Ancient Wisdom II

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

If you want to know your past -- look into your present conditions.
If you want to know your future -- look into your present actions.

A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.

You can't expect to find ivory in a dog's mouth.

Go home and make a net if you desire to catch fish.

Distance tests the strength of horses; only time reveals the hearts of men.

You think you lost your horse? Who knows, it may someday return with a stable of horses.

Once a word leaves your mouth, you cannot chase it back even with the swiftest horse.

A bird in hand is worth more than 100 in the forest.

To cultivate trees, you need 10 years. To cultivate man a 100 years.

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time, is today.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can't buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.

A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake.

A smile will gain you ten more years of life.

If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.

Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come.

The tongue is like a sharp knife... It kills without drawing blood.

A word whispered can be heard for miles.

Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.

Failure is the foundation of success and the means by which success is achieved.

Great fortunes depend on luck; small fortunes depend on diligence.

Make no promises in a moment of joy; write no letters when seized by anger.

To be happy and contented, you must let go of what it means to be happy or content.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of regret.

Seeing it once is better than being told 100 times.

A man without a smiling face must not open shop.

To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art.

One person tells a falsehood. One hundred repeat it as true.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.

Black cat or white cat: if it can catch mice, it's a good cat.

Crows everywhere are equally black.

Listen carefullly. There are always ears on the other side of the wall.

If you know, to recognize that you know, if you don't know, to realize that you don't know -- that is knowledge.

You can't expect both ends of a sugar cane to be sweet.

Even the most clever housewife does not cook without rice.

Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger but a heart as soft as tofu.

At birth we bring nothing with us, at the end of the journey we take nothing away.

A man who waits for a roast duck to fly into his mouth must wait a very, very long time.