Wise Words Worth Living

By Daniel W. Trathen, D. Min. Ph. D.

All of us have had teachers we remember for one reason or another. I remember "Mrs. Proverbs". She would walk down the rows of chairs saying, "an idle mind is the devil's workshop", or "busy hands are happy hands", or "a penny saved is a penny earned." It’s funny how certain people have an impact on us. I have illustrated "Mrs. Proverbs" many times to my students and patients. My Dad used to also repeat certain sayings like, "don’t count your chickens before they are hatched" and "don't put all your eggs in one basket." C. S. Lewis so aptly put it, "no clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet." Most professions have a few "wise sayings" of their own, such as these dental word pictures, "be true to your teeth and they will be true to you", or "only floss the teeth you want to keep." I'm sure that more than one of us was helped in a time of need through remembering wisdom spoken by a respected person.

I recently came across a "top 10 wisdom list" by Thomas Jefferson. Maybe this list will jog your mind into remembering what your parent, teachers, or grandparents said to you.

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1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
   
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
   
3. Never spend your money before you have it.
   
4. Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; it will not be dear to you.
   
5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
   
6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
   
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
   
8. How much pain have caused us evils which have never happened.
   
9. Take things always by the smooth handle.
   
10. When angry, count ten seconds before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.

These are timeless wise words worth living. There is nothing new under the sun. It has been said that a person begins cutting their wisdom teeth the first time they bite off more than they can chew. As the old proverb reminds us: "He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool-avoid him: he who knows not and knows that he knows not is a wise man-seek his company." William Thomson was one of the greatest physicists of 19th century England. When he was away at college, his father wrote him: "You are young: take care you be not led to what is wrong. A false step now, or the acquiring of an improper habit, might ruin you for life. Frequently look back on your conduct and thence learn wisdom for the future."