, “Only when I seek all men shall I know myself.”
Man is two men: one is awake in darkness, the other is asleep in light.
A hermit is one who renounces the world of fragments that he may enjoy the world wholly and without interruption.
There lies a green field between the scholar and the poet:
should the scholar cross it, he becomes a wise man;
should the poet cross it, he becomes a prophet.
Yestereve I saw philosophers in the market-place carrying their heads in baskets,
and crying aloud, “Wisdom! Wisdom for sale!”
Poor philosophers! They must sell their heads to feed their hearts.
Said a philosopher to a street sweeper, “I pity you. Yours is a hard and dirty task.”
And the street sweeper said, “Thank you, ”
And the philosopher answered saying, “I study man’ s mind, his deeds and his desires.”
Then the street sweeper went on with his sweeping and said with a smile,“I pity you too.”
He who listens to truth is not less than he who utters truth.
No man can draw the line between necessities and luxuries.
Only the angels can do that, and the angels are wise and wistful.
Perhaps the angels are our better thought in space.
He is the true prince who finds his throne in the heart of the dervish.
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
In truth you owe naught to any man. You owe all to all men.
All those who have lived in the past live with us now.
Surely none of us would be an ungracious host.
He who longs the most lives the longest.
They say to me, “A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush.”
沙与沫 第四章（5）
But I say, “A bird and a feather in the bush are worth more than ten birds in the hand.”
Your seeking after that feather is life with winged feet; nay, it is life itself.
There are only two elements here, beauty and truth;
beauty in the hearts of lovers, and truth in the arms of the tillers of the soil.
Great beauty captures me, but a beauty still greater frees me even from itself.
Beauty shines brighter in the heart of him who longs for it than in the eyes of him who sees it.
I admire him who reveals his mind to me; I honor him who unveils his dreams.
But why am I shy, and even a little ashamed before him who serves me?
The gifted were once proud in serving princes. Now they claim honor in serving paupers.
The angels know that too many practical men eat their bread with the sweat of the dreamer’s brow.
Wit is often a mask. If you could tear it you would find either a genius irritated or cleverness juggling.
The understanding attributes to me understanding and the dull, dullness. I think they are both right.◎◎文◎檔◎共◎享◎與◎在◎線◎閱◎讀◎
Only those with secrets in their hearts could divine the secrets in our hearts.
He who would share your pleasure but not your pain shall lose the key to one of the seven gates of paradise.
Yes, there is a Nirvana; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them.
Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.
When either your joy or your sorrow becomes great the world becomes small.
Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death.
The bitterest thing in our today’s sorrow is the memory of our yesterday’s joy.
They say to me,“You must choose between the pleasures of this world and the peace of the next world.”
And I say to them, “I have chosen both the delights of this world and the peace of the next.
For I know in my heart that the Supreme Poet wrote but one poem,
and it scans perfectly, and it also rhymes perfectly.”
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
When you reach your height you shall desire but only for desire; and you shall hunger, for hunger; and you shall thirst for greater thirst.
If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees. The flowers of spring are winter’s dre