Thought for the day...

A ploughman on his feet is higher than a gentleman on his knees.

Think of ease, but work on.

In doing, we learn.

He who would climb a ladder must start at the bottom.

At the workingman’s house, hunger looks in but dares not enter.

 

The world is a ladder for some to go up, and some down.

The world is a net; the more we stir in it, the more we are entangled.

In spite of colleges and schools, the world remains a ship of fools.

The world is a great book, of which they who never stir from home read only a page.

Sorrow to the soul is what the worm is to wood.

 

To carry care to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back.

Taking things philosophically is easy if they don’t concern you.

The wicked grow worse, and good men better for trouble.

A man’s best fortune, or his worst, is his wife.

It is best to make the best of the worst.

 

Imitate the best, not the worst.

The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.

The worth of a thing is best known by the want of it.

An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains.

Little enemies and little wounds must not be despised.

 

A soft answer turns away wrath.

If a thing is done wrong, it is far better that it had not been done at all.

There is as much in knowing how not to do wrong as there is in knowing how to do right.

Retribution is sure to come to him who does wrong.

The most honest people are those who are too ignorant to know how to do wrong.

 

Years know more than books.

No man can call again yesterday.

You cannot know wine from the barrel.

When we are out of sympathy with the young, our work in the world is over.

Rashness attends youth, as prudence does old age.

 

A young twig is easier twisted than an old tree.

A young woman married to an old man must behave like an old woman.

Young heads are giddy and young hearts are warm.

If the young man would and the old man could, there would be nothing undone.

Young men may die, old men must.

 

In old men there is no taste; in young no insight.

The old man shows what the young man was.

In youth we believe many things that are not true; in old age we doubt many truths.

The fewer the years, the fewer the tears.

Youth and white paper take any impression.

 

Old age considers; youth ventures.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Zeal without knowledge is sister of folly.

Zeal is only for wise men but is found mostly in fools.

Success is due less to ability than to zeal.

 

The old man sat at the side of the road,
Weary and tired with a very heavy load.
A callow youth, with a swaggering stride,
Paused a bit at the old man’s side.

“Old man,” said he, What do you do?
This is no place for an old man like you.
Your days are measured, how ever you try
There’s naught for you to do yet except to die!”

He turned away, as if to go,
But the old man was speaking, calmly and slow.
“Young man,” said he, “your words are but true;
My youthful days are almost over and all but through.

But you must learn, before you go
The load I carry, surely and slow.
The total sum of all of life,
Of days of triumph, of joy and strife;

Of love and caring, of family and friends,
Of hope and of faith that never ends;
A load that you must carry yourself too,
When you are old and your days are few!”

The youth before him stood quite still,
Held, it seemed, by the old man’s will.
Then solemnly and slowly he raised his eyes,
And bent his gaze on the evening skies.

“Oh Lord,” he prayed, “thank You, I say,
For sending me along this path today.
I’ve learned the way of life tonight,
And I shall now tread the path of right.”

He turned to the man by the side of the road.
“Come on, old fellow and I’ll share your load.”
The pair set off with a measured stride;
Old age and youth walking side by side!