154 Wise Sayings of Imam Ali
1. Fear God and you will have no cause to fear any one.
2. Resignation to the Will of God is the cure of the disease of the heart.
3. The word of God is the medicine of the heart.
4. Lead such a life, that, when you die, the people may mourn you, and while you are alive they long for your company.
5. The days of life pass away like clouds, so do good while you are alive.
6. Of all the follies the greatest is to love the world.
7. Opportunity is swift of flight but slow to return.
8. Pride, cowardice, and miserliness are bad for me but good for women.
9. The most happy is he to whom God has given a good wife.
10. He who knows himself knows God.
11. Do not soil your conscience for anything but heaven
12. The disease of the heart is worse than the disease of the body.
13. To fight against one’s desires is the greatest of all fights.
14. The strongest amongst you is he who subdues his self.
15. Wealth and greed are the roots of all evils.
16. Riches without faith are the greatest poverty.
17. A man’s worth depends upon the nobility of his aspirations.
18. Knowledge enlivens the soul.
19. The learned lives, although he dies.
20. The sum total of excellence is knowledge.
21. To respect the learned is to respect God.
22. Generosity hides shortcomings.
23. The wealth of a miser is as useless as a pebble.
24. Desire is one’s most inveterate enemy.
25. Those who walk on the surface of the earth shall one day be interred in it.
26. Every breath of man brings him nearer to death.
27. People are asleep as long as they are alive, they are awakened when they die.
28. Patience is the fruit of faith.
29. Virtue never dies.
30. A man’s glory from his virtue is greater than the glory of his pedigree.
31. No shelter is safer than piety.
32. A man’s behavior is the index of his mind.
33. Courtesy costs nothing but buys everything.
34. Clemency graces power.
35. Jealousy devours virtue as fire devours fuel
36. He that lends a listening ear to reproach is one of those that deserve reproach.
37. Forgiveness is she crown of greatness.
38. Carnal appetites are nets spread by the devil.
39. Every arrow does not hit the mark, nor every prayer granted.
40. Ostentatiousness spoils prayers.
41. Fear none but your sins.
42. He who praises you murders you.
43. A man who praises himself displays his deficiency of intellect.
44. Honor your parents and your sons will honor you.
45. A man is hid under his tongue.
46. The tongue of a wise man lies behind his heart.
47. The tongue pierces deeper than the spear.
48. He who purifies his heart from doubt is a believer.
49. The opinion of a wise man is an oracle.
50. To seek counsel is to go to the fountain of guidance.
51. Association with a fool is tyrannical to the soul.
52. God hastens the fall of tyrants.
53. Tyranny leads to moral cowardice.
54. A tyrant’s success is his moral defeat.
55. It is better to die than to beg.