Tuesday, January 25, 2011

PROVERBS ON HUSBAND

A woman can't drive her husband, but she can lead him.

It is better to have a husband without love than jealous.

A wise husband and a patient wife equal a peaceful home and a happy life.

The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives.

Differences between husband and wife should not be aired in the marketplace.

A husband may be the head of a home but the wife is the heart of a home.

Weather, husbands, and sons come as you take them.

A deaf husband and a blind wife will always make a happy couple.

The clever wife makes her husband an apron.

Happy is the woman whose husband does not speak to her.

It's natural to have some disagreement between husband and wife.

A true wife is her husband's flower of beauty.

In a quarrel between a husband and his wife, keep away.

A henpecked husband gets no support during a lawsuit

When the wife is away, the husband is master of the house

The woman who loves her husband corrects his faults; the man that loves his wife exaggerates them.

The husband is always the last to know.

When husband and wife live in harmony, they can dry up the ocean without a bucket.

Show me your wife and I will tell you what kind of a husband she has.

It is the wife who knows her husband.

A woman is a flower in a garden; her husband is the fence around it.

A husband must be respected, even if he's very short.

The wife cries before the wedding, the husband after.

The husband who lacks affection is like a house that lacks a roof.

Whoever interferes between husband and wife is a big jackass.

A husband and wife often fight intensely at one moment and then kiss intensely at the next moment.

Monday, January 17, 2011

PROVERBS ON FAMILY

A family is like a thick forest, often from outside its dense, when you are inside each tree has its own position and space.

You can eat and drink with your family but not count and measure.

If you have only two pennies left in the world, with the first penny, you should buy rice to feed your family. With the second penny, say the wise Japanese, you should buy a lily.

Duty knows no family.

Look for the good, not the evil, in the conduct of members of the family.

Govern a family as you would cook a small fish -- very gently.

It is easy to govern a kingdom but difficult to rule one's family.

Man is the head of the family, his wife the neck that turns the head.

You can't be the head of a family unless you show yourself both stupid and deaf.

Nobody's family can hang out the sign, "Nothing the matter here.

A real family eats the same cornmeal.

The family that prays together stays together.

A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it cannot break.

In a family if you have somebody who is troublesome it's the family members who are worried than the troublesome member.

A princely mind will undo a private family.

In a good family the husband is deaf and the wife blind.

Never speak of a rope in the family of one who has been hanged.

If the family is together, the soul is in the right place.

He who earns calamity, eats it with his family.

If you act as good as you look, you'll never shame your family.

Every family has at least one black sheep.

In a united family, happiness springs up of itself.

Every family has a goodness of mercy.

Can't have a family fuss without the whole town knowing about it.

First a daughter, then a son, and the family's well begun.

The one who first shuts up in an argument is from a good family.

A deer is an elder to its family.

Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity.

Even the maid has a family.

Friends and family are worth more than money.

Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard.

There are misfortunes in almost every family.

Marry the girl of a good family though she is seated on a mat, very poor.

If I am in harmony with my family, that's success.

Relations last longer when the family is in distress.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

PROVEBS ON FORGIVING.

Forgive and forget.

Forgive thyself nothing and others much.

Forgiven is not forgotten.

God forgives sinners; otherwise His heaven would be empty.

Transgressions should never be forgiven a third time.

One can forgive a murder but not impoliteness.

Weaklings never forgive their enemies.

The noblest vengeance is to forgive.

To err is human; to forgive is divine.

To know all is to forgive all.

A sin confessed is half forgiven.

A kind speech and forgiveness is better than alms followed by injury.

Forgiveness is more satisfying than revenge.

Who forgives wins.

Those who do not forgive break the bridge on which they have to pass.

He who is the offender is never the forgiver.

Who knows most, forgives most.

He who forgives a thief is a thief himself.

Forgiveness hides a pleasure that you can't get back from revenge.

Forgiveness is a pillar of justice.

Poverty is a sin that the rich never forgive.

If you offend, ask for pardon; if offended, forgive.

