"The whip for the horse, the bridle for the ass, and the rod for the back of fools." - Proverbs 26:3


Proverbs
Chapter 26

1] Like snow in summer, or rain in harvest, honor for a fool is out of place.
2] Like the sparrow in its flitting, like the swallow in its flight, a curse uncalled-for arrives nowhere.
3] The whip for the horse, the bridle for the ass, and the rod for the back of fools.
4] Answer not the fool according to his folly, lest you too become like him.
5] Answer the fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.
6] He cuts off his feet, he drinks down violence, who sends messages by a fool.
7] A proverb in the mouth of a fool hangs limp, like crippled legs.
8] Like one who entangles the stone in the sling is he who gives honor to a fool.
9] Like a thorn stick brandished by the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
10] Like an archer wounding all who pass by is he who hires a drunken fool.
11] As the dog returns to his vomit, so the fool repeats his folly.
12] You see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
13] The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the street, a lion in the middle of the square!"
14] The door turns on its hinges, the sluggard, on his bed!
15] The sluggard loses his hand in the dish; he is too weary to lift it to his mouth.
16] The sluggard imagines himself wiser than seven men who answer with good sense.
17] Like the man who seizes a passing dog by the ears is he who meddles in a quarrel not his own.
18] Like a crazed archer scattering firebrands and deadly arrows
19] Is the man who deceives his neighbor, and then says, "I was only joking."
20] For lack of wood, the fire dies out; and when there is no talebearer, strife subsides.
21] What a bellows is to live coals, what wood is to fire, such is a contentious man in enkindling strife.
22] The words of a talebearer are like dainty morsels that sink into one's inmost being.
23] Like a glazed finish on earthenware are smooth lips with a wicked heart.
24] With his lips an enemy pretends, but in his inmost being he maintains deceit;
25] When he speaks graciously, trust him not, for seven abominations are in his heart.
26] A man may conceal hatred under dissimulation, but his malice will be revealed in the assembly.
27] He who digs a pit falls into it; and a stone comes back upon him who rolls it.
28] The lying tongue is its owner's enemy, and the flattering mouth works ruin.


Source: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/proverbs/proverb26.htm