Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/190

On the Advantages of Silence

saw a fool hanging on with his hands to the collar of a learned man, and insulting him, whereon he said: "If he were learned he would not have come to this pass with an ignorant man."

Two wise men do not contend and quarrel, nor does a scholar fight with a contemptible fellow. If an ignorant man in his rudeness speaks harshly, an intelligent man tenderly reconciles his heart. Two pious men keep a hair between them [untorn], and so does a mild, with a headstrong man; if, however, both sides are fools, if there be a chain they will snap it. An ill-humoured man insulted someone; he bore it, and replied: "O man of happy issue, I am worse than thou canst say that I am, because I know thou art not aware of my faults as I am."