Every time you forgive a man you weaken him and strengthen yourself.

If there were no wrongdoing, there would be no forgiveness.

Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

The strong forgive, the weak remember.

If you forgive the fox for stealing your chickens, he will take your sheep.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

PROVERBS FROM INDIA

A bandicoot is lovely to his parents; a mule is pretty to its mate.

A beautiful woman belongs to everyone; an ugly one is yours alone.

A blind man sat behind a pile of stones and thought that nobody could see him.

A buffalo does not feel the weight of his own horns.

A cat in a cage becomes a lion.

A coconut shell full of water is a sea to an ant.

A fly, a harlot, a beggar, a rat, and gusty wind; the village-boss and the tax collector - these seven are always annoying to others.

A lie has no author, nor a liar a conscience.

A lot of people become saints because of their stomach.

A man laughs at others and weeps for himself.

A pearl is worthless as long as it is still in its shell.

A person who misses a chance and the monkey who misses its branch -- both cannot be saved.

A thief is a thief, whether he steals a diamond or a cucumber.

A thief thinks everybody steals.

A cobra without fangs is like a piece of rope.

After eating nine hundred rats, the cat is now going on a pilgrimage.

Agriculture is best, enterprise is acceptable, but avoid being on a fixed wage.

All the water in the sea doesn't even reach the knees of the man who fears not death.

Always be well dressed, even when begging.

An old patient is better than a new doctor.

Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest.

As day break, the glowworms say "We've lit up the world!"

Austerity is an ornament, humility is honorable.

Be bad to the bad; good to the good; be a flower to other flowers and a thorn to other thorns.

Be first at the feast, and last at the fight.

Be like a camel -- carrying sweets but dining on thorns.

Better cross-eyed than blind.

Blaming your faults on your nature does not change the nature of your faults.

Clouds that thunder seldom rain.

Dependence on another is perpetual disappointment.

Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings.

Do what the mullah says, but don't do what he does.

Don't bargain for fish which are still in the water.

Drums sound loud because they are hollow.

Eat fire and your mouth burn; live on credit and your pride will burn.

Even if fed milk, a snake will still emit poison.

Every dog is a tiger in his own street.

Every man is the guardian of his own honor.

Faith keeps the world going.

Fate and self-help share equally in shaping our destiny.

Fish and guests smell when they are three days old.

Follow the river and you will get to the sea.

For the first five years of your son's life treat him as a prince, for the next ten years as a slave, then as a friend for the rest of his life.

For the friendship of two, the patience of one is required.

Friendly words are convincing.

God laughs when you steal from a thief.

Good people, like clouds, receive only to give away.

Great anger is more destructive than the sword.

Happy is the woman whose husband does not speak to her.

Have faith -- God calls forth life even from eggs.

He that is baldheaded has no need of combs.

He who allows his day to pass by without practicing generosity and enjoying life's pleasures is like a blacksmith's bellows: he breathes but does not live.

He who does not climb, will not fall either.

He who has a true friend, has no need of a mirror.

He who is a guest in two houses, starves.

He who wants fruit should not pick flowers.

He who works as a slave, eats as a king.

Hunger drives good taste away.

I gave him a staff for his support and he uses it to break my head.

If a man gets rich overnight, he will carry his umbrella even at midnight.

If they don't exchange a few words, father and son will never know one another.

If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster.

If you live in the river you should make friends with the crocodile.

If you can't give any sugar then speak sweetly.

In a deserted village the jackass is king.

In a tree that you can't climb, there are always a thousand fruits.

In love beggar and king are equal.

In my homeland I possess one hundred horses, yet if I go, I go on foot.

It is a greater gift to give than to receive.

It is better to be blind than to see things from only one point of view.

It is better to sit down than to stand, it is better to lie down than to sit, but death is the better than lying idle.

It is easier to cover our feet with sandals than to cover the earth with carpets.

It is hard for an ex-king to become a night watchman.

It is little use to dig a well after the house has caught fire.

