Be slow in choosing a friend, but slower in changing him. [ Scotch Proverb ]

In choosing a wife and buying a sword we ought not to trust another. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

The measure of choosing well is whether a man likes what he has chosen. [ Lamb ]

Descend a step in choosing thy wife; ascend a step in choosing thy friend. [ The Talmud ]

Nothing is more deeply punished than the neglect of the affinities by which alone society should be formed, and the insane levity of choosing associates by others eyes. [ Emerson ]

Wisdom consisteth not in knowing many things, nor even in knowing them thoroughly; but in choosing and in following what conduces the most certainly to our lasting happiness and true glory. [ Landor ]

There is a world of science necessary in choosing books. I have known some people in great sorrow fly to a novel, or the last light book in fashion. One might as well take a rose-draught for the plague! Light reading does not do when the heart is really heavy. I am told that Goethe, when he lost his son, took to study a science that was new to him. Ah! Goethe was a physician who knew what he was about. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]