Ben Sira - chapter 20

20: 1 - 31 (translated by Edgar Goodspeed)

There is a rebuke that is uncalled for, and a time when the one who keeps silent is wise.  How much better it is to rebuke someone than to get angry, for the one who makes full confession will be kept from failure.  Like a eunuch's craving to ravish a maid is the man who would do right by violence.  One person keeps silence and is considered wise while another is hated for being talkative.  One keeps silence because he has nothing to say; and another keeps silence because he knows it is the time for it.  A wise one will keep silence till the right moment, but a boaster and a fool miss the fitting time.  The one who talks excessively is detested, and the one who takes it on himself to speak is hated.
There are advantages that come to a person in adversity, and there are gains that result in loss.  There are gifts that will do you no good, and there are gifts that are returned double.  There are humiliations for the sake of gaining glory, and there are some who have risen from low conditions.  One buys much for little, and yet pays for it seven times over.  One who speaks wisely makes himself beloved; but the pleasant speeches of fools are thrown away.  A present from a fool will do you no good, for the fool's eyes are not one but many.  That one gives little but finds a great deal of fault, and opens his mouth like a town-crier.  The fool will lend today and ask it back tomorrow; such an individual is hateful.  The fool says, "I have not got a friend; and I get no thanks for my good deeds."  Those who eat his bread are evil-tongued; how many will laugh at him, and how often!
A slip on the ground is better than a slip of the tongue; so the fall of the wicked will come quickly.  A disagreeable person and an unseasonable story -- they will both be constantly on the lips of the uneducated.  A proverb on the lips of a fool will be refused, for he will not utter it at the proper time.  One may be kept from sinning through poverty, so his conscience does not prick him when he goes to rest.  Another loses his own life from sheer embarrassment, and destroys it by his senseless expression.  Another out of embarrassmnet makes promises to his friend, and so make the friend his enemy for nothing.  A lie is a bad blot on a person; it is continually found on the lips of the ignorant.  A thief is better than a habitual liar, but they are both doomed to destruction.  Dishonor is habitual with a liar, and his shame attends him continually.
PROVERBIAL SAYINGS [heading is in Greek text]: The wise person makes his way in the world, and a person of good sense pleases the great.  Those who cultivate the soil make their heap high, and those who please the great atone for wrongdoing.  Gifts and presents can blind the eyes of the wise, and avert reproofs like a muzzle on the mouth.  Hiden wisdom and concealed treasure -- what is the use of either of them?  Those who hide their folly are better than those who conceal their wisdom.