138 Quotes by Miriam Lichtheim

It pleases the heart to ignore it.You have done what pleases their hearts.You have sustained people among them.Yet they cover their faces in fear of tomorrow.There was an old man who was about to die, while his son was a child without knowledge.

But no one is strong at night;no one can fight alone;no success is achieved without a helper.

He who reaches them without having done wrongWill exist there like a god.Free-striding like the lords forever!

Lo, justice flees from you.Expelled from its seat!The magistrates do wrong,Right-dealing is bent sideways,The judges snatch what has been stolen.

Though the face of the steersman is forward, the boat drifts as it pleases.Though the king is in the palace,though the rudder is in your hand,wrong is done around you.Long is my plea, heavy my task,“What is the matter with him ?“ people ask.Be a shelter, make safe your shore,See how your quay is infested with crocodiles!Straighten your tongue, let it not stray,A serpent is this limb of man.Don’t tell lies, warn the magistrates,Greasy baskets are the judges.

The day in school will profit youIts works are for ever.

If you leave the schoolhouse when midday is called and go roaming in the streets, all will scold you in the end.When an official sends you with a message,Tell it as he told it,Don’t omit, don’t add to it.He who neglects to praise, his name will not endure ; he who is skilled in all his conduct, from him nothing is hidden, he is not 'opposed anywhere.

Keep away from wrongdoing!When goodness is good it is truly good.For justice is for eternity:It enters the graveyard with its doer.When he is buried and earth enfolds him.His name does not pass from the earth;He is remembered because of goodness,That is the rule of god’s command.

Do your things on earth as your heart commands!When there comes to you that day of mourning,The Weary-hearted hears not their mourning, Wailing saves no man from the pit!