  FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN NATIONAL WISDOM Be as patient as an ox, as brave as a lion, as industrious as a bee, and as cheerful as a bird. Help the beggar. He is not a beggar because God cannot feed all His children, but because He placed him as a beggar on the street to test your heart. Every penny that you give to a beggar, God counts double as His debt to you. What is the first principle for humanity? Some say to eat, others not to eat. Some say to speak, others to remain silent. Some say to hasten, others to go slowly. Some say to work, others to idle. Some say to pray, others not to pray. Some say to destroy life, and others to preserve it. What, then, is this first principle? It is Life and Death, and God over both. The moonlight accentuates the silence of the churchyard, the sunshine the clamour of the market-place. By our good works we help God very little, and by our evil deeds we do Him no harm. But by our good works we help ourselves, and by our evil deeds we harm ourselves. Nevertheless, do good not for your own sake, but for God's, so that your joy may be greater and your determination more lasting. Sin is worse than failure. Vice is worse than sin. Obstinacy in evil is worse than vice. To be a drunkard means making an alliance with Satan, to steal means to do Satan's work, and to kill means to become Satan's slave. Whether you go slowly or quickly, Death keeps his appointment. There are three kinds of men: first, those who plough and sow with the devil; second, those who plough with the devil and sow with God; and third, those who plough and sow with God. The riddle of life is so mysterious that the more we try to solve it the deeper seems the mystery, but the more we work and pray, the nearer seems the solution. Scrutiny magnifies the enigma of life, prayer lessens it. Whether righteous or unrighteous, you must If I see your eyes, I know you a little. If I hear your voice, I know you still more. If I see your actions, I will know you altogether. When Christ Crucified was contemptuously asked by His executioners why His followers were not trying to avenge Him, He answered: "They will not remove your sin by committing one of their own." When St. Peter was asked why he would be crucified head down, he answered: "Because in leaving this life I wish to look toward heaven, not toward you." A man, asked what two things he did not like, said a worm in the ear and an enemy at the door. A man, asked what things he disliked, said an old bachelor telling love stories of his youth. A hermit, asked what excited his compassion most, said an ox with a thorn in his foot and a man whose feet have never felt the thorn; or a thirsty eagle in a desert and a man who has never felt thirst. There are two brotherhoods among men, that of purity and that of impurity. Be as courageous as the days which come and go, even when they know that men are waiting to fill them with impurity. If a man casts clay at the sun, it falls back on his face; if he casts stones against God, they fall on his head. The man who utters lies defiles not only the air, but his own heart. The man who counts gold pieces in the dark has only gold for his sun and is miserable. Both man and the air are purified by movement. By using our hands we become strong; by using our brains, wise; and by using our hearts, merciful. When the cow lies down to ruminate and a man goes to do evil, the cow is better than the man. When an oak turns towards the sun to enjoy its life, and a man comes with 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, and I come to voice my complaints through your clamorous babbling." A slave listened every night to a nightingale. "Why are you listening to me?" said the bird. The answer was: "My ears are denied all day by the curses of my master, and I listen all night to your voice so that my ears may be purified." A slave looked every day towards the clouds. "O man, why do you look at us?" said the clouds. "Because," said the slave, "I hope you understand my thought, and will tell them to Him to whom you are nearer than I am." Until a man is a father he looks back to his own father; when he is himself a father he looks forward and loses his father. Men with little wisdom have much passion; men with much wisdom have great compassion and little passion. Never in prayer try to teach God what He should do for you, but rather ask Him what you should do for Him. Too much light as well as too much darkness causes blindness. Construct a better world, and then you may say that this one is bad. When you kill a lion, you can say: "I sinned because I killed my brother." When you kill a man, you can say: "I sinned because I killed myself." If you love God, you cannot fear Him; if you fear Him, you cannot love Him. Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you. When the wind blows, the fool tries to compete by shouting. Summer is most loved in winter, and winter in summer. Ugliness moves slowly, but beauty is in great haste. God speaks every language except the godless, God grants everything except eternity, God takes back everything but sins. The best thing that the last man on earth can do is just what the first man could do. He can The fool is wisest when he sleeps; the wise man is most foolish when he dances. When young men stand at the bier of an old man, it is pathetic; if old men stand at the bier of a young man, it is grievous; but God sees all and keeps silent. Why should you lament? If you kill a solitary man, his kinsmen from the other world will persecute you. Nobody can forever conceal what is good in you, nor can you yourself conceal what is evil. There is no real death except the death of the soul. There is no real joy except the joy of a righteous man. The joy of the sinner is half joy and half retribution. The eyes are the controller of the tongue. A clever man tells his lies with his eyes closed. What is the news? There is no news but what is half old. It is better to talk about what you know