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The Art of Worldly Wisdom · The Art of Worldly Wisdom

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  Section one to Missus G. H. Lewis. Dear Missus Lewis, this
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  little book were not worthy of being associated with your name? Did it not
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  offer an ideal of life? At once refined and practical, cultured yet wisely
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  energetic. Gracian points to noble aims and proposes on the whole no ignoble means
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  of attaining to them. The Spanish Jesuit seas clear, but he looks upward.
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  There is, however, one side of life to which he is entirely
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  blind, As was perhaps natural in an ecclesiastic writing before the Age of Salence,
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  he nowhere makes mention in his pages of the gracious influence of woman as
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  Inspirer and Consola in the battle of life. Permit me to repair this omission
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  by placing your name in the forefront of this English version of his maxims to
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  those honored with your friendship. This will by itself suffice to recall all the
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  ennobling associations connected with your sex. Believe me, dear Missus Lewis, your
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  most sincerely, Joseph Jacobs Kilburn, twenty sixth of October eighteen ninety two.
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  Preface. My attention was first drawn to the Oraculo Manuel by mister now Sir
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  Montstuart grand Douff's admirable article on Baltazra Gracian in the Fortnightly Review of March eighteen
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  seventy seven. I soon after obtained the copy of Schopenhauer's excellent version, and
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  during a journey in Spain, I procured with some difficulty a villainously printed edition
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  of Gathian's work Barcelona, seventeen thirty four Poor Joseph Giralt, which contains the
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  Oraculo Manuel. Towards the end of the first volume, pages four hundred thirty
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  one to four hundred ninety four. I have translated from this last, referring
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  in the many doubtful places of its text, to the first Madrid edition of
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  sixteen fifty three, the earliest in the British museum. I have threw out
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  had Schopenhauer's version by my side, and have found it, as Sir Montstuart
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  grand Duff says, a most finished piece of work. Though I have pointed
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  out in the notes a few cases where he has failed, in my opinion,
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  to give Gracian's meaning completely or correctly, I have little doubt that I
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  am a Fellow's sinner. In this regard, I know no prose style that
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  offers such difficulty to a translator as Gracian's laconic and artificial epigrams. It is
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  not without reason that he has been called the introducible. The two earlier English
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  versions miss his points time after time, and I found it useless to refer
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  to them. On the other hand, I have ventured to adopt some of
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  Sir Mountstuart grand Dove's often very happy renderings in the extracts contained in his Fortnightly
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  article. I have endeavored to reproduce Gracian's laconism and cultismo in my version,
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  and have even and try to retain his many paronomasias and jingles of similar sound.
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  I may have here and there introduced others of my own to redress the
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  balance for cases where I found it impossible to produce the same effect in English.
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  In such cases I generally give the original in the notes. Wherever possible,
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  I have replaced Spanish proverbs and proverbial phrases by English ones, and have
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  throughout try to preserve the characteristic rhythm and brevity of the proverb. In short,
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  if I may venture to say so, I have approached my task rather
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  in the spirit of Fitzgerald than of Bonn. The gem on the title,
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  representing a votive offering to Hermes, the god of worldly wisdom, is from
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  a fine paste in the British Museum of the best period of Greek glyptic art.
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  I have to thank mister Cecil Smith of that institution for kind advice in
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  the selection. Let me conclude these prefatory words with a piece of advice as
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  oracular as my original. When reading this little book for the first time,
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  read only fifteen maxims and then stop for the day. Joseph Jacobs testimonia ile
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  siqunci sir rompeu a si a trenemont coupe kill somble quille prid obscurity attache or
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  see the lecteur abezouan do'n Dovini les sance a sauvan conti la conprix in truth
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  killed settudier a ferrini enigmer junuschous four commune f Van Allison's Voyage de Spine sixteen
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  sixty seven, page two hundred ninety four ilabu cou de l vasion, the
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  sup tilte the fox a meme de bonsence messonseill le peu sauvant se quill verdir
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  an les se papo tetroi meme cakexandresesuvrages nensemble e trefe capour neetropin entendu bourus entretien
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  artiste du gene sixt Deen, seventy one, page two hundred and three.
