Half your life

Beware of insignificant people! Among those whose life is worth little, your life is worth nothing. This reminds me of a story:

Now Nasreddin was a ferryman. One day he took a scholar in his boat. As he listened to the Hodja's chatter the learned man – an erudite equal to Rumi himself - observed some errors of speech and asked, "Tell me Hoça, did you ever study grammar?"

"No."

"What a shame! You wasted half of your life."

Nasreddin grew silent and kept paddling.

After a while he asked,

"Wise one, did you learn to swim?"

"No", said the professor.

"What a pity! You wasted your entire life, Master. We sink. "