He Should Have A Long Spoon That Sups With The Devil.

The devil is considered as a wicked and dangerous spirit. If you are invited to dine with the devil, there is always the danger of the devil catching you with sharp claws. So it is always better to sit not too near the devil and one must use a long spoon to feed. The devil will not be able to trick you so easily. Among people also there are wicked men who are as bad as the devil. They can never be trusted. They might trick you at the most unexpected moment and if you are not careful, you might find yourself in troubled waters. To avoid this, you must always keep a safe distance when dealing with such bad characters and be on the lookout for dangers. Then, even if the wicked persons try to trick you, you will not fall prey to their trickery. It is always better to avoid the company of and dealings with wicked persons. But if you have to, you must always be prepared for the worst. Like the devil wicked people are to be constantly watched. You have to be always on guard against dangerous moves.

He Laughs Best Who Laughs Last.

Whenever one is happy, he laughs. Success always brings happiness. But unless you are certain that success is yours, it is out of place to laugh. In a game or a match, only in the end you can say who has actually won. Sometimes, at first victory seems to be on your side and you will be tempted to laugh at your opponent. But as the game is not yet finished, your rival also stands an equal chance of winning. I other words, you must not be in a hurry to come to conclusions. You must be patient and wait till success is undoubtedly on your side. When there is no room for doubt as to who is the winner, you can always laugh freely. In fact it is the right and ripe time to laugh. In other words, if you want to laugh best, you must be prepared to laugh last.

Handsome Is As Handsome Does.

A person may be good looking. He impresses others by his personality. Others might find him handsome. But once they get to know him, they may find many faults in his character and their first impression about him gets tarnished. They may even start to hate him because of the flaws in his character. His personality which impressed others at first cannot influence them anymore. It turns into scorn and hatred in due course. On the other hand we may consider the case of an ugly person. If his character happens to be attractive and good, others will like him. They will try to mingle with him more and more. Their attitude will in due course turn to one of love, affection and even adoration. This proves that a person’s attraction does not depend on his external appearance. Instead it is based on his inner quality and ability. In other words, a person can be called really handsome only if he happens to be good and attractive in his character instead of being attractive and fine looking externally.

Habit Does not Make The Monk.

Some people are fond of wearing gaudy clothes. But it is not wise to judge a man just by the clothes he wears. There are crooks who dress well and cheat others. They create in impression on the public by wearing trendy clothes. Such crooks also have the ability to speak sweetly and convincingly. But they do all this with a single purpose of cheating. So taking a man into confidence by his external appearance only will be dangerous. Truly good and great men are usually plainly dressed. They have no need to impress others with smart and gaudy clothe. They impress others simply by their greatness. Good qualities and talents always show through the clothes irrespective of whether they are good looking or shabby. Many of the great Indian and European personalities were simple men who used to dress plainly. On the other hand even if a man who has no real ability or character dresses smartly, his traits will clearly reveal themselves to people. So it is really the goodness and moral strength in a man that matters. By wearing a monk’s habit one does not become a monk. It is his mental attitude and character that make him a monk and not the dress he puts on.

Great Oaks From Little Acorns Grow

Acorn is the seed of the oak tree. Compared to the big oak tree, the acorn is very small. But the seed grows up into huge tree in course of time. Likewise, a small effort or venture can grow up a big enterprise. If we study the history of many of the big business firms in the world, we can see that they all had humble beginnings. Those enterprises were not started on a big scale at first. Instead, they grew up from the seed form into huge business houses. Many of the richest men in the world had a humble beginning in life. With hard and sincere efforts, they earned the position of the rich men in the world. The proverb has another meaning also. Like good things, a bad habit even spoils the life of the person concerned. So such a bad habit in its seed form should be checked before they grow up into dangerous once.

Grasp All And You Lose All.

One who tries to grab many things at a time will lose even what he already has. One should be ambitious to succeed in life. But it should not become greed. In fact, being ambitious and being greedy are entirely different things. Ambition brings success in life while greed culminates in loss. Being greedy you fail to hold on to even what you have. There is the story of a poor woodcutter who had lost his old axe in the river while cutting wood. The goddess of the river came up and showed him three axes made of gold, silver and iron. The axe made of iron was in fact the wood cutter’s own. She asked man wanted to have all the three axes. So he replied that all the three axes were his and that he had lost them one by one while cutting wood. The river godless knew that only the iron axe belonged to the wood cutter. She knew that he was lying and she vanished without giving him any of the axes. Similarly, if we embark on a lot of enterprises at the same time, we may not be able to concentrate on any of them and consequently fail in all those ventures. It is always better to do one thing at a time.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Fence is necessary to keep the privacy of any land. It keeps out the intruders who may otherwise trespass onto the land. A fence is a good thing even for neighboring houses. The neighbors may be friendly towards each other. But there is always the change of a quarrel between them. A fence gives some sort of separation to both the houses. Too much friendliness may make a person poke his nose into other people’s private affairs. Nobody likes the interference of others in their private affairs. So such an action may often result in quarrels. Besides everybody like some privacy. If neighbors move too freely with each other, there won’t be any privacy at all. Apart from that certain people are eager to take too much freedom which can lead to unpleasant incidents. Therefore it is always good to keep some distance even with very friendly with others. We can be very friendly with others and at the same time keep a respectable distance from them. The proverb metaphorically alludes to the act of keeping distance with the help of a fence.