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  Louisa de Padilla, a lady of great learning and Countess of Aranda, was
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  in like manner angry with the famous Gracian upon his publishing his Treatise of the
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  Discreto, wherein she fancied that he had laid open those maxims to common readers
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  which ought only to be reserved for the knowledge of the great. These objections
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  are thought by many of so much weight that they often defend the above mentioned
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  authors by affirming they have affected such an obscurity in their style and manner of
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  writing, that though every one may read their works, there will be but
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  very few who can comprehend their meaning. The Spectator number three hundred seventy nine,
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  seventeen twelve. Moncherjean to jour lenergi i is sublim ildo villenou trees is
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  per don li moud Gracian eu bu noradist sirc don Quixote, etouvre eru il
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  jen la ilutre and fau er de grandeur quion MPOs ussou Ekiferiri lesage Abbe de
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  Fontaine, seventeen forty five, k de elios no s deben, Alaoto del
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  Criticon and Medio Rella's antithesis, Paranomasias eTOD a, lamitria, culta es una
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  delas obras mast recommend doubles, the Nuestraliteratura Paula Felicidad de la invencion, la
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  inagotable Riqueza, the Imaginacion ide Sales Paula Viveda de Supinturas, Ippola, Gracia,
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  Sultura in naturalidad, Tellestillo, don Manuel Silvera Biblioteca Selecta de Literatura Espaniola
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  eighteen nineteen, Siubies Gracian Procedido conmas soobridad and el uzo de estus reegos,
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  econceptos, chules e escrito de su tiempo, The Tantos daughters icaodal nativo,
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  parace re mas freconoire, gante sabiendo commolo manifesto and don de estavan las di
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  dicatellas ILOs donaires Estuez, loa Margo, Lodulce, Lopigante, Losalado de la
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  la Gua Castellana, donn Donio Camani, Diatro de la la Cuentia Espanola,
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  Tom Musinko. The Oraculo Manual has been more use than any other of the
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  author's works. It is intended to be a collection of maxims of general utility,
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  but it exhibits good and bad precepts, sound judgments, and refined sophisms,
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  all confounded together. In this work, Gracian has not forgotten to inculcate
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  his practical principles of Jesuitism to be all things to all men hatherse a tordos,
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  nor to recommend his favorite maxim to be common in nothing and nada vulgar,
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  which in order to be valid, would require totally different interpretation from that
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  which he has given it Boutak. The person, however, who settled the
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  character of Curtismo, and in some respects gave it an air of philosophical pretension,
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  was Baltazar Gracian, a Jesuit of Aragon who lived between sixteen o one
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  and sixteen fifty eight, exactly the period when the cultivated style took possession of
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  Spanish prose and rose to its greatest consideration. G. Tigno History of Spanish
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  Literature, three, two hundred and twenty two. Dabai istez does ein segezana
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  art on nie and andros ubertin zelbeen gigstant dishrieben worden the nua an individum o
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  ste feinsten aller natziunen the spanishen comtes fezuren daseelbelieti kunst dera ale jishbe flisigen udsta
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  he fu jidaman bazuonda's aba is the ska eignet das han pur alla de rad
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  suwarden diende grussenleben gunsford zugliche aba juma loiter die gluptarin sumaran bu mutzind untin nesmidt
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  einemal und four hours debil erung gift disizd airs to islanga afa harrltan Alschoppenhauer.
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  Later Rational Notice for the Eubazet Song eighteen thirty one, published eighteen sixty one.
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  A reg book would have spread and struction with a facility in arien produi
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  kipis o geordie sut near lexamand la critique la plus and partial puibusque istraas comparede
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  Literaturio Espanol Francais, eighteen forty three, one page five hundred and fifty nine.
