Summary: Speech reveals faults and true character. Just as a tree’s fruit shows its care, words show thoughts. Do not praise someone before hearing them speak.
When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when one speaks.
As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just.
The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.
Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.