Lesson 6 – Of The Precepts of the Wise from the Sages of old.

Of The Precepts of the Wise from the Sages of old.

Solon.
1. Worship God!
2. Reverence your father and mother!
3. Help your friends!
4. Hate no man!
5. Maintain truth!
6. Swear not!
7. Obey the laws!
8. Think that which is just!
9. Moderate thine anger!
10. Praise Virtue.
11. Persecute the evil with extreme hatred!

Thales.
12. Honor thy King!
13. Try thy friends
14. Be who thou purportest to be!
15. Abstain from vice!
16. Love peace!
17. Be circumspect!
18. Deserve praise of all!
19. Cast whisperers and talebearers out of thy company!

Cleobulous
20. Be not high minded!
21. Judge justly!
22. Be careful for thy household.
23. Read good books!
24. Do good.
25 Bring up in learning thy children.
26. Be not suspicious, or jealous.
27. Remember those who have done you good.
28. Do not despise those of lesser station than thee.
29. Do not desire another man’s goods.
30. Keep your friends’ goods as safe as you would your own.
31. Do not do to another that which you hate yourself.
32. Be readier to go to thy friend in time of his misery, than in his prosperity.

Chilo.
33. Be temperate!
34. Hate Slander
35. Hate violence.

Periander.
36. Perform your promises
37. Keep close your misfortune, lest your enemy rejoice.
38. Give place to thy betters and thy elders.
39. Be moderate in thy lusts and affections.
40. Hate debate!
41. Keep company with wise men.
42. Answer aptly.
43. Flatter not.
44. Hate pride and vain glory.
45. Seal up secrets.
46. Give good counsel and comfort thy friends.

Bias.
47. Hear much; but speak little!
48. First understand; and then speak!
49. Praise not the unworthy; because of his riches!
50. Get by persuasion; and not by violence.
51. Get soberness in thy youth; and Wisdom in thine age!
52. Tell not what you intend; for if you succeed not, thou shalt be mocked!
53. Be not slothful!
54 Take not thine enemy for thy friend; nor thy friend for thine enemy!
54. Be not a judge between thy friends.
55. Strive not with thy father and mother; although thou say truth!
55. Rejoice not in another man’s misfortune!
57. Let thy mind rule thy tongue!
58. Be not hasty to speak; nor slow to hear!

Hermes.
59. Love God and Truth.
60. Envy not.
61. Be satisfied with little; for it will increase and multiply!
62. Marry thy match (equal).
63. Take good advice ere thou begin; but once begun, dispatch it quickly.

Pittacus.
64. Before you go from home, think what you will do abroad; and when you come home remember what you have done abroad.

Socrates.
65. Neither flatter, nor chide, thy Wife before strangers!
66. Be not proud in prosperity; nor despair in adversity!
67/ Learn, by other men’s vices, how filthy thine own are!
68.Moderate thy lusts! thy tongue! and thy belly!
69. Wax not rich through deceit.

Aristotle.
70. Look what thanks you render to your parents; and look for the same again from thy children.
71. Prepare thee such riches as, when the ship is broke, may swim, and escape with their master.

Plato.
72. Learn those things, while you are a child, as may profit when you are a man!
73. Spend not too outrageously, nor be too niggardly; so shall you neither be needy, nor in bondage to riches.

Hermes.
74. Do not what thou wouldest; but what thou shouldest!

Xenophon.
75. Meddle not with that, with which thou hast nothing to do!
76. Neither suffer thy hands to work, nor thy tongue to speak, nor thine ears to hear, that which is evil!

Pythagoras.
77. Sleep not, before thou hast considered how thou hast bestowed the day past! If thou hast done well, thank God! If otherwise, repent; and ask of him forgiveness!
78. Desire God, at the beginning of thy works, that thou mayest, by his help, bring them to a good conclusion!

Aristotle.
79. If thou wilt correct any man; do it rather with gentleness, than with violent extremity.
80. Be not too much or too little at thy friends house, use a balance in all things.

Plato.
81. Esteem his, as much that teacheth thee one word of Wisdom, as if he gave thee gold!

Seneca.
82. Affirm nothing, before thou know the truth!
83. Begin nothing, before you know how for to finish it!
84. Be not hasty! angry! or wrathful! for they be the conditions of a Fool.
85. Virtue is a precious garment.

Hermes.
86. Let neither thy beauty, thy youth, nor thy health, deceive thee!

Aristotle.
87. Break not the laws that are made for the wealth of thy country!

Plato.
88. Labor not to win that which will lightly perish!

Seneca.
89. Study to get both Wisdom and Science! by which thou mayest direct both thy Soul and body.