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  Glassian reputed ran excellent equiva, snavepa ulu dovnir r an eikleiva extraordinaire,
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  duade in vast eruditionion venees prifa, tantalon, profon topseracion elate, nepo,
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  cleresan siecle melvanite de deveni novata corum pi songou on le portin and roduer don
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  la prose selon gage precieux ces expression alambique ke gongora ave and trodide don le
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  vere at tobacca BiblioTech diziquivant la compagiu eighteen sixty nine, s V. Cascian
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  A si comolas maximas de antonio perez ferron mui popolares and cortesanos or doctors or
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  eostrados asi espanoles como estranieros, poe quella delicatella, espercial de estiro las del
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  pare barta dargacian alcantaron la misma estima poet attil damiento and eldesier, attil damiento,
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  kitana and si on inexplicably attractivo, iquian ca algo partisipabac tel general,
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  Cuteranismo, telaaliteratura Espaniola and aquel sigro and sera baciato, buen gusto de zlombrador,
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  elison, hero para lector, case profun disimos, contractos pressI abaconnafuersa tesuin
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  regno aquellos, Donaldolfo de Castro, Obras escochidas de Philosophia, eighteen seventy three,
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  page one hundred eight. Taking the book as a guide, especially for
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  those who intend to enter public life, I have never chanced to meet with
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  anything which seemed to me even distantly to approach it. It would possibly be
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  rather difficult to disprove the thesis that the Spanish nation has produced the best maxims
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  of practical wisdom, the best proverb, the best epitaph, and the best
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  motto in the world. If I had to sustain it, I would point,
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  with reference to the first head to the oraquolo. Manuel Sir m E.
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  Grand duff On Baltazar Grascian in Fortnightly Review, March eighteen seventy seven.
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  Some have found light in the sayings of Baltazar Gracian, a Spaniard who flourished
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  at the end of the seventeenth century. I do not myself Frank Garcian much
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  of a companion, though some of his avorisms give a knee turn to a
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  commonplace. J. Morley on Aphorism Studies, eighteen ninety one, page eighty
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  six, end of section one, Introduction one of Balthazar Gracian and his works.
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  We may certainly say of Gracian what Hine, by an amiable fiction,
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  said of himself. He was one of the first men of his century.
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  For he was born on the eighth of January sixteen o one n s at
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  Belmont, a suburb of Calataioude in the Kingdom of Aragon. Calataioude properly calat
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  ayoub job'stown is nearly on the site of the ancient Bilbilis Marcial's birthplace. As
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  its name indicates, it was one of the Moorish settlements and nearly one of
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  the most northern. By Grathian's time, it had again been Christian and Spanish
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  for many generations, and Carathian himself was of noble birth. For a Spaniard
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  of noble birth, only two careers were open arms and church. In the
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  seventeenth century, arms had yielded to the Cassock and Balthozar and his three brothers
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  all took orders. Philippi, his eldest, joined the Order of Saint Francis,
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  the next brother, Pedro, became a Trinitarian during his short life,
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  and the third, Raimundo, became a Calmelite. Barthoza himself tells us Agudeza
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  Chapter twenty five that he was brought up in the house of his uncle,
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  the Licentiate Antonio Grathian, at Toledo, from which we may gather that both
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  his father and his mother, ir Morales, died in his early youth.
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  He joined the Company of Jesus in sixteen nineteen, when in its most flourishing
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  state, after the organizing genius of Aquaviva had given solid form to the bold
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  counterstroke of Loyola to the Protestant Revolution, the Razzio Stuayorum was just coming into
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  full force, and Carthian was one of the earliest men in Europe to be
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  educated on the system which has dominated the seas secondary education of Europe almost down
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  to our own days. This point is of some importance we shall see in
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  considering Gracian's chief work. Once enrolled among the ranks of the Jesuits, the
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  individual disappears. The Jesuit alone remains. There is scarcely anything to record of
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  Gracian's life, except that he was a Jesuit and engaged in teaching what passes
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  with the Order for philosophy and sacred literature, and became ultimately rector of the
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  Jesuit college at Tarragona. His great friend was Don Vincentio Juan de Lastanosa at
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  de Lettante of the period, who lived at Uesca and collected coins, medals,
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  and other archeological bric a. Brac Gracian appears to have shared his tastes
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  for Loastanoza mentions him in his description of his own cabinet. A long correspondence
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  with him was once extant, and seen by Latassa, who gives the dates
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  and places where the letters were written. From these, it would seem that
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  Grathian moved about considerably from Madrid to Saragossa, and thence to Tarragona. From
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  another source we learned that Philip the Third often had him to dinner to provide
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  ettic salt to the royal table. He preached, and his sermons were popular.
