Mateo Alemán

"Even as there is no virtue which is wanting to the busy man, so there is no vice which does not bear the idle company."

"Where wedges are worthless, the finger nails may serve."

"Those who are not bettered by kind treatment, or moved by soft words, must be brought under by the application of stern and rigorous punishment."

"On a day when you can dine on dry bread in your own house, do not seek to eat tender peacocks in the house of another."

"Even the ass wearies of work."

"He soon retires (i.e., into a cloister) who finds religion late."

"An unsatisfactory agreement is less harmful than a successful lawsuit."

"Idleness is the open field of perdition, well tilled and sown with evil thoughts."

"A little pebble will a waggon overturn."

"How oft he finds himself the last, who was the first to saddle."

"It is the treason that finds favour, and not the traitor who is guilty of it."

"He who buys what he needs not, sells what he needs."

"The wise man's rule is worth much more to him than the fool's revenue."

"The doctor begins where the apothecary ends, and the clergyman where the doctor ends."

"Better a thrifty son-in-law and poor, than a glutton who is rich."