The fire of anger first burns him who has given cause for it...

The fire of anger first burns him who has given cause for it and afterwards the flame may or may not reach the foe. It is not proper for sons of Adam born of earth To inflate their heads with pride, violence and wind. Thou who displayest so much heat and obstinacy Must be, I think, not of earth but of fire. I visited a hermit in the country of Bilqan And requested him to purge me of ignorance by instruction.

He replied: 'Be patient like earth, O lawyer, Or else, bury under the earth all thy learning.' Maxim 12 An ill-humoured man is captive in the hands of a foe, from the grasp of whose punishment he cannot be delivered wherever he may go. If from the hand of calamity an ill-natured man escapes into the sky The evil…