Avoid him who talks sweetly before you but tries to ruin you behind your back, for he is like a pitcher full of poison with milk on top.

He who runs away from a fearful calamity, a foreign invasion, a terrible famine, and the companionship of wicked men is safe.

Wicked ones are like fire. Even if put on a heap, they burn only. They do not leave unhurt, even their well-wishers and benefactors.

Eschew wicked company and associate with saintly persons. Acquire virtue day and night, and always meditate on that which is eternal, forgetting that which is temporary.

There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.

The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.