Wits are needful for someone who travels widely,
anything will do at home;
he becomes a laughing-stock, the man who knows nothing
and sits among the wise. (5)
...
About his intelligence no man should be boastful,
rather cautious of mind;
when a wise and silent man comes to a homestead
seldom does shame befall the wary;
for no more trustworthy a friend can any man get
than a store of common sense. (6)
...
Wise that man seems who retreats
when one guest is insulting another;
the man who mocks others at a feast doesn't really know
whether he's shooting off his mouth amid enemies. (31)
...
It's a great detour to a bad friend's house,
even though he lives on the route;
but to a good friend's the ways lie straight,
even though he lives far off. (34)
...
He should get up early, the man who means to take
another's life or property;
the slumbering wolf does nto get the ham,
nor a sleeping man victory. (58)
...
It's better to live than not to be alive,
it's the living man who gets the cow. (70)
...
Cattle die, kinsmen die,
the self must also die;
but glory never dies,
for the man who is able to achieve it. (76)
Keanu Reeves tried his hand at translating this last verse in The Replacements when he told his team: "Pain heals; chicks dig scars; glory...lasts forever!"
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