We should ask God
to help us toward manners. Inner gifts
do not find their way
to creatures without just respect.

I am amazed at the seeker of purity
who when it's time to be polished
complains of rough handling.

Consider how wool is turned into an elegantly designed carpet by coming into contact with an intelligent person.

He whose intellect overcomes his lust is higher than the angels; he whose lust overcomes his intelligence is less than an animal.

The undisciplined man doesn't wrong himself alone--
he sets fire to the whole world.

People fancy they are enjoying themselves,
but they are really tearing out their wings
for the sake of an illusion.

Discipline enabled Heaven to be filled with light;
discipline enabled the angels to be immaculate and holy.

People are distracted by objects of desire,
and afterward repent of the lust they've indulged,
because they have indulged with a phantom
and are left even farther from Reality than before.

Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader,
are your own nature reflected in them.

O tongue you are an endless treasure.
O tongue, you are also an endless disease.