Ch 08 On Rules For Conduct In Life - Admonition 10
Wrath beyond measure produces estrangement and untimely kindness destroys authority. Be neither so harsh as to disgust the people with thee nor so mild as to embolden them.
Severity and mildness together are best
Like a bleeder who is a surgeon and also applies a salve.
A wise man uses neither severity to excess
Nor mildness; for it lessens his authority.
He neither exalts himself too much
Nor exposes himself at once to contempt.
A youth said to his father: ‘O wise man,
Give me for instruction one advice like an aged person.’
He said: ‘Be kind but not to such a degree
That a sharp-toothed wolf may become audacious.’
Related quotes
A wise man carries not severity to excess, nor suffers such relaxation as will lessen his own dignity.
Saadi in Gulistan (The Rose Garden) (1258), translated by Francis Gladwin
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Authority Song
They like to get you in a compromising position
They like to get you there and smille in your face
They think, theyre so cute when they got you in that condition
Well I think, its a total disgrace
Chorus:
I fight authority, authority always wins
I fight authority, authority always wins
I been doing it, since I was a young kid
Ive come out grinnin
I fight authority, authority always wins
So I call up my preacher
I say: gimme strenght for round 5
He said: you dont need no strength, you need to grow up, son
I said: growing up leads to growing old and then to dying,
And dying to me dont sound like all that much fun
Chorus:
I fight authority, authority always wins
I fight authority, authority always wins
I been doing it, since I was a young kid
Ive come out grinnin
I fight authority, authority always wins
I fight authority, authority always wins
I fight authority, authority always wins
I been doing it, since I was a young kid
Ive come out grinnin
I fight authority, authority always wins
Oh no
Oh no
I fight authority, authority always wins
Chorus:
I fight authority, authority always wins
I fight authority, authority always wins
I been doing it, since I was a young kid
Ive come out grinnin
I fight authority, authority always wins
I fight authority, authority always wins
I fight authority, authority always wins
I been doing it, since I was a young kid
Ive come out grinnin
I fight authority, authority always wins
song performed by by John Mellencamp
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
quote by Albert Einstein
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Authority is not a quality one person ""has,"" in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.
quote by Erich Fromm
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A poem deconstructing itself in homage to Barthes and Derrida (for Wendy if she can decode it)
I dreamed a dream profound and wise
about the state of man:
the brain a mass of wriggly worms,
the mind an old tin can..
The first word presents the semiotic question
of authorial authority:
is this a real person recounting
a ‘real’ dream, insofar as
dreams are ‘real’, and thus
presenting the authority of detached observation
(insofar as accepted structures of waking,
sleeping, dreaming, etc., are assumed,
thus ‘fictitious’ in an absolute sense)
or, is this a hermeneutic introductory opening
implying a proairetic forward movement?
moving on rapidly to the whole first line,
what is the authorial stance in ‘profound and wise’?
is the ‘author’ asserting the semantic truth of this dream,
or is this a lexia which is presented to the reader to resolve
in his or her own reading?
or is simply buttressing the symbolic integrity
of the ontological construct presented?
jeezus the more I read the deconstruction
the more I think the first verse could be true
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Sonnet: Forgive Wisely
A statesman wise sees well beyond his times;
A leader great foresees the future well;
A monarch thinks of commonweal all climes;
A pope ensures that no soul lands in hell!
Sometimes, we better forget ego clash;
The world at large does matter more than self;
At times, to forgive, we must make a dash;
Forgiving brethren is better than pelf!
Let decisions be wise always in life;
We do not lose a thing in being kind;
An act of help is welcome amidst strife;
Sometimes to regulations, we needn't bind!
Let men in high authority be wise;
No man is perfect or afree of vice!
Copyright by Dr John Celes 26-06-12
poem by John Celes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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It's Winter
Speeding life on the highway of time discovers...
Suddenly losing its severity shines the morning mild Sun!
