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Stories CXXIII and CXXIV

is considered to have had no equal in rhetorics, because he had addressed an assembly during a year, and had not repeated the same word, but when the same meaning happened to occur, he expressed it in another manner; and this is one of the accomplishments of courtiers and princes.

A word, if heart-binding and sweet, is worthy of belief and of approbation; when thou hast once said it, do not utter it again, because sweets once partaken of suffice.

a philosopher say that no one has ever made a confession of his own folly, except he who begins speaking whilst another has not yet finished his talk.

Words have a head, O shrewd man, and a tail. Do not insert [thy] words between words [of others]. The possessor of deliberation, intelligence, and shrewdness does not say a word till he sees silence.