than to talk about what you do not know. He who can love passionately can hate passionately. Maternal love is most enduring, a brother's hatred the shortest. There is no harvest without seed. We see often a harvest of evil, the seed of which time has concealed. In the life to come all our senses will be doubled and quadrupled, so that when we see we shall see not only with our eyes but with our whole being, and when we hear and when we smell or taste it is the same. Thus will it be where the morning sun shines always. We see only the beams of the sun, but the spirits also hear them; we hear the song of the nightingale, but the spirits also see it. In the next world what we now hear we shall see; what we now see we shall hear, and shall taste what we now smell. Gold shines, and by shining speaks. How can you understand its language? God does, because He sent its language to the gold. What is man? Something between God and clay. What is clay? Something that God makes. What is God? Something of which clay and man are the shadow. It is no wonder that an animal should be selfish, not knowing its end. But it is wonderful that man can be selfish, knowing and foreseeing his end. A Turk once asked a Serb why the Serbs wept so much. The Serb replied, "To wash away your Turkish sins." A Turk asked a Serb why the Serbs reminded people of the field of Kossovo. "Because," said the Serb, "our dead are better than your living." All men are born in an impure state, but only the good reach a state of purity in life and in death. Men are unhappy when striving to know all truth, because truth is greater than their life, and for this life only a small part of truth is necessary. A wolf, asked when he would stop killing sheep, replied, "When man stops killing man." The grass in the field, asked if it were not ashamed always to see nothing but the feet of men, replied: "Not so much ashamed as men should be when they never see our heads." A good custom hallows life and keeps men in brotherly unity. Not God, but the prophets make division among men. God likes it more if you think, than if you speak about Him. In speaking evil of Him you do harm not only to yourself, but to your hearers too. Different languages, but the same prayer; different prayers, but the same God. God is the spirit and form-maker; man is only the imitator of the form-maker. A silver piece, asked what it was worth, replied: "If a man could shine as I can, then I am merely worth a man." When the Lord speaks you have to be silent; and the Lord speaks in the night through the stars, in the day through better men than you. The foolish man speaks much because he has to apologise his foolishness, but why must you speak so much? The man who fears customs fears the touch of dead and living. Under every success lies a new enemy, the demon of pride. Do not despise even the cicadas; their song is the only solace to the slave in prison. Among all immoderate things the unrestrained tongue is the most annoying. Death is not a punishment for him that dies, but a warning for the living. A long work and a short prayer edifies the house, but a long prayer and a short work destroys it. Life without prayer—night without moonlight. God is not hidden, but our eyes are too small to see Him. The smile in the sunshine is easy and common; the smile in the stormy weather is beautiful and rare. It is better to go to bed hungry than with a stolen supper in the stomach. If you like to get friendship from a man, say only a good word about him in his absence. If you like to pacify a dog, say a good word to his face. Life gives to every slave an empty glass to fill it either with tears or with hopes. When God wishes to punish a man He lets him be born among the rough neighbours. The night rebuked the clouds because they were so black. The wolf rebuked the dog because he was so wicked. It is better to be as patient as God than as righteous as God. By true prayer we confess our sins; by false prayer we report our deeds to God. Every welcome guest may fail to come, except death, the most unwelcome. The grass asked a cow: "Is it right that you eat me and tread on me?" "I don't know," replied the cow; "but tell me: Is it right that the grass grows up from the bodies of my parents and will grow up from my own body?" Solitude is full of God. Worldly clamour is godless. In solitude one feels both eternity of time and immensity of space. In worldly clamour one feels eternity and immensity only when death intervenes. The birds think that men cannot understand each other. Why should not men think better of birds? The wise man feels God most in the silence of night; the child most in the crash of lightnings and in the rolling waters. Three persons rushed the same way: a child, a learned man and a poor man. "Where to?" asked the angel. "To grow old quickly and to see God," said the child. "To acquire profit and learning, and to know God," said the learned man. "To become rich and to serve God," said the poor man." The angel said: "If the clear eyes of a child cannot see God, how can the dim eye of passionate man see Him? "If the simple mind of the unlearned man cannot know God, how can the bewildered mind of a learned man know Him? "If a poor man cannot serve God with his heart, how can a rich one serve Him with gold?" If you marry, you will repent; if you do not marry, you will likewise repent. We never repent our brutality as much as our vulgarity. In being brutal we are equal to animals, but in being vulgar we are below them. When two blind men sit quarrelling about what is light, they are like two men quarrelling about what is God. A bird speaks and you do not understand, but God does, for it speaks his language. A lion speaks and you do not understand, but God does. The lion speaks his language. A brook speaks, and you stand on the bank and do not understand it, but God does. He made the brook's language. An oak speaks, and you wonder what it may say, but God does not wonder. He made the oak's language. The