Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma

Zuhayr bin Abī Sulmā (Arabic: زهير بن أبي سلمى; c. 520 – c. 609), also romanized as Zuhair or Zoheir, was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet who lived in the 6th & 7th centuries AD. He is considered one of the greatest writers of Arabic poetry in pre-Islamic times.

The Poem of Zuhayr, translation from The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East

 * I have grown weary of the troubles of life. I know what has happened to-day and yesterday, before it, but verily, of the knowledge of what will happen to-morrow. I see death is like the blundering of a blind camel;—him whom he meets he kills, and he whom he misses lives and will become old. He who does not act with kindness in many affairs will be torn by teeth and trampled under foot. And he, who makes benevolent acts intervene before honor, increases his honor; and he, who does not avoid abuse, will be abused. He who keeps his word, will not be reviled; and he whose heart is guided to self-satisfying benevolence will not stammer. He who dreads the causes of death, they will reach him, even if he ascends the tracts of the heavens with a ladder. He, who is always seeking to bear the burdens of other people, and does not excuse himself from it, will one day by reason of his abasement, repent. Many silent ones you see, pleasing to you, but their excess in wisdom or deficiency will appear at the time of talking. The tongue of a man is one half, and the other half is his mind, and here is nothing besides these two, except the shape of the blood and the flesh. Verily, as to the folly of an old man there is no wisdom after it, but the young man after his folly may become wise.
 * Quoted in The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Vol. 5, p. 38-40