Tea at Trianon: Chinese Proverbs

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Among the books I received for Christmas is one entitled Best~Loved Chinese Proverbs by Theodora Lau. It is a great book for the beginning of the New Year when a lot of people are making resolutions. The Chinese proverbs are delightfully practical, very down-to earth. Here are some:

~If you control yourself in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

~There is no poverty where there is character, and no wealth or honor where character is missing.

~The insolent are often the wounded.

~Criticism must be used lightly. A gentle wind kindles, while a strong wind kills the fire.

~To be unhappy over what one lacks is to waste what one already possesses.

~One who is a slave to his senses cannot rein his will into submission.

~Patience is a tree with bitter roots that bears sweet fruit.

~One who is discontent is already poor.