Pythagoras.
90. Reprove not a man in his wrath; for then thou mayest not rule him!

Pythagoras.
91. If thou intend to do any good; tarry not till tomorrow! for thou knowest not what may chance thee this night.

Aristotle.
92. If thou feel thyself more true to the King than many others, and hast also less wages of him than they; yet complain not! for thine will continue; and so will not theirs!

Diogenes.
93. If any man envy thee, or say evil by thee, set not thereby! and thou shalt disappoint him of his purpose.

Socrates.
94. Love all men; and be subject to all laws: but obey God more than men!

Plato.
95. Give good ear to the Aged; for he can teach thee of thy life to come!
96.Attempt not two things at once! for the one will hinder the other.

Aristotle.
97. Let no covetous man have any rule over thee; nor yield thyself subject to Covetousness! for the covetous man will defraud thee of thy goods; and Covetousness will defraud thee of thyself!

Plato.
98. Be sober and chaste among young folks, that they may learn of thee; and among old, that thou mayst learn of them!

Hermes.
99. Desire not to be wise in Words; but in Works!

Plato.
100. If thou desire to be good; endeavor thyself to learn, to know, and to follow, Truth: for he that is ignorant therein, and will not learn, cannot be good!

Aristotle.
101. Keep a measure on thy communication! For if thou be too brief, thou shalt not be well understood: and if thou be too long, thou shalt not be well borne in mind!
102. To him that is too full of his Questions; give no Answer at all!

Pythagoras.
103. Reason not with him, that will deny the principal truths!
104. Use examples; that such as thou teaches may understand thee the better!

Socrates.
105. Love if thou wilt be loved.
106. Let not your thoughts depart from the truth.
107. Consider what you promise; and perform faithfully.
108. Praise little, but dispraise less!
109. Let not the authority of the speaker persuade thee; but mark well what it is that is spoken!
110. Be familiar with few!
111. Be impartial and equal towards every man.
112. Be slow to wrath! swift to mercy and pity!
113. Be constant and patient in adversity; and in prosperity wary and lowly!
114. Do to all men as thou wouldest be done by.
115. Eat rather for hunger; than for pleasure and delight.
116. See that thy gifts be according to thine ability! For if they be too big; thou shalt be thought a Waster; and if they too small, thou shalt be thought a Niggard!
117. Let thy gifts be such, as he to whom thou givest them doth delight in!

Seneca.
118. Succor them that perish; yet not so that thou thyself perish thereby!
119. If thou bestow a benefit, keep it secret; but if thou receive a benefit, publish it abroad!
120. Boast no thyself of that which is another man’s!
121. Praise a man for Manners and Learning; for that is his own; which neither comes by Heritage; neither altereth with Fortune; nor is changed by Age: but is always one with him.
122. Give part of thy goods to the needy; so shall God increase them!

Socrates.
123. Sow good works; and thou shalt reap the flowers of Joy and Gladness!
124. Boast not of thy good deeds; lest thine evil, be also laid to thy charge.
125. Be not ashamed to hear the Truth, of whomsoever it be! For Truth is so noble of itself, that it maketh them honorable that pronounce it.

Pythagoras.
126. Honor Wisdom; and deny it not to them that would learn; and show it unto them that dispraise it!
127. Accustom not thyself to be heavy and sad! Yet, be thoughtful! for that is a token of a prudent man.
128. Behave thyself gently to everybody! So shalt thou make the good thy friends; and keep the bad from being thine enemies.
129. Desire to be cleanly, and not gorgeous, in thine apparel!

Socrates.
130. Speak ever of God; and God will always put good words in thy mouth!
131. Fix not thy mind upon Worldly pleasure; nor trust to the World! for it deceives all that put their trust therein.
132. Be content with little; and covet not another man’s goods!
133. Be sober in thy living; and replenish thine heart with Wisdom!
134. Mock not another man for his misery. but take heed by him, how to avoid the like misfortune!

Hermes.
135. Receive patiently the words of correction; though they seem grievous!
136. Beware of Spies ad Talebearers!

Socrates.
137. Make thy prayers perfect, in the sight of God. For Prayer is like a ship in the sea: which, if it be good, saveth all therein; but if it be nought, suffereth them to perish.

Plutarch.
138. Pray not to God to give thee sufficient; for that, he will give to each man unasked: but pray that thou mayest be content and satisfied with that which he giveth thee!
139. If thou desire to be beloved of everybody; salute each man gladly! be liberal in giving! and thankful in receiving!
139. Forget thine Anger easily; and desire not to be revenged!
140. If thou desire to continue long with another man; pain thee to instruct him well in Good Manners!