Proverbs

¹ mind your manners:

² don't talk with your mouth full.

³ bridle your appetite.

⁴ restrain yourself!

⁵ wealth sprouts wings and flies off into the wild blue yonder.

⁶ don't expect anything special.

⁷ he'll say, "Eat! Drink!" but won't mean a word of it.

⁸ when you realize the meal's a sham.

⁹ they'll only poke fun at your words.

¹⁰ or cheat orphans out of their property,

¹¹ who will go to bat for them.

¹² open your ears to tested knowledge.

¹³ a spanking won't kill them.

¹⁴ from something worse than death.

¹⁵ I'll be one happy parent.

¹⁶ to the tuneful truth you'll speak.

¹⁷ soak yourself in the Fear-of-God—

¹⁸ Then you won't be left with an armload of nothing.

¹⁹ point your life in the right direction.

²⁰ don't eat too much food and get fat.

²¹ in a stupor and dressed in rags.

²² and when your mother grows old, don't neglect her.

²³ buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight.

²⁴ wise children become proud parents.

²⁵ Make your mother proud!

²⁶ please do what I show you.

²⁷ a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast.

²⁸ she's worse than a pack of thieves.

²⁹ Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?

³⁰ for whom drinking is serious business.

³¹ or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.

³² the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.

³³ with your speech all slurred,

³⁴ drunk as a sailor?

³⁵ they beat on me, but I didn't feel a thing. When I'm sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!"