It is love that makes the impossible possible.

It is only in your coffin that you sleep really well.

It's a brave bird that makes its nest in the cat's ear.

It's better to pick a fight with your in-laws than with your neighbors.

It's easy to throw something into the river but hard to get it out again.

Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured.

Large desire is endless poverty.

Learning is a treasure no thief can touch.

Life is a bridge. Cross over it, but build no house on it.

Life is like the flame of a lamp; it needs a little oil now and then.

Man is like a bubble of water on the ocean.

Never stand in front of a judge or behind a donkey.

Never strike your wife, not even with a flower.

Never use a dwarf to measure the depth of the water.

No one was ever lost on a straight road.

No sin is hidden to the soul.

No strength within, no respect without.

Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.

Not all the buds on a bush will blossom.

Nothing is comprehensible except by virtue of its edges.

One and one sometimes make eleven.

One finger can't lift a pebble.

One man's beard is burning, and another warms his hands by it.

One of the two partners always bites the best part of the apple.

One person can burn water, while another can't even burn oil.

Only the hunchback himself knows how he can lie comfortably.

Patience is the most beautiful prayer.

Pull someone by the ears and his head will follow.

Something done at the wrong time should be regarded as not done.

The baby has not been born yet, and yet you assert that his nose is like his grandfather's.

The cobra will bite you whether you call it cobra or Mr. Cobra.

The crow was killed by the storm -- "He died by my curse," says the owl.

The dog's tail stays crooked even if he is buried for twelve years.

The enemy's own punishment is his envy.

The eyes do not see what the mind does not want.

When hot sun comes snow melts away; when anger comes, so does wisdom.

The man who has mounted an elephant will not fear the bark of a dog.

The money you dream about will not pay your bills.

The most beautiful things in the universe are the starry heavens above us and the feeling of duty within us.

The poor looks for food and the rich man for appetite.

The potter sleeps soundly, for no one would steal clay.

The sandal tree perfumes the axe that fells it.

The tongue is safe; even among thirty teeth.

The tree casts its shadow on everything, even upon the woodcutter.

The worst kind of poverty is to have many debts.

There are as many characters as there are individuals.

To sing to the deaf, to talk with the dumb, and to dance for the blind are three foolish things.

Truth has no branches.

True happiness lies in giving it to others.

When an elephant is in trouble, even a frog will kick him.

When the bed breaks, there is the ground to lie on.

When you drink milk under the palm tree, people will say that it is palm wine.

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

Where the needle goes, the thread follows.

Whoever eats a pancake never counts the holes in it.

Why save when your son is a good son? Why save when your son is a bad son?

You can lean against that which resists.

You cannot separate water by beating it with a fork.

You may lock up the cock, but the sun will still rise.

You may look up for inspiration or look down in desperation but do not look sideways for information.

You may never die before death arrives.

You must answer the devil in his own language.

You should not call in a cat to settle the argument of two birds.

Your own wealth is flowers and wine; the other man's is but weeds.

God cures the patient, The doctor takes the fee.

Earth laughs at him who calls a place his own.

Among the blind the one-eyed man is king.

Where donkeys gather, kicks are cheap.

The mouth cannot be sweetened by just saying "Sweet."

The value of comfort is only known when it is lost.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

PROVERBS ON LIFE

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

A wise man's day is worth a fool's life.

Four things come not back -- the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

By the yard, life is hard. By the inch, it's a cinch.

Variety is the spice of life.

A sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to our steps as we walk the tightrope of life.

Every day of your life is a page of your history.

Only three things in life are certain birth, death and change.

A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every passerby leaves a mark.

A smile will gain you ten more years of life.

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends whom we choose.

Once bitten by a snake, he is scared all his life at the mere sight of a rope.

One's shadow grows larger than life when admired by the light of the moon.

The error of one moment becomes the sorrow of a whole life.

Life is half spent before one knows what life is.

Smoke, floods, and a troublesome wife / husband, are enough to drive a man / woman out of his /her life.

You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it.

