th an axe to cut it down, the oak is better than the man.

A gold piece lying shining in the dust is better than the man attempting
to steal it.

Life has silken wings, but Death uses iron scissors.

Our disappointments prove only that Fate refuses to further our projects
in life.

* * * * *

Happiness forgets many, Death nobody.

Life allures us with a full glass, and in the end casts us and the glass
together into the grave.

Life and Death are each other's heirs.

Living, we see the bright side of life and the dark side of death, but
afterwards we will see each reversed.

As many tears and sighs are caused by life as by death.

A man cannot understand his father until he has experienced fatherhood,
nor can a woman understand her mother before she herself becomes a
mother.

Our birth is a mingling of pleasure and pain; the pain sanctifies the
pleasure.

Although opposed, the pleasure and the pain lend strength to one
another.

Even the thief pays for what he steals, for in getting an inch of good
for his body he loses an inch of his soul.

In this life God follows you as your shadow, in the next you will go as
God's shadow.

Seeing, suffering, and death are three teachers of men. Seeing makes men
wise, suffering makes them wiser, and death makes them wisest of all.

The finest music of hearts and stars is heard only in the silence of
death.

In every humble superstition there is greater beauty than in any
vain-glorious wisdom.

Man's greatest wisdom is nearer the wisdom of the horse than it is to
the wisdom of God.

Our bodies are only bridges over which our souls communicate with one
another.

Our eyes are windows of our souls, Hypocrisy is a curtain covering these
windows.

* * * * *

What is Death?

If you are freezing on a winter night, it is a warm couch.

If you are hungry, it is a place where hunger is never felt.

If you are persecuted, it is a kind-hearted overlord who welcomes you at
the open door.

If you are alone and forgotten, it is a hall where your dearest kinsmen
are expecting you.

If you are a sinner, then it is for you a period of pain and shame.

If you are a slave, it is your liberty.

* * * * *

A slave came daily to a noisy brook and, sitting down, listened in
silence. "Why do you come every day to me?" asked the brook. "I am
condemned to silence by my tyrants,