If our inward griefs were written on our brows, how many who are envied now would be pitied. It would seem that they had their deadliest foe in their own breast, and their whole happiness would be reduced to mere seeming.

Wording recorded in the collection; original language not established.

If our inward griefs were written on our brows, how many who are envied now would be pitied. It would seem that they had their deadliest foe in their own breast, and their whole happiness would be reduced to mere seeming.

Pietro Metastasio · Book of Wise Sayings · 1893 · n. 300

Wording recorded in the collection; original language not established.

He who devises evil for another falls at last into his own pit, and the most cunning finds himself caught by what he had prepared for another. But virtue without guile, erect like the lofty palm, rises with greater vigour when it is oppressed.

Pietro Metastasio · Book of Wise Sayings · 1893 · n. 162

Wording recorded in the collection; original language not established.

As gold is tried by the furnace, and the baser metal shown, so the hollow-hearted friend is known by adversity.

Pietro Metastasio · Book of Wise Sayings · 1893 · n. 330