All the honey a bee gathers during its lifetime doesn't sweeten its sting.

A hard-working life is the best security for food in old age.

Death to the wolf is life to the lambs.

He is unworthy of life who gives no life to another.

Live your own life, for you will die your own death.

Science is unlimited in its course; life is short.

Seek not the luxuries of life lest you reap sorrow.

The best things in life are free.

Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way.

Endurance and courage are life's shield.

A contented ass enjoys a long life.

Friends are flowers in the garden of life.

A good life defers wrinkles.

No man is quick enough to enjoy life to the full.

If ever you should need my life, come and take it.

Every life has its joy, every joy its law.

Better ride a good horse for a year, than an ass all your life.

Wisdom in the man, patience in the wife, brings peace to the house, and a happy life.

He is lifeless that is faultless.

Life is like this: sometimes sun, sometimes rain.

A good citizen owes his life to his country.

Better to lose a minute in your life than your life in a minute.

Truth never dies, but lives a wretched life.

A life of leisure, and a life of laziness, are two things.

Life is a bridge. Cross over it, but build no house on it.

Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.

Life is made up of tomorrows.

The pleasure of love lasts but a moment, The pain of love lasts a lifetime.

The secret of life is not to do what you like, but to like what you do.

Life, like a fire, begins in smoke and ends in ashes.

The worst things in life are: To be in bed and sleep not, To want for one who comes not, To try to please and please not.

As the spokes of a wheel are attached to the hub, so all things are attached to life.

Fear is the fever of life.

He who allows his day to pass by without practicing generosity and enjoying life's pleasures is like a blacksmith's bellows: he breathes but does not live.

He who thinks too much about every step he takes will stay on one leg all his life.

If life is fulfilled we go away with empty hands.

Man fools himself. He prays for a long life, and he fears an old age.

Respect for ones parents is the highest duty of civil life.

The happiest life ends before death.

The life of an old man is compared with the flame of a candle in a drought.

The most important thing in life is to be cremated well.

Progeny are the reward of life.

If the bread in the oven is a failure you lose a week; if the harvest is a failure you lose a year; if marriage is a failure then you lose a life.

Children who get everything they ask for seldom succeed in life.

Cowardice will not prolong life.

A toad does not jump around in the daytime, unless something is after its life.

Life is made of two days. One which is sweet and the other is bitter.

Remind the youngster of his next life.

Life will show you what you did not know.

Life is an onion and one cries while peeling it.

Most men employ the earlier part of their life to make the other miserable.

The first half of life is spent in longing for the second, the second half in regretting the first.

To enjoy life is worth so much more than it costs.

In the morning of life, work; in the mid day give council; in the evening, pray.

Leadership shortens life.

For the first five years of your son's life treat him as a prince, for the next ten years as a slave, then as a friend for the rest of his life.

Have faith -- God calls forth life even from eggs.

Death is the bride of life.

Even when months and days are long, life is short.

He who wants what God wants of him will lead a free and happy life.

It is precisely the uncertainty of this world that makes life worth living.

Life is a long journey with a heavy bag on its back.

Life is for one generation; a good name is forever.

You will never learn enough looking for only the good things in life; you will always be a pupil.

Life is a shadow and a mist; it passes quickly by, and is no more.

However big the whale may be, the tiny harpoon can rob him of life.

If you don't eat you will die; overeating will shorten your life.

I have no right to rejoice at the death of my enemy when I do not have eternal life myself.

Death does not come free of charge, for it costs us our life.

Who is blind, dumb and deaf will live a peaceful life of a hundred years.

Man's life is like a drop of dew on a leaf.

A good life is the best sermon.

A good life, they say, keeps wrinkles at bay.

Better visit hell in your lifetime than after you're dead.

Life is a gift for which we pay dearly.

Life without a friend is death without a witness.

Memory is life's clock.

Never praise life in front of death, nor the beautiful day in front of night.

To live in fear is a life half-lived.

A life without love is like a year without summer.

Ever since dying came into fashion, life hasn't been safe.

