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Saadi
65 quotes
“He—in whose nature, is the ugly disposition Sees not the peacock,—only his ugly foot.”
Saadi (1210–1292) first seen 1257 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bustan (1257), Chapter 7. Tr. H. Wilberforce Clarke, The Bustan (London: Wm. H. Allen & Co, 1879) p. 341
“Have patience! All things are difficult before they become easy.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Moncure D. Conway, The Sacred Anthology (London: Trübner & Co, 1874) p. 211
“He who is a slave to his stomach seldom worships God.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pestanji C. Taskar, A Grammar of the Persian Tongue, pt. 2 (Bombay, 1886) p. 172
“To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sara A. Hubbard (ed.) Catchwords of Cheer (Chicago: R. F. Seymour, 1900) n.p.
“When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; when it is full, the spirit becomes body.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in R. W. Emerson's Preface to Francis Gladwin, The Gulistan or Rose Garden (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1865) p. x
“Every leaf of the tree becomes a page of the sacred scripture once the soul has learnt to read.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Indirectly quoted in H. I. Khan, The Sufi Message, vol. 2 (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1960) p. 262
“In the faculty of speech man excels the brute; but if thou utterest what is improper, the brute is thy superior.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction. Tr. James Ross, The Gulistan, or Flower Garden (London: J. M. Richardson, 1823) p. 107
“There is a difference between him who claspeth his mistress in his arms, and him whose eyes are fixed on the door expecting her.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 1, story 7. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 129
“بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار دگر عضوها را نماند قرار تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی نشاید که نامت نهند آدمیBanī 'ādam a'zā-ye yek peykar-and ke dar 'āfarīn-aš ze yek gowhar-and čo 'ozvī be dard āvarad rūzgār degar 'ozvhā-rā na-mānad qarār to k-az mehnat-ē dīgarān bīqam-ī na-šāyad ke nām-at nahand ādamī”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 1, story 10. Tr. M. Aryanpoor, in Ranjit Bolt, The Art of Translation (London: Oberon, 2010) p. 50
“If thou covetest riches, ask not but for contentment, which is an immense treasure.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 2, story 26. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 223
“I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune, except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart, and beheld a man without feet, I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes, and recited: "A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man less valuable than a blade of fresh grass on the table, and to him who has no means nor power a burnt turnip is [as good as] a roasted fowl.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 3, story 19. Tr. Sir Richard Burton, Tales From the Gulistan (London: Philip Allan & Co Ltd, 1928) p. 130 (Persian version)
“Use a sweet tongue, courtesy, and gentleness, and thou mayst manage to guide an elephant with a hair.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 3, story 27. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 292
“When gnats act in concert they will bring down an elephant: when ants set to work, and move in a body, they can strip a fierce lion of its hide.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 3, story 27. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 294
“Were the diver to think on the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 3, story 27. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 299
“Whatever makes an impression on the heart seems lovely in the eye.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 5, story 1. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 317
“Science is for the cultivation of religion, not for worldly enjoyments.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 4. Tr. Edward B. Eastwick, The Gulistan; or, Rose-Garden (Hertford: Stephen Austin, 1852) p. 264
“Who despises an insignificant enemy resembles him who is careless about fire.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 12. Tr. Sir Richard Burton (1928) p. 226
“Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to waste.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 36. Tr. cited in Mohammed M. Zaki, American Global Challenges: The Obama Era (2011) p. 16
“Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself, in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 37. Tr. Francis Gladwin, The Gulistān: Rose-Garden (London: Parbury, Allen, and Co, 1834) p. 274
“Whoever interrupts the conversation of others to make a display of his own fund of knowledge, makes notorious his own stock of ignorance.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 96. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 461
“Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Idries Shah, The Sufis (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964) p. 192
“A little and a little collected together becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop form an inundation.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How hast thou so profound a lore attained?" "To ask another, I was ne’er ashamed.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wise man never heard a joke But living wisdom from it broke; The fool no wisdom ever learned But it in him to folly turned.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Each is bounded by his nature, And remains the same in stature, In the valley, on the mountain: Scoop from ocean or from fountain With a poor hand or a richer, You can only fill your pitcher.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our condition is like the darting lightning, one instant flashing and the next disappearing. Sometimes we are seated above the fourth heaven, and at other times we cannot see the back of our feet.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He only has drunk the pure wine of unity who has forgotten, by remembering , all else in both worlds.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To pious minds, each verdant leaf displays A volume teeming with the Almighty’s praise.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A return of good for good is a slight reciprocity; but the true recompense is to confer benefits on him who has injured thee.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O brothers, Mecca is in front, and robbers in the rear. By proceeding, we escape; and, if we sleep, we die.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not all the year, the vines their clusters keep: Now fruitful are, now leafy tears do weep. Sunlike, the pure are shadowed by a cloud; As sparks on water are the envious crowd: Those, by degrees, their former radiance shed; These are extinguished in a wat’ry bed. Fear not the dark, my friend, howe’er profound: Perchance therein life’s water may be found. Let not despair, though dark, thy soul dismay, For night is pregnant with the glorious day.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Saadi as translated in The Gulistān : Or, Rose-garden, of Shek̲h̲ Muslihu'd-dīn Sādī of Shīrāz as translated by Edward Backhouse Eastwick (1880), p. 203
Also quoted by: Joseph Addison (misattributed)
“Take warning by the misfortunes of others, that others may not take example from you.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let him who neglects to raise the fallen, fear lest, when he falls, no one will stretch out his hand to lift him up.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That which is not allotted the hand cannot reach; and what is allotted you will find wherever you may be.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O wise man, wash your hands of that friend who associates with your enemies.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The telling of a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Independence is of more value than any gifts; and to receive gifts is to lose it. — Men most commonly seek to oblige thee only that they may engage thee to serve them.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I fear God, and next to God I chiefly fear him who fears him not.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A wise man in the company of those who are ignorant, has been compared to a beautiful girl in the company of blind men.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A grateful dog is better than an ungrateful man.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two persons take trouble in vain, and use fruitless endeavors, — he who acquires wealth without enjoying it, and he who is taught wisdom but does not practice it. How much soever you may study science, when you do not act wisely you are ignorant. The beast whom they load with books is not profoundly learned and wise; what knoweth his empty skull whether he carrieth firewood or books?”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who learns, and makes no use of his learning, is a beast of burden with a load of books. — Does the ass comprehend whether he carries on his back a library or a bundle of faggots?”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who is intoxicated with wine will be sober again in the course of the night, but he who is intoxicated by the cup-bearer will not recover his senses until the day of judgment.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend, excepting lust, the indulgence of which increases its enmity.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source