but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.
53. The second vice is lying; the first is running in debt.
54. Harry smatter, has a mouth for very matter.
55. When you’re good to others, you are best to yourself.
56. Half wits talk much but say little.
57. Wise men learn by others harms; fools by their own.
58. The end of passion is the beginning of repentance.
59. Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor. Too much plenty makes mouth dainty.
60. Having been poor is no shame, but being shamed of it, is.
61. Neglect kills injuries, revenge increases them.
62. Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but even with them; forgiving it sets you above them.
63. Keep conscience clear, then never fear.
64. The art of getting riches consists very much in thrift. All men are not equally qualified for getting money, but it is in the power of every one alike to practice this virtue.
65. A cypher and humility make the other figures and virtues of ten-fold value.
66. Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself a slave to it.
67. Clean your finger, before you point at my spots.
68. Though modesty is a virtue, bashfulness is a vice.
69. The golden age never was the present age.
70. It’s easier to suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all that follow it.
71. If your riches are yours, why don’t you take them with you to the other world? What more valuable than gold? Diamond. Than diamond? Virtue?
72. The wise and braves dares own that he was wrong.
73. Calamity and prosperity are the touchstones of integrity.
74. Meanness is the parent of insolence.
75. The too obliging temper is ever more disobliging itself.
76. The brave and the wise can both pity and excuse; when cowards and fools show no mercy.
77. Ceremony is not civility; nor civility ceremony.
78. Haste makes waste.
79. Parents and instructors, can never be requited.
80. Patience in market, is worth pounds in a year.
81. A pair of good ears will drain dry a hundred tongues.
82. The discontented man finds no easy chair.
83. Virtue and a trade, are a child’s best portion.
84. Gifts much expected, are paid, not given.
85. In rivers and bad governments, the lightest things swim at top.
86. Friendship cannot live with ceremony, nor without civility.
87. Praise little, dispraise less.
88. A man without a wife, is but half a man.
89. Speak little, do much.
90. If you would be loved, love and be loveable.
91. The honest man take pains, and then enjoys pleasures; the knave takes pleasure, and then suffers pains.
92. Think of three things, where you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.
93. Who is wise? He that learns from every one. Who is powerful? He that govern his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.
94. When you taste honey, remember gall.
95. Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
96. God gives all things to industry.
97. Be at war with your vices, at peach with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
98. A change of fortune hurts a wise man no more than a change of the moon.
99. Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.
100. Be civil to all; serviceable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
101. Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
102. He that never eats too much, will never be lazy.
103. He that would catch fish, must venture his bait.
104. Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, supped with infamy.
105. Some ancient philosophers have said, that happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances; and that he who cannot be happy in any state, can be so in no state. To be happy, they tell us must be content. Right. But they do not teach how we may become content. Poor Richard shall give you a short good rule for that. To be content, look backward on those who possess less than yourself, not forward on those who possess more. If this does not make you content, you don’t deserve to be happy.
106. Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever folly.
107. Great modesty often hides great merit.
108. Pride gets into the coach, and shame mounts behind.