We come and cry and that is life, we cry and go and that is death.

Life is a temporary stop, death is the journey home.

When the father has eaten too much salt in his lifetime, then his son thereafter will have a great thirst.

Where life is exhausted, death comes.

An unkept promise leads to a bad life.

If you start thinking of death, you are no longer sure of life.

Life is the cheapest bargain -- we get it for nothing.

Life is like a game in which God shuffles the cards, the devil deals them and we have to play the trumps.

Man is learning all his life and yet he dies in ignorance.

Life is like a wheel, sometimes at the top, sometimes at the bottom.

Tree that grows crooked will never be straightened - bad habits learned early in life are hard to get rid of later.

Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you.

If life gives you a lemon, make a squash out of it.

A dead man is mourned seven days; a fool, his lifetime.

If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing. If you want happiness for a month -- get married. If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else.

If you want your children to have a peaceful life, let them suffer a little hunger and a little coldness.

The miserly man is like a fattened ox: he will give of his fat only when he has been deprived of his life.

Life cannot be trusted; death can come at any moment.

Life is not a cup to be drained, but a measure to be filled.

Mere life is not a victory; mere death is not a defeat.

To understand life, endure pain.

Honor is more important than life.

A wise man is able to adapt to the surprises of life as water to the vessel it is poured in.

Man is like a palm on the beach; moving with the wind of life.

The golden rule of life is, make a beginning.

If there's bitterness in the heart, sugar in the mouth won't make life sweeter.

A book gives knowledge, but it is life that gives understanding.

Life is a comedy to those who think a tragedy to those who feel.

A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

There's no life so tiring as one of doing nothing.

Plan your life as though you were going to live forever, but live today as if you were going to die tomorrow.

Life can be understood backwards, but has to be lived forwards.

If a person is fated to drown, he'll lose his life even in a teaspoon of water.

Life is like a boat you move on when you paddle and stay in the same place if not.

Life is like a mirror if you fawn it, it fawns back and if you smile, it smiles.

Life is like riding a bicycle; you don't fall off unless you stop pedaling.

Life is like shopping in a market; when you finish, you go home.

Life is a stairway - some are going up, others are going down.

Only a goat that is tired of life invites a lion to dinner.

Success in life largely depends on how you handle your failures.

The coffin seller wants a long life for himself and a short life for others.

When you ask, you become a fool for a little while and when you don't ask you become a fool for the rest of your life.

If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.

The best advice I know in life is don't give too much.

Monday, January 3, 2011

PROVERBS ON MIND

Sickly body, sickly mind.

Out of sight out of mind.

Books are preserved parts of minds.

I have no friends; I make my mind my friend.

Better a sick body than an ignorant mind.

Age brings experience, and a good mind wisdom.

Those who labor with their minds rule; those who labor with their bodies are ruled.

Books speak to the mind, friends to the heart, heaven to the soul, all else to the ears.

If your mind is strong, all difficult things will become easy; if your mind is weak, all easy things will become difficult.

Misfortune conquers timid souls while great minds subdue misfortune.

Any book you open will benefit your mind.

An image of a bamboo has already been formed in mind before it is committed to the painting canvas.

A man's faults all conform to his type of mind. Observe his faults and you may know his virtues.

A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.

A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as a hollow mountain returns all sounds.

Present to the eye, present to the mind.

The broad-minded see the truth in different religions; the narrow-minded see only the differences.

The mind is the emperor of the body.

Unplowed fields make hollow bellies; unread books make hollow minds.

He who loves peace minds his own business.

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.

Who is narrow minded cannot be big hearted.

Those who set their minds on virtue will do no evil.

Pleasures steal away the mind.

My mind to me is a kingdom.

An idle mind is the devil's workshop.

All happiness is in the mind.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ.

The beauty of things lies in the mind that contemplates it.

What is a man but his mind?

The eyes are of little use if the mind be blind.

The mind is for seeing, the heart is for hearing.

It is one word of advice that one needs to give to a wise man, and that word keeps multiplying in his mind.

