The lives of good people are brightly lit streets; the lives of the wicked are dark alleys.

Arrogant know-it-alls stir up discord, but wise men and women listen to each other’s counsel.

There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell. Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.

An unlucky loser is shunned by all, but everyone loves a winner.

Life Ascends to the Heights

Know-it-alls don’t like being told what to do; they avoid the company of wise men and women.

Good leaders abhor wrongdoing of all kinds; sound leadership has a moral foundation.

Appetite is an incentive to work; hunger makes you work all the harder.

One Who Knows Much Says Little

Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.

Fools care nothing for thoughtful discourse; all they do is run off at the mouth.

Form your purpose by asking for counsel, then carry it out using all the help you can get.

Valuables are safe in a wise person’s home; fools put it all out for yard sales.

The Thirty Precepts of the Sages

Don’t Move Back the Boundary Lines

Listen carefully to my wisdom; take to heart what I can teach you. You’ll treasure its sweetness deep within; you’ll give it bold expression in your speech. To make sure your foundation is trust in God, I’m laying it all out right now just for you. I’m giving you thirty sterling principles— tested guidelines to live by. Believe me—these are truths that work, and will keep you accountable to those who sent you.

A prostitute is a bottomless pit; a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast. She’ll take you for all you’ve got; she’s worse than a pack of thieves.

18

Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beaten up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot? It’s those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business. Don’t judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor. Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with— the splitting headache, the queasy stomach. Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred, Reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor? “They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt; they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing. When I’m sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!”

Intelligence Outranks Muscle

19

Don’t envy bad people; don’t even want to be around them. All they think about is causing a disturbance; all they talk about is making trouble.

29

Don’t bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked. Those people have no future at all; they’re headed down a dead-end street.

One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones, and then passed the vineyard of a slob; They were overgrown with weeds, thick with thistles, all the fences broken down. I took a long look and pondered what I saw; the fields preached me a sermon and I listened: “A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, with poverty as your permanent houseguest!”

A Person Without Self-Control

When you’re given a box of candy, don’t gulp it all down; eat too much chocolate and you’ll make yourself sick; And when you find a friend, don’t outwear your welcome; show up at all hours and he’ll soon get fed up.

Your enemy shakes hands and greets you like an old friend, all the while plotting against you. When he speaks warmly to you, don’t believe him for a minute; he’s just waiting for the chance to rip you off. No matter how shrewdly he conceals his malice, eventually his evil will be exposed in public.

Pound on a fool all you like— you can’t pound out foolishness.

Get as rich as you want through cheating and extortion, But eventually some friend of the poor is going to give it all back to them.

The rich think they know it all, but the poor can see right through them.

If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others.

A fool lets it all hang out; a sage quietly mulls it over.

When a leader listens to malicious gossip, all the workers get infected with evil.