s too big for you to ask it to serve you, and you are too
little to hope to change it.

Blood binds men with a thread, but love binds them with a metal band.

The bonds of blood hold longer,
The bonds of love hold stronger.

Easier it is for the sun to hate its own light than for a mother to hate
her own son.

* * * * *

When men are quarrelling about the land, God is standing among them and
whispering: "I am the Proprietor!"

God may be either accompanying or pursuing you. It depends upon you.

A lake at the foot of a mountain is a mirror for the mountain; just so
is the past a mirror for mankind.

A pine-tree looks towards heaven expecting with confidence rain, snow,
or light. You can protect yourself from rain, snow and light, but there
is no roof to protect you from death.

Our life is obscure, our death is obscure; God is the only light of
both.

Our body is fragile, our soul is fragile; God is the only strength of
both. Our works are dust, our hopes are dust; God only makes both
enduring.

From three sides God encircles us; He remains behind us in the past, He
is with us in the present, and He awaits us in the future.

* * * * *

Death relieves a rich man more than a poor one, for from the poor man it
takes only life, while from the rich it takes both life and fortune.

If you cannot admire the animal's dull life, you must at least admire
its noiseless death.

The sea, when asked why it roared, replied: "To show men how petty their
noisy quarrels are."

An oak, when asked in what way it thought oaks superior to men, said:
"We oaks are more decent in taking our food, for we hide our mouths and
eat only in the darkness under the earth."

A raven, when asked the difference between the flesh of an innocent man
and a wicked one, replied: "The flesh of an innocent man supports my
life, but the flesh of a wicked man is difficult for me to find."

A dog knows the world by smell, a wolf by appetite, a bird by hearing, a
worm by tasting, and a man by seeing.

Are you afraid to touch the unclean man? The sun which is purer than you
is not afraid.

Except his soul, there is nothing in man which can be saved from
corruption.

A little dog said to a wolf: "Don't eat me now; when my teeth have
grown, I will be sweeter for you."

A calf said to the cow, its mother, who wore a heavy yoke: "You are old
enough not to be so stupid as t