A man who associates with an inferior goes downhill, but associating with an equal, you’ll never decline; following the best, you’ll quickly rise up, so you should keep company <j>with people better than you.”
Numbered Discourses 3.28 3. Individuals Speech like Dung
“These three individuals are found in the world. What three? One with speech like dung, one with speech like flowers, and one with speech like honey. And who has speech like dung? It’s an individual who is summoned to a council, an assembly, a family meeting, a guild, or to the royal court, and asked to bear witness: ‘Please, my man, say what you know.’ Not knowing, they say ‘I know.’ Knowing, they say ‘I don’t know.’ Not seeing, they say ‘I see.’ And seeing, they say ‘I don’t see.’ So they deliberately lie for the sake of themselves or another, or for some trivial worldly reason. This is called an individual with speech like dung.