Poetic Aphorisms

from The Sinngedichte Of Friedrich Von Logau

MONEY Whereunto is money good? Who has it not wants hardihood, Who has it has much trouble and care, Who once has had it has despair. THE BEST MEDICINES Joy and Temperance and Repose Slam the door on the doctor's nose. SIN Man-like is it to fall into sin, Fiend-like is it to dwell therein, Christ-like is it for sin to grieve, God-like is it all sin to leave. POVERTY AND BLINDNESS A blind man is a poor man, and blind a poor man is; For the former seeth no man, and the latter no man sees. LAW OF LIFE Live I, so live I, To my Lord heartily, To my Prince faithfully, To my Neighbor honestly. Die I, so die I. CREEDS Lutheran, Popish, Calvinistic, all these creeds and doctrines three Extant are; but still the doubt is, where Christianity may be. THE RESTLESS HEART A millstone and the human heart are driven ever round; If they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be ground. CHRISTIAN LOVE Whilom Love was like a tire, and warmth and comfort it bespoke; But, alas! it now is quenched, and only bites us, like the smoke. ART AND TACT Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined; Often in a wooden house a golden room we find. RETRIBUTION Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all. TRUTH When by night the frogs are croaking, kindle but a torch's fire, Ha! how soon they all are silent! Thus Truth silences the liar. RHYMES If perhaps these rhymes of mine should sound not well in strangers' ears, They have only to bethink them that it happens so with theirs; For so long as words, like mortals, call a fatherland their own, They will be most highly valued where they are best and longest known.