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  In short, a life of prudent prosperity came to an end when Baltho
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  Zagrathian, rector of the Jesuit College at Tarragona, died there on the sixth
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  of December sixteen fifty eight, at the age of nearly fifty eight. Years.
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  Of Carathian's works, there is perhaps more to say, even while leaving
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  for separate consideration, that one which is here presented to the English reader and
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  forms his chief claim to attention. Spanish literature was passing into its period of
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  Swega, a period that came to all literatures of modern Europe after the training
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  in classics had given a fresh dessense of style. The characteristic of this period
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  in the literature is suitably a nun of the appearance of conceits or elaborate and
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  far fetched figures of speech. The process began with Antonio Guevara, author of
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  a Libro aureo, from which, according to some, the English form of
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  the disease known as euphuism was derived. But it received a further impetus from
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  the success of the stilo culto of Gongora. In poetry, Gongorism drove conceit
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  to its farthest point. Artificiality of diction could go no farther in verse.
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  It was only left for Grathian to apply to prose. He did this for
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  the first time in sixteen thirty in his first work and Ere. This was
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  published, like most of his other works, by his lifelong friend Lastanoza,
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  and under the name of Lorenzo Grathian, a suppositious brother of Grathian's, who,
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  so far as can be ascertained, never existed. The whole of Elerue
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  exists in shortening form in the Oraculu Manual. The form, however, is
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  so shortened that it would be difficult to recognize the original primores as they are
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  called of Eleroe. Yet it is precisely in the curtainness of the sentences that
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  the peculiarity of the steel or culto consists. Generally, elaborate metaphor and far
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  fetched allusions go with long and involved sentences of the periodic type. But with
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  Carthian the aim is as much towards shortness as towards elaboration. The embroidery is
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  rich but the jacket is short, as he himself might have said. As
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  for the subject matter, the extracts in the Oracolo will suffice to give some
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  notion of the lofty ideal or character presented in Elliroe, the ideal indeed associated
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  in the popular mind with the term Hidalgo. A later book, El Discreto,
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  first published in sixteen forty seven, gives the counterpoise to l Are by
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  drawing an ideal of the prudent courtier as contrasted with the proud and spotless Idalgo.
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  This too is fully represented in the book before us, but a curtlement
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  is still more marked than in the case of Eliroe. There is evidence that
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  Grathian wrote a similar pair of contrasts, termed, respectively, El Galante and
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  El varon Artento, which were not published, but were incorporated in the Oraculo
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  Manual by Lastanoza. The consequences of this utilization of contrasts will concern us later,
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  reverting to Grathian's works somewhat more in their order. His eloge of Ferdinand,
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  the magus of Columbus's epoch, need not much detain us. It is
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  stilted and conventional, and does not betray much historical insight. Grathian's Agudeza Ialte
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  di Ingenio is of more importance and interest as the formal exposition of the critical
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  principles of cultismo. It is concerned more with verse than prose, and represents
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  the poetics of Gongorism. A curious collection of flowers of rhetoric in Spanish verse
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  could be made from it. Of still more restricted interest is the Cormulgadur or
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  Sacred Meditations for Holy Communion. I do not profess to be a judge of
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  this class of literature, if literature it can be called, but the fact
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  that the book was deemed worthy of an English translation as lately as sixteen seventy
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  six seems to show that it still answers the devotional needs of the Catholics.
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  It has a personal interest for Grathian, as it was the only book office
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  that appeared under his own name. There remains only to be considered besides the
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  Oracuolo manoal Grathian's El Criticon, a work of considerable value and at least historic
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  interest, which appeared in the three parts dealing with youth, maturity, and
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  old age, respectively, during the years sixteen fifty to fifty three. This
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  is a kind of philosophic romance or allegory depicting the education of the human soul.
