An ill-humoured man insulted someone. Story 6 Subhan Vail is considered to have had no equal in rhetorics because he had addressed an assembly during a year and had not repeated the same word but, when the same meaning happened to occur, he expressed it in another manner and this is one of the accomplishments of courtiers and princes. A word if heart-binding and sweet Is worthy of belief and of approbation. When thou hast once said it do not utter it again Because sweets, once partaken of, suffice. I heard a philosopher say that no one has ever made a confession of his own folly except he who begins speaking, whilst another has not yet finished his talk.
Words have a head, O shrewd man, and a tail.
Do not insert thy words between words of others. The possessor of deliberation, intelligence and shrewdness Does not say a word till he sees silence. Story 8 Several officials of Sultan Mahmud asked Hasan Muimandi one day what the sultan had told him about a certain affair. A knowing man will not utter every word which occurs to him. It is not proper to endanger one's head for the king's secret.