An open mind only hurts those who fear their own mistakes.

At that particular time a mad person gives you something take it immediately before he changes is mind.

He who reminds you or corrects you is better than he who slanders you.

Minds are like parachutes; they only function when they are open.

Monkeys don't advise there young ones to be careful on trees they just remind them of the distance to the ground.

The mind of a fool is like a broken pot it will hold no wisdom.

As the wound inflames the finger, so thought inflames the mind.

A beggar won't mind being insulted.

A dog does not mind being called a dog.

A needle cannot hold two threads or a mind two thoughts.

When a man says he does not mind, then he really does.

Roots do not know what a leaf has in mind.

God conceals himself from the mind of man, but reveals himself to his heart.

He who has a mind to beat a dog will easily find a stick.

Never let the bottom of your purse or of your mind be seen.

Nothing is difficult to a willing mind.

Wise men change their minds, fools never.

You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.

Youth does not mind where it sets its foot.

The man with the boots does not mind where he places his foot.

Never ask a fox to mind the hens.

Changing one's mind is more often a sign of prudence than of ignorance.

He who has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses his mind.

Laughing is not always the proof of a mind at ease.

Man's mind is a watch that needs winding daily.

Absentmindedness is searching for the horse you are riding.

If you play with a cat, you must not mind her scratch.

He who would catch fish must not mind wetting himself.

He who fixes his mind much on water ends up not drinking it.

They put up minds for sale on the market, everyone liked his own mind.

A fly does not mind dying in coconut cream.

A contented mind is a continual feast.

Benefits turn poison in bad minds.

The face is the index of the mind, but appearances are deceitful.

Seven sons of one mother, and each one of a different mind.

Humor is an important asset: it means understanding and self-criticism. where humor is absent, you'll find small-mindedness.

One man differs from another in three things: his voice, his appearance, and his mind.

In the world of books, the mind-set of the reader is of great importance.

If your inner mind isn't deceived, your outer actions won't be wrong.

We have to fight for our freedom as long as it takes, and we shall not mind the death following our struggle for independence.

No experience, narrow minded.

Clean your heart and mind of negative thoughts.

Let the poor man mind his tongue.

Rest strengthens the body, the mind too is thus supported; but unremitting toil destroys both.

A depraved mind never comes to good.

A mind conscious of guilt is its own accuser.

A mind conscious of innocence laughs at the lies of rumor.

A sick mind cannot endure any harshness.

A suspicious mind sees everything on the dark side.

Again and again I beg and pray of you to live merrily: should aught distress you, dismiss it from your minds.

Be not unmindful of obligations conferred.

Music is the best cure for a sorrowing mind.

Pain of mind is worse than pain of body.

Speaking, though speechless, it exercises dominion over the mind.

The face is the portrait of the mind; the eyes, its informers.

The mind is best taught with a sharp whip.

The mind when unoccupied knows not what it wants.

The old parrot does not mind the stick.

To relax the mind is to lose it.

No gain satisfies a greedy mind.

Never mind storms and snows for the sake of a friend.

The sickness of the body is the cure of the mind.

Present to the eye, present to the mind.

The riches of the mind may make a man rich and happy.

Train equally the mind and body.

When you buy, use your eyes and your mind, not your ears.

Anger of the mind is poison to the soul.

Don't be afraid to cry. it will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.

The mind is like a bag; everyone has one.

A narrow space looks wide to the narrow minded.

The mind is free and the slightest thought has great influence. It is therefore important that you think enlightened thoughts.

The world of humans is divided by lines, but the mind knows no limits, the heart no barriers.

Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind.

If mind is clean, fate is good.

It is the mind that wins or loses.

Money spent on the mind is never spent in vain.

Young people talk of what they are doing; old people of what they have done; and fools of what they have a mind to do.

Tell not thy mind to thy foolish friend, nor to thy wise enemy.

A mind can make a heaven out of hell, or a hell out of heaven.

A sensible enemy is better than a narrow-minded friend.