Ancient Wisdom

To Socrates the wife of a certain man said, "How ugly is thy face, O Socrates!" And Socrates replied unto her, saying, "If thou thyself hadst been a clean mirror I should have been distressed [by thy words]; but since thou art a dirty one my beauty is not reflected by thee. I do not, however, blame thee because of it."

Another [disciple] said unto him, "If the vessel wherein thou hidest were to be broken, what wouldst thou do?"  Socrates replied, "Even if the vessel were to be broken, the place in which it is would not be broken."

A certain disciple of Socrates said unto him, "How is it that I see in thee no sign of sorrow?"  Socrates replied, "Because I possess nothing for which "I should sorrow if it perished."

The Imam invited 'Nasrudin ' to supper, but ( when the Mulla arrived he found the table bare and the Imam eager to hear his own voice. For several hours, the spiritual leader told tales of prophets and miracles, kings and oppressors, until ' Nasrudin ' was practically fainting with hunger. ‘Excuse me,’ he said eventually. ‘You have a question?’ asked the Imam, hoping for some religious comment. ‘Only one,’ replied the ' Mulla' . ‘Did any of these people ever eat' -