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  A Spaniard named Critilo is wrecked on Saint Helena and there finds a sort
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  of man, Friday, whom he calls Andreno Andregno. After learning to communicate
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  with Critillo gives him a highly elaborate autobiography of his soul from the age of
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  three days or so. They then travel to Spain, where they meet truth
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  valor Falsehood and other allegorical females and males who are labeled by Critillo for Andrino's
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  benefit in the approved and frigid style of the allegorical teacher. Incidentally, however,
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  the ideals and aspirations of the Spaniard of the seventeenth century are brought out,
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  and from this point of view the book derives the parallel with the Pilgrim's
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  Progress which Tickner had made for it. It is certainly one of the most
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  characteristic products of Spanish literature, both for style and subject matter. Nearly all
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  these works of Grathian were translated into most of the cultured languages of Europe.
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  English not accepted part of This ecumenical fame was doubtless due to the fact that
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  Carthian was a Jesuit and brethren of his order, translated to works of one
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  of whom the order was justly proud. But this explanation can not altogether account
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  for the wide spread of Carthian's works, and there remains a deposit of genuine
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  ability and literary skill involved in most of the works I have briefly referred to,
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  ability and skill of an entirely obsolete kind nowadays, but holding a rank
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  of their own in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when didacticism was all the rage.
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  It is noteworthy that the testimonia I have collected, for the most part
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  pass over the Oraculo, the only work at which a modern would care to
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  cast a second glance and go into raptures over elcriticon and its fellows, or
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  the reverse of raptures on Grathian's style, which after all was the most striking
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  thing about his works. That style reaches its greatest perfection in the Oraculo manoal
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  to which we might at once turn, but for a preliminary inquiry, which
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  it seems worth while to make. It is a book of maxims as distinguished
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  from a book of aphorisms, and it is worth while, for several reasons
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  inquiring into maxims in general and maxim literature in particular, before dealing with what
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  is probably the most remarkable specimen of its class. Before, however, doing
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  this, we may close this section of our introductory remarks by putting in,
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  as the lawyers say, the Latin inscription given by Latassa, from the foot
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  of the portrait of Grathian, which one stood in the Jesuit college at Calatayute,
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  a portrait of which alas no trace can now be found. The lines
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  sum up in sufficiently forcible Latin all that need be known of Baltada Grassian and
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  his works pey Baltazar Grassian uttiam ab ortu emineret in bellomontenatus est prope bilbilim confenis
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  martialis patria proximus inguineo would profounderette artuc christianas argutias bilbilis kuaipoini exhaustan videbatur in ethnicis
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  ergo augenst natale ingenium in nato acumine scripts it artem ingeni at artefacid scibile called
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  scibiles, phakid arts scripts it item artem prudentie at asse ipso artem dedicit scripsid
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  oraculum at vocus suez protulids scripsid desertum would say ipsum describreate at utscribret eroem eroica
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  patravit heck et alia a scripta mocenates riguez haburund eudicus admirazionem lectora mundum, tipographum
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  eternitatem filippus tres seppe ilius, argutias, interprandium versabad nedifigran sales reghiz dapibus,
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  said kuiplausus exitavorat calamo, diditus misionibus exitavid planctus verbo exitaturus, desiderium in morte
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  coarraptus fluid sexe de cambris arnaud mile sexaginta, quinquaginta octo, said aliquando extintus
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  eternum lookipit two of maxims. Many men have sought to give their views about
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  men and about life in a pithy way. A few have tried to advise
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  men in short sentences what to do in the various emergencies of life. The
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  former have written aphorisms the latter maxims. Where the aphorism states a fact of
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  human nature. A maxim advises a certain cause of action. The aphorism is
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  written in the indicative, the maxim in an imperative mood. Life is interesting
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  if not happy is an aphorism of Professor Sili's I believe as send a step
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  to choose a friend, these send a step to choose a wife is a
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  maxim of Rabbimir, one of the doctors of the Talmud. Now it is
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  indeed curious how few maxims have ever been written. Wisdom has been extold on
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  the housetops, but her practical advice seems to have been kept secret. Taking
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  our own literature, there are extremely few books of practical maxims, and not
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  the single one of any great merit. Sir Walter Raleigh's Cabinet Council, Penn's
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  Maxims, and Chesterfield's Letters almost exhaust the list, and the last generally contains
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  much more than mere maxims. Nor are they scattered with any profusion Through books
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  scheeming with knowledge of life, the galaxy of English novels during recent years,
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  extracts of their beauties have been published in some profusion. Wit and wisdom of
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  Beacon's field. Wise, witty and tender sayings of George Elliot extracts from Thackeray
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  and the rest, But the crop of practical maxims to be found among them
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  is extremely scanty. Aphorisms there are in plenty, especially in George Elliot,
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  But he that is doubtful what course to pursue in any weighty crisis, would
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  woefully waste his time if he sought for advice from the novelists. Nor are
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  the moralists more instructive in disregard. Bacon's essays leave with one the impression of
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  fullness of practical wisdom, Yet closely examined there is very little residue of practical
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  advice left in his pregnant sayings. Even the source of most of this kind
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  of writing, the Biblical Book of Proverbs, fails to answer the particular kind
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  of test I am at present applying. However shrewd some of them are are
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  startling us with the consciousness how little human nature has changed. It is knowledge
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  of human nature that they mainly supply. When we ask for instruction how to
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  apply that knowledge, we only get variations of the theme fear the Lord.
