Latest / Logic Library / 22 - Do Not Take Payment in Politeness - The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian
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- Do not take payment in politeness, for it is a kind of fraud. Some do not need the herbs of Thessaly for their magic, for they can enchant fools by the grace of their salute. Theirs is the bank of elegance, and they pay with the wind of fine words. To promise everything is to promise nothing. Promises are the pitfalls of fools. The true courtesy is performance of duty. Thus, furious, and especially the useless, is deceit. It is not respect, but rather a means to power. Obissance is paid not to the man but to his means, and compliments are offered not to the qualities that are recognized, but to the advantages that are desired. One hundred and ninety two. Peaceful life, a long life to live. Let live. Peacemakers not only live, they rule life. Hear, see and be silent. A day without dispute brings sleep without dreams, long life, and a pleasant one is life enough for two. That is the fruit of peace. He has all that makes nothing of what is nothing to him. There is no greater perversity than to take everything to heart. There is equal folly in troubling our heart about what does not concern us, and in not taking to heart, what does one hundred ninety three watch him that begins with another's to end with his own? Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives, you may, at any moment be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire, to the damage of your own fingers. One hundred and ninety four. Have reasonable views of yourself and of your affairs. Especially in the beginning of life. Everyone has a high opinion of himself, especially those who have least ground for it. Every one dreams of his good luck and thinks himself a wonder. Hope gives rise to extravagant promises which experience does not fulfill. Such idle imaginations merely serve as a wellspring of annoyance when disillusion comes with the true reality. The wise man anticipates such errors. He may always hope for the best, but he always expects the worst, so as to receive what comes with equanimity. True, it is wise to aim high so as to hit your mark, but not so high that you miss your mission. At the very beginning of life. This correction of the ideas is necessary, because before experience comes, expects is sure to soar too high. The best panacea against folly is prudence. If a man knows the true sphere of his activity and position, he can reconcile his ideas with reality. One hundred and ninety five. Know how to appreciate. There is none who cannot teach somebody something, And there is none so excellent. But he is excelled to know how to make use of everyone is useful. Knowledge Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each, and know how hard it is to make anything good. Fools depreciate all men, not recognizing the good and selecting the bad. One hundred and ninety six. Know your ruling star. None so helpless as not to have one. If he is unlucky, that is because he does not know it. Some stand high in the favor of princes and potentates without knowing why or wherefore, except that good luck itself has granted them favor on easy terms, merely requiring them to aid it with a little exertion. Others find favor with the wise. One man is better received by one nation than by another, or is more welcome in one city than in another. He finds more luck in one office or position than another, And all this though his qualifications are equal or even identical. Luck shuffles the cards, how and when she will let each man know his luck as well as his talents, For on this depends whether he loses or wins. Follow your guiding star and help it, without mistaking any other for it, for that would be to miss the North, though its neighbor, the poll star calls us to it with a voice of thunder one hundred and ninety seven. Do not carry fools a on your back. He that does not know a fool when he sees him is one himself. Still more he that knows him, but will not keep clear of him. They are dangerous company and ruinous confidants. Even though their own caution and others care keeps them in bounds for a time, Still at length they are sure to do or to say some foolishness, which is all the greater for being kept so long in stock. They cannot help another's credit, who have none of their own. They are most unlucky, which is the nemesis of fools, and they have to pay for one thing or the other. There is only one thing which is not so bad about them, and this is that though they can be of no use to the wise, they can be of much use to them as signposts or as warnings. One hundred and ninety eight know how to transplant yourself. There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make one's value felt, especially in great posts. Their native land is always a stepmother to great talents. Envy flourishes there on its native soil, and they remember one's small beginnings rather than the greatness one has reached. A needle is appreciated that comes from one end of the world to the other, and a piece of painted glass might outviy the diamond in value if it comes from Afar. Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from Afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect. We have seen persons, once the laughing stock of their village, and now the wonder of the whole world, honored by their fellow countrymen and by the foreigners among whom they dwell, by the latter because they come from Afar, and by the former because they are seen from Afar. The statue on the altar is never reverenced by him who knew it as a trunk in the garden one hundred ninety nine. To find a proper place by merit, not by presumption. The true road to respect is through merit, and if industry accompany merit, the path becomes shorter. Integrity alone is not sufficient. Push and insistence is degrading for things arrive by That means so be sprinkled with dust that the discredit destroys reputation. The true way is the middle, one half way between deserving a place and pushing oneself into it. Two hundred. Leave something to wish for so as not to be miserable from very happiness. The body must respire and the soul aspire. If one possessed all, all would be disillusion and discontent. Even in knowledge. There should always be something left to know in order to arouse curiosity and excite hope. Surfeits of happiness are fatal in giving assistance. It is a piece of policy not to satisfy entirely. If there is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear. An unhappy state of happiness. When desire dies, fear is born. End of Section twenty two