Nezami

The first stirring the pen made caught its first letter from speech itself.

Speak little, and speak choicely, like a pearl — so that with your few words the world may be filled.

Though speech has the grace of water, it is right to say little of every word.

A kingdom stands firm through justice; your affairs find their footing through your own justice.

To conquer the world is not the way of tyranny; a realm can only be won through fairness.

Seek people's ease — what is there in causing harm? What does that work yield but shame?

You are careless of youth's worth — until you grow old, you will not know what it was.

In all this purity and defilement, nothing is sweeter than peace of mind.

Since you are a bird of fortune, act with honor: eat little, speak little, harm little.

To find the worth of the heart and the rank of the soul cannot be found except through discipline.

Whatever runs contrary to habit is the caravan-leader of happiness.

The world is love; all else is trickery — everything is a game, except the game of love.

Whoever becomes empty of love has withered; even with a hundred lives, without love he is dead.

Seek knowledge and learn greatness, so your days are seen to improve, day upon day.

With everyone, be humble like the earth's dust; toward everything, be unattached like the wind.

Take the world lightly — you are less than no one; do not grieve, you are not a slave to the world.

Tyranny is what plunders a kingdom; lasting fortune comes from doing little harm.