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  Two thousand years of experience have indeed shown that the fear or love of the
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  Lord forms a very good foundation for practical wisdom. But it has to be
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  supplemented by some such corollary as keep your powder dry, before it becomes of
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  direct service in the conduct of life. It is indeed, because of the
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  unpractical nature of practical maxims that they have been so much neglected. You must
• 27:41
  act in the concrete. You can only maximize in general terms. Then again,
• 27:45
  maxims can only appeal to the mind. To the intellect. The motive
• 27:49
  force of action is the will the temperament. As Disraeli put it, the
• 27:56
  conduct of men depends on the temperament, not upon a bond of musty maxims
• 28:00
  Henrietta Temple. It is only very distantly that a maxim constirred a vague desire
• 28:07
  that spurs an imitative will. True at times we read of man whose whole
• 28:11
  life has been colored by a single saying, but these have generally been more
• 28:15
  appeals to the imagination, like Newman's Securus judicat orbesterarum, or the heu fuge
• 28:23
  kurude la s terras fugelitus avarum, which had so decisive an effort on Savonarola's
• 28:30
  life. It is rare, indeed, that a man's whole life is tinged
• 28:34
  by a single practical maxim, like Sir Daniel Gooch, who was influenced by
• 28:38
  his father's advice stick to one thing. Perhaps one of the reasons that have
• 28:44
  led literary persons to neglect the maxim as a literary form has been their own
• 28:48
  ignorance of action, and still more, their exaggerated notions of its difficulties and
• 28:53
  complexities. Affairs are not conducted by aphorisms. War is waged by a different
• 29:00
  kind of maxims from those we are considering. Yet, after all, there
• 29:04
  must be some general principles on which actions should be conducted, and one would
• 29:08
  think they could be determined. Probably the successful men of action are not sufficiently
• 29:15
  self observant to know exactly on what their success depends, and if they did,
• 29:19
  they would in most cases try to keep it in the family, like
• 29:22
  their wealth or their trade secrets. And perhaps after all they are right who
• 29:27
  declare that action has little to do with intellect and much with character. To
• 29:33
  say the truth, one is not impressed with the intellectual powers of the millionaires.
• 29:37
  One meets the shadiest of journalists could often explain their own doings with more
• 29:42
  point than they Yet there are surely intellectual qualifications required for affairs. The Zuetz
• 29:49
  Canal must have required as grade an amount of research, emendation, sense of
• 29:55
  order and organization, as say the Corpus Inscriptionum latin arum. But there is
• 30:00
  no such punishment for slovenly scholarship in action as there is in letters. The
• 30:06
  Suez Canal can be dug only once. Lucretius or Latin inscriptions can be edited
• 30:11
  over and over again Altogether. We need not be surprised if the men of
• 30:15
  action cannot put the principles of action into pointed sentences or maxims. And if
• 30:22
  men of action cannot, it is not surprising that men of letters do not,
• 30:27
  for they cannot have the interest in action and its rewards which is required
• 30:32
  for worldly success, or else they would not be able to concentrate their thoughts
• 30:36
  on things which they consider of higher import. To a man of letters,
• 30:41
  the world is the devil, or ought to be. If he is to
• 30:44
  have the touch of idealism, which gives color and weight to his words,
• 30:48
  how then is he to devote his attention to worldly wisdom and the maxims that
• 30:52
  are to teach it. It is characteristic in this connection that the weightiest writer
• 30:57
  of maxims in our language is Bacon, who attempted to combine a career of
• 31:03
  affairs and of thought, and spoiled both by so doing. It is perhaps
• 31:07
  due to the subtle and all embracing influence of Christianity on modern civilization that this
• 31:12
  divorce between idealism and the world has come about. The strenuous opposition to the
• 31:18
  world among earnest Christians has led to their practical withdrawal from it. Just as
• 31:25
  the celibacy of the clergy meant that the next generation was to be deprived of
• 31:29
  the hereditary influence of some of the purest spirits of the time, so the
• 31:33
  opposition of Christianity to the world has brought it about that the world has been
• 31:38
  un Christian. Only one serious attempt has been made to bridge the chasm.
