Simeon ben Azzai

Simeon ben Azzai or simply Ben Azzai (Hebrew: שמעון בן עזאי) was a distinguished tanna of the first third of the 2nd century. He is sometimes called "Rabbi", but, in spite of his great learning, this title did not rightfully belong to him.

Attributed

Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

Charles Noel Douglas, Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical (1917)

• As whole caravans may light their lamps from one candle without exhausting it, so myriads of tribes may gain wisdom from the great Book without impoverishing it.

• Give your tongue more holiday than your hands or eyes.

• Go down the ladder when thou marriest a wife; go up when thou choosest a friend.

• If a word be worth one shekel, silence is worth two.

• If thou hast fear of those who command thee, spare those who obey thee.

• In seeking wisdom thou art wise: in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.

• Women, like roses, should wear only their own colors, and emit no borrowed perfumes.

• You may not despise any man, nor spurn anything.

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Simeon ben Azzai on Wikipedia