Wise Sayings

King Solomon, the one who asked God for a listening heart, spent his life collecting sayings — short ones, the kind you can carry around in your head all day. Three thousand of them. Some of the best were written down, and they make up a book called Proverbs. It is written as though a father were talking to his own son, and it is for this: to know wisdom, and to understand what is right and fair and honest, and to give sense to the young. And then it says: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” Not being frightened of him. Taking him seriously — knowing who he is, and that you are not him. Everything else starts there.

Here are some of the sayings. They are meant to be chewed slowly, one at a time. “Listen, my son, to your father when he teaches you, and do not throw away what your mother tells you.” “Trust God with your whole heart — and do not think too much of your own cleverness.” “Do not let kindness and truth get away from you. Tie them round your neck like a necklace, and keep them there.”

There is a whole set about getting things done, and one of them sends you to look at an insect: “Go to the ant, you lazy thing. Watch how she works, and get some sense. She has no boss and nobody standing over her — and still she gathers her food in the summer and stores up plenty at harvest time. How long are you going to lie there? When are you going to get up?” And there is one about the bee too, and how much everybody wants what she makes.

A great many of them are about the mouth — which tells you something about what people are like: “A gentle answer turns anger away, but a hurtful word stirs it up.” “You will not get through a great many words without saying something wrong; if you can keep your lips shut, you are wiser than you look.” “The right word, said at the right moment, is like a golden apple on a string of red stones.” “Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love covers over everything.”

Some are about what is actually worth having, and they are not what you would guess: “A dinner of vegetables where there is love is better than a whole roast calf where there is hate.” “One dry piece of bread eaten in peace is better than a house full of good things and fighting.” “A good name is worth more than a great fortune, and to be well thought of is better than silver and gold.” “A cheerful heart does you as much good as medicine, but sorrow dries the bones right up.”

Some are about other people, and they are harder than they look: “Do not hold back a good thing from somebody who needs it, when it is in your hand to do it.” “Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go away and come back tomorrow and I will give it to you,’ when you could give it to him now. You do not know what tomorrow will bring.” “A friend is somebody who is there at every time — and a brother is born for the hard days.” “If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him a drink.”

And the last of the wise sayings is a poem about a woman running a household. She buys a field and plants it; she works before it is light; her hands are never still; she is strong and she is not afraid of what is coming. “She opens her hands to people in need, and holds out what she has to the poor. She is dressed in strength and dignity, and she can laugh at the days that are coming. Her children stand up and call her happy, and her husband praises her — and he says, ‘A great many women have done great things, but you have gone past the lot of them.’” And then, right at the end: “Charm can lie and beauty is here today and gone tomorrow — but a woman who understands, and takes God seriously: that is the one to praise.”

There are hundreds and hundreds of these sayings, and they are not all cheerful and they are not all easy. But they are all about the same thing: how to live an ordinary day well — with your mouth, and your hands, and your money, and the people who live in your house.