• Easy now—rein in the camels’ hoofbeats; foreheads and cheeks lie trampled beneath them. (1)

• Whoever has tasted the sweetness of well-being finds the bitterness of patience easy to bear. (2)

• The goal: first in conception, last in outward existence—an initial point to the intellect, a final station on the path.

• You have grown used to the impotence of habit; let your aspiration climb the heights of excellence and the lights of resolute will shall break upon you.

• People differ only in the loftiness of their ambitions, not in their outward forms.

• When the cripple’s ambition collapses, it drops him into a pit of filth.

• Between you and the victors rises the mountain of desire: they camped on its nearer slope while you settled behind it. Fold up a single stage of the journey and you will catch up with the company.

• This world is a racecourse; the dust has risen, the frontrunner is hidden, and those on the track are horsemen, walkers, and riders of balking donkeys.

You will see—once the dust has cleared—
whether the mount beneath you was a steed or a donkey. (3)

• In human nature there is ravenous appetite; restraint is the fitter course.

• The thief of greed prowls only in the darkness of passion.

• The coveted grain lies beneath the snare of ruin; ponder the slaughter, and the loss will seem light.