Not thinking about a thorn doesn't make it hurt your feet less. A fool puts her hand into a hollow tree without finding out what's inside first. If you don't look for snakes, you cannot complain when one bites you. He who strains to hear a whisper who refuses to hear a shout. A gnarled old branch dulls the blade that severs a sapling.
Promises buy small cups of wine.
Politics is a foggy mire full of snakes. And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died. And men cried out to the Creator, saying, O Light of the Heavens, Light of the World, let the Promised One be born of the Mountain, according to the prophecies, as he was in ages past and will be in ages to come. Let the Prince of the, Mourning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the dark, and the great sword of justice defend us.