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The Gulistân

can an old prostitute do but vow to become chaste, and an expelled policeman not to commit oppression upon men?

A youth who sits in a corner is a hero in the path of God, because an old man is unable to rise from his corner.

was asked: "Of so many notable, high, and fertile trees which God the Most High has created, not one is called free except the cypress, which bears no fruit. What is the reason for this?"

He replied: "Every tree has its appropriate season of fruit, so that it is sometimes flourishing therewith, and looks sometimes withered by its absence; with the cypress, however, neither is the case, it being fresh at all times, and this is the quality of those who are free."

Place not thy heart on what passes away; for the Tigris will flow after the Khalifs have passed away in Baghdad. If thou art able, be liberal like the date-tree, and if thy hand cannot afford it, be liberal like the cypress.

men died, bearing away [their] grief. One had possessed wealth and not enjoyed it, the other knowledge and not practised it.

No one sees an excellent but avaricious man without publishing his defect, but if a liberal man has a hundred faults his generosity covers his imperfections.