“Silence is wisdom, yet few practice it.”
Luqman · Widely attributed in classical Arabic wisdom literature
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Do not grieve over what has passed, and do not be overjoyed by what has come to you.
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About this quote
Meaning
This saying counsels a kind of emotional balance that resists both excessive sorrow over what cannot be changed and excessive delight in what fortune has brought. The warning against grieving what has passed is a call to accept that the past is fixed and that continuing to suffer over it serves no purpose. The warning against being overjoyed by good fortune that arrives is subtler: it cautions against placing too much of one's emotional stability in outcomes that are just as subject to change as the things that were lost. Together the two halves describe a steady, grounded way of moving through life.
Context
This saying is attributed to Luqman in classical Arabic wisdom literature, where his name became a byword for practical moral guidance. The sentiment itself echoes themes found across many philosophical and religious traditions, including Stoic philosophy, various schools of Islamic ethics, and broader Near Eastern wisdom writing. The pairing of opposite emotional dangers, one past and one present, is a rhetorical pattern common in wisdom literature and gives the saying a balanced, memorable shape that has helped it persist through many generations of retelling.
About the author
Luqman is one of the most celebrated figures in the Arabic and Islamic wisdom tradition, honored as a man whose moral insight was so profound that his name was given to a chapter of the Quran. Outside the scriptural text, a large body of proverbs and maxims has grown up around his name over the centuries, transmitted through scholarship, literature, and oral tradition. His reputation rests on a consistent body of values: equanimity, humility, gratitude, and the kind of long-sighted thinking that keeps a person steady through both hardship and good fortune.
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