When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; and when it is full, the spirit becomes body.
SaadiRead
A friend whom you have been gaining during your whole life, you ought not to be displeased with in a moment. A stone is many years becoming a ruby - take care that you do not destroy it in an instant against another stone.
Interpretation
Cherish your friendships, as they take time to build and can be easily damaged.
This quote by Saadi emphasizes the importance of valuing long-term friendships, suggesting that just as a stone takes years to become a precious ruby, friendships require nurturing and patience to develop. It warns against acting impulsively in moments of conflict, as this can lead to the loss of a valuable relationship that took years to cultivate.
In practice
During a speech at a friend's wedding to emphasize the importance of lasting friendships.
When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; and when it is full, the spirit becomes body.
The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.
However much you study, you cannot know without action. A donkey laden with books is neither an intellectual nor a wise man. Empty of essence, what learning has he whether upon him is firewood or book?
Ants, fighting together, will vanquish the lion.
An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend, excepting lust, the indulgence of which increases its enmity.
Human beings are members of a whole,_x000D_ In creation of one essence and soul._x000D_ If one member is afflicted with pain,_x000D_ Other members uneasy will remain._x000D_ If you have no sympathy for human pain,_x000D_ The name of human you cannot retain.
If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect.
Every man has frequent grievances which only the solicitude of friendship will discover and remedy, and which would remain for ever unheeded in the mighty heap of human calamity, were it only surveyed by the eye of general benevolence equally attentive to every misery.
Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.
If you go looking for a friend, you're going to find they're very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you'll find them everywhere.
To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.
Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.
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