Read the Bible

¹ Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God;
    he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.

² We justify our actions by appearances;
    God examines our motives.

³ Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors
    mean far more to God than religious performance.

⁴ Arrogance and pride—distinguishing marks in the wicked—
    are just plain sin.

⁵ Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run;
    hurry and scurry puts you further behind.

⁶ Make it to the top by lying and cheating;
    get paid with smoke and a promotion—to death!

⁷ The wicked get buried alive by their loot
    because they refuse to use it to help others.

⁸ Mixed motives twist life into tangles;
    pure motives take you straight down the road.

⁹ Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack
    than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.

¹⁰ Wicked souls love to make trouble;
    they feel nothing for friends and neighbors.

¹¹ Simpletons only learn the hard way,
    but the wise learn by listening.

¹² A God-loyal person will see right through the wicked
    and undo the evil they've planned.

¹³ If you stop your ears to the cries of the poor,
    your cries will go unheard, unanswered.

¹⁴ A quietly given gift soothes an irritable person;
    a heartfelt present cools a hot temper.

¹⁵ Good people celebrate when justice triumphs,
    but for the workers of evil it's a bad day.

¹⁶ Whoever wanders off the straight and narrow
    ends up in a congregation of ghosts.

¹⁷ You're addicted to thrills? What an empty life!
    The pursuit of pleasure is never satisfied.

¹⁸ What a bad person plots against the good, boomerangs;
    the plotter gets it in the end.

¹⁹ Better to live in a tent in the wild
    than with a cross and petulant spouse.

²⁰ Valuables are safe in a wise person's home;
    fools put it all out for yard sales.

²¹ Whoever goes hunting for what is right and kind
    finds life itself—glorious life!

²² One sage entered a whole city of armed soldiers—
    their trusted defenses fell to pieces!

²³ Watch your words and hold your tongue;
    you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

²⁴ You know their names—Brash, Impudent, Blasphemer—
    intemperate hotheads, every one.

²⁵ Lazy people finally die of hunger
    because they won't get up and go to work.

²⁶ Sinners are always wanting what they don't have;
    the God-loyal are always giving what they do have.

²⁷ Religious performance by the wicked stinks;
    it's even worse when they use it to get ahead.

²⁸ A lying witness is unconvincing;
    a person who speaks truth is respected.

²⁹ Unscrupulous people fake it a lot;
    honest people are sure of their steps.

³⁰ Nothing clever, nothing conceived, nothing contrived,
    can get the better of God.

³¹ Do your best, prepare for the worst—
    then trust God to bring victory.