- Never exact of a friend in adversity what you would require in prosperity.
- If a man prove himself to be honest in his deal, and an enemy come upon him wickedly (through fraud or false pretenses) and, because he is stronger than he, make him his prisoner and spoil him with his goods, never say unto that man in the day of his adversity, Pay me what you owest; for if you do it, you add a deeper wound, and condemnation shall come upon you, and the riches shall be justified in the days of your adversity if they mock at you.
- Never afflict your soul for what an enemy hath put it out of your power to do, if your desires are ever so just.
- Let your hand never fail to hand out that that thou owest while it is yet within your grasp to do so, but when your stock fails, say to your heart, Be strong, and to your anxieties, Cease, for man, what is he? He is but dung upon the earth, and although he demand of you the cattle of a thousand hills, he cannot possess himself of his own life. God made him and you and gave all things in common.
- There is one thing under the sun which I have learned and that is that the righteousness of man is sin because it demands much. Nevertheless, the righteousness of God is just because it demands nothing at all, but sends the rain on the just and the unjust, seed time and harvest, for all of which man is ungrateful.
- The finest steel shows a brighter polish the more you rub the same; e’en so, in love, rebuke will ne’er demolish a wise man’s goodly name.
- For a man to be a great man, he must not dwell upon small things, though he may enjoy them.
SECTION 155
THE PROVERBS OF JOSEPH SMITH JR.