In gentle breeze, dusty leaves of roadside plants shiver...
I was left to guess, what would be there at the misty horizon!
Did I see an aged man by the road covered in pullover?
Abrupt goose bumps confirm, it's time for winter to take over.
poem by Kingshuk Chakraborty
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The issue is whether the ultimate civil authority of the United States can tolerate actions in contempt of constitutional lines of authority. Any lessening of civil power over military power must inevitably lead away from democracy.
quote by Harold Russell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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God’s Broken Vessels
so often I heard
from those wise
in worldly ways
proud in youthful
strength exuberance
high spirited vitality
or mature in success
confident in achievements
resting on laurels earned
words that approximate in
agreed contemplation to this
I thought religion was only a
crutch for the weak the broken
reminds of Karl Marx and his often quoted
‘religion as Opium of the people’ comment
yet God gave authority
to those who will conquer
and observe his deed until
the time of the end, authority
over nations, to shepherd
over people with an iron rod
'so that they will be broken to
pieces like clay vessels, the
same as I received from my Father' Revelation 2: 27
keeps springing to mind
the intriguing part of that verse
is Christ received the same
for us from his father
we are truly remade in
the image of Christ
his broken flesh was scourged
for us, thirty nine stripes,
to conquer all thirty nine types
of medically declared diseases
remember God “is near to those
that are broken hearted; And
those who are crushed in spirit he saves” Psalms 34: 18
“Better is the little of the righteous one
Than the abundance of the many wicked ones.” Psalms 37: 16
poem by Terence George Craddock
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You are providing for your disciples a show of wisdom without the reality. For, acquiring by your means much information unaided by instruction, they will appear to possess much knowledge, while, in fact, they will, for the most part, know nothing at all; and, moreover, be disagreeable people to deal with, as having become wise in their own conceit, instead of truly wise.
A wise man ought not to desire to inhabit that country where men have more authority than laws.
quote by Walter Raleigh
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Ch 08 On Rules For Conduct In Life - Maxim 18
Ten men eat at a table but two dogs will contend for one piece of carrion. A greedy person will still be hungry with the whole world, whilst a contented man will be satisfied with one bread. Wise men have said that poverty with content is better than wealth and not abundance.
Narrow intestines may be filled with dry bread
But the wealth of the surface of the world will not fill a greedy eye.
When the term of my father’s life had come to an end
He gave me this one advice and passed away:
Lust is fire, abstain therefrom,
Make not the fire of hell sharp for thee.
In that fire the burning thou wilt not be able to bear,
Quench this fire with water today.
Oh, what do I do?
Oh,
What do I do
If people do
Not want to change
For their own good?
What do I do
If people want
To fight in vain
In angry mood?
What do I do
If people love
To do those things
They should not do?
What do I do
If people try
To slander and
Much gossip too?
What do I do
If people do
Not live in peace
With fellow-men?
What do I do
If people bear
Ill-will and grudge
Against brethren?
What do I do
If people strive
To live in vice,
And not advice?
What do I do
If people will
Not share excess
With country-men?
What do I do
If people like
To live in sin
And hate, within?
What do I do
If people don’t
Amend their lives
And turn soul-wise?
What do I do
If people waste
Their precious time
In ego prime?
The things men do
And women too,
Hurt minds and hearts,
Like arrows, darts!
The things they do
Can anger God,
To give His nod
For divine rod!
Oh, will not men
Give up their pride
Or their sins hide,
In God abide?