devil has hopes as a man has, for he hopes that at the end God will listen to him, and the man hopes that at the end all men will listen to God. Every murder means also partly a suicide. If you oppose a boastful man, he will believe his own words and hate you. If you listen to him silently and go from him silently, he will feel himself punished, and will follow you and ask you, if you believed his words. What represents a boastful man? Poverty in spirit or in heart and wealth in words. The universe is 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 A calf said to the cow, its mother, who wore a heavy yoke: "You are old enough not to be so stupid as to wear a yoke." "Wait a little," replied the cow, "and by degrees you will take my burden, if you should not be roast meat sooner." What is it to be a gentleman? To be the first to thank, and the last to complain. The words "Thank you" show that life is founded on injustice. Death is the cleverest thief. He can steal a living man who is surrounded by the most formidable guard. The water shines because the sun shines. Gold shines because the sun shines. Snow shines because the sun shines. The sun shines because God shines, and He shines because He is God. Every tear is not a sign of distress; every smile is not a sign of joy. Wine and beauty can both intoxicate, but without passion neither can cause real intoxication. Death and passion are only different temperatures of man. We can change the temperature Copper is fine, but gold is finer. Gold is fine, but the air is finer. The air is fine, but the spirit is finer. The spirit is fine, but God is finer. One can live without copper, but not without gold. One can live without gold, but not without air. One can live without air, but not without spirit. One can live without spirit, but not without God. Many people sing, but few are singers. Many people write, but few are writers. Many people speak, but few are orators. Many people think, but few are thinkers. Many people pray, but few are religious. Many people smile, but few are happy. Many people hope, but few are not disappointed. Many people die, but few will survive. Sweetness and bitterness are enemies, but both are necessary in this world. Light and darkness are enemies, but both are necessary. Poison may do no harm if used properly; nor is darkness harmful if it comes and goes at due times. You will begin to be a good man when you prefer anonymity to false fame. If you offend a mother, remember that her son will be angry with you, and you will understand him because you are a son too. If you offend a girl, remember that her brother will be angry with you, and you will understand because you are a brother too. If you hate a man, remember that there is a woman who does better than that, for he had a mother who loves him. Can you not equal a woman? God and a mother asked each other the same question: "How long will you continue to forgive your children?" A man is like a drop of water, but mankind is like the ocean. A drop of water cannot endure a look of the sun, but the ocean bears iron and lead. A man is like one blade of grass. Mankind is like a meadow. A traveller going along does not see the blade, but the meadow rejoices his sight. Things happen to-day, the cause of which began yesterday; but things also happen to-day, the cause of which date from the beginning of the world. Man grows old, but not the world. Man dies, but the world cannot. The world cannot die, because it is in touch with God, and therefore is immortal. Not everything is in touch with God, nor yet with the sun. Everything is affected by the sun directly or indirectly, and the same is true of God. The best things are a bridge between God and the world, but God only knows what the best things are. Cold makes darkness deeper, just as darkness makes cold more intense. The progress of the heart is slower than the progress of the brain. A serpent lives in the water, but the water is not poisonous; if your tongue is poisonous, keep the mouth closed so as not to poison the air. Giving is pleasanter than receiving. That man is my friend who lives laboriously like the bee and dies quietly like the grass. When wolves and sheep are brothers, what will the wolves eat? Lift up your hearts to heaven. The foulest water is purified when it is lifted to the clouds of heaven. The greatest pain should not be the subject of speech. The headache is worse than a pain in the hand, a toothache than a headache, crucifixion than toothache, and hopeless slavery than crucifixion. A gipsy, asked what pain is greatest, said: "To be hungry and to see bread before the householder's dog." A mother, asked what pain is greatest, said: "To see a snake coming from the grave of one's child." A man, asked what three things he did not like, said: "To be compelled to cut down the tree planted by his own hands, to be on the watch for a blow, and to go hunting with a deaf man." Economise in speaking, but not in thinking. Only an oath to do evil may you break with God's permission. If you have fixed to-morrow as a day for revenge, do not sleep but talk with death, and see if it were not better to postpone your vengeance. If you help a beggar, you wipe out the fault of your ancestors. When will the world become better? When the ass stops competing with the nightingale. When will the world become better? When men build two bridges—one to God and one to nature—and when rich men learn to consider themselves great debtors to God. God is more silent than silence in observing sins, and more audible than a cart in punishing them. God and sinners wish to annihilate one another. A Turk asked a Serb what there would be at the end. The answer was: "I know not what there will be, but I know what there will not be—there will not be Turkish dominion over Serbia." The imitator remains in the shadow of him whom he imitates. The imitated lives in the sunshine, but the imitator remains always in shadow. |
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