Copyright by Dr John Celes 8-24-2007
poem by John Celes
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If There's A God
If there's a God that God is for everybody and in every good person that God you will find
And if there's a God that God is not judgemental but understanding very wise and kind
The fundimentalists say that their God is a true God and those who pray to other Gods to false Gods pray
The true God than their God must be far kinder a far superior God in every way,
Some people who are spiritual as well as quite wise say there's only one God and that's the God within
And that God is ever kind and none judgemental and capable of forgiving even mortal sin
The God men wage war for is not a true God and many go to war in their God's name
A true God would not need them as worshippers war to a true God would be a thing of shame
If there's a God that God is a kind spirit and far greater than the God's we hear about
He even could embrace the non believers and give them the benefit of any doubt
The Gods we hear about they do seem cruel Gods so egotistical in their own way
An eye for an eye does seem for to appease them for everyone's life a true God respect would pay
And if there's a God that God is for all people unlike the God that humankind create
A God who believes on a fair go for all people and the only God we ought to celebrate.
poem by Francis Duggan
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Shakespeare in Love
To me my beauty you never shall be old,
Though Time shall scourge your fragile shield of flesh;
I balm those wounds as Time's cruel lash does scold,
And heal his welts, your loveliness refreshed;
For in my love are herbs of powers rare
Restoring as harsh Time does take away,
My eyes, your mirror, chastening your despair,
Reflecting forth you've aged not yet a day;
Take comfort then within this frame of youth:
You radiate impervious to decay;
Wise Men well know this immortal truth:
Time captures not true lovers in its sway;
Your beauty is the kindness of your soul,
And goodness ages not as Time unfolds.
poem by David McLansky
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The Wise And Good
'O father, I saw at the church as I passed
The populace gathered in numbers so vast
That they couldn't get in; and their voices were low,
And they looked as if suffering terrible woe.'
''Twas the funeral, child, of a gentleman dead
For whom the great heart of humanity bled.'
'What made it bleed, father, for every day
Somebody passes forever away?
Do the newspaper men print a column or more
Of every person whose troubles are o'er?'
'O, no; they could never do that-and indeed,
Though printers might print it, no reader would read.
To the sepulcher all, soon or late, must be borne,
But 'tis only the Wise and the Good that all mourn.'
'That's right, father dear, but how can our eyes
Distinguish in dead men the Good and the Wise?'
'That's easy enough to the stupidest mind:
They're poor, and in dying leave nothing behind.'
'Seest thou in mine eye, father, anything green?
And takest thy son for a gaping marine?
Go tell thy fine tale of the Wise and the Good
Who are poor and lamented to babes in the wood.'
And that horrible youth as I hastened away
Was building a wink that affronted the day.
poem by Ambrose Bierce
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By A Defeated Litigant
Liars for witnesses; for lawyers brutes
Who lose their tempers to retrieve their suits;
Cowards for jurors; and for judge a clown
Who ne'er took up the law, yet lays it down;
Justice denied, authority abused,
And the one honest person the accused
Thy courts, my country, all these awful years,
Move fools to laughter and the wise to tears.
poem by Ambrose Bierce
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People who have bread to eat do not appreciate the severity of a famine.
Many people think that virtue consists of severity towards others.
quote by Alphonse Karr
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Doing Their Best To Achieve
What advice would you give,
To anyone seeking with a wish...
To become successful.
'That's a difficult question.
I really don't know.
And advice?
I am no authority to be giving advice,
To anyone.'
Okay.
What would you say about those,
Who have given their support...
To the ones who do become successful.
'Few people know,
From the beginning who will become successful.
However...
I will say this,
It depends on the enviorment one lives in.
If one hears over and over again,
That they need to leave an enviornment...
In which people are not accustomed,
To those wishing to achieve success...
There will be many people there believing themselves,
Limited in mind and insecure.
And many will berate anyone choosing to think...
They can do something else with their lives,
Than wasting their time talking about others...
Doing their best to achieve.
And achievement takes work, discipline, devotion and sacrifice.
With a getting of very little sleep,
Those unaware would never accept to believe.'
Do you believe you are successful?
'Extremely.
I was born with the ability to ignore naysayers.
Especially those hiding their insecurities,
To make excuses to dump their self hatred on others.
And people like that I have known all my life.'
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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