• 31:45
  The eyde mer of Jesuitism was to make the world Christian by Christians becoming worldly.
• 31:52
  It was doubtless due to the reaction against the over spiritualization of Christianity pressed
• 31:57
  by the Protestant Reformation, but its practical result has been to make the Jesuit
• 32:04
  a worldly Christian. The control of the higher education of Europe by the Jesuits
• 32:08
  had tended, on the other hand, to make society more Christian. If,
• 32:14
  then we were to look for an adequate presentation of worldly wisdom, touched
• 32:17
  with sufficient idealism to make it worthy of a man of letters, we should
• 32:22
  look for it from a Jesuit, or from one trained among the Jesuits.
• 32:28
  After all this elaborate explanation, why so few maxims have been composed, it
• 32:32
  may seem contradictory to give as a further and final reason, because so many
• 32:37
  exist under another form. For what other majority of proverbs but maxims under another
• 32:45
  name, or other maxims without the name of their author. We say of
• 32:50
  proverbs, indeed that they arise among the people. But it is one definite
• 32:54
  individual among the people that gives them the piquant form that makes them proverb.
• 33:00
  It was, we may be sure, a definite English gepher who first said
• 33:05
  penny wise, pound foolish. If we knew his name, we should call
• 33:09
  it a maxim. As his name is unknown, it ranks as a proverb.
• 33:15
  In this connection. The Talmudic proverbs and maxims are of great interest,
• 33:19
  owing to the worthy rabbinic principle say a thing in the name of the man
• 33:23
  who said it. We can in almost all cases trace Talmudic proverbs to their
• 33:29
  authors, or, in other words, Talmudic proverbs remain maxims. There is
• 33:35
  only one analogous case in English, A few of Benjamin Franklin's maxims e g.
• 33:40
  Three removes are as good as a fire have become proverbs. The abundance
• 33:45
  of proverbs is extraordinary. There is a whole bibliography devoted to the literature of
• 33:52
  proverbs Duplace Bibliography Paleimologic Paris, eighteen forty seven. And this needs now is
• 34:00
  a supplement as large again as the original, partly supplied by the bibliographical appendix
• 34:05
  of Hella al spanishu Shpritschwerte, eighteen eighty three. Indeed, in the multitude
• 34:10
  of proverbs consists the greatest proof of their uselessness as guides of action, for
• 34:16
  by this means we get proverbs at cross purposes. Thus, take the one
• 34:21
  I have just referred to penny wise, pound foolish, which has a variant
• 34:25
  in the proverb do not spoil the ship for a haporth of tar. A
• 34:30
  man who was hesitating as to the amount or expense he would incur in any
• 34:35
  undertaking would be prompted by these sayings to be lavish. But then, how
• 34:39
  about the proverb take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care
• 34:44
  of themselves. Between the two proverbs, he would come to the ground.
• 34:49
  And if he has the news to decide between them, he does not need
• 34:52
  the proverbs at all. Hence, it is perhaps that the nation that is
• 34:57
  richest in proverbs is the one that has proved itself Among European peoples the least
• 35:01
  wise in action to the Spaniards has been well applied to witticism about Charles the
• 35:07
  Second. They never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one.
• 35:13
  Certainly, if proverbs be a proof of wisdom, the Spaniards have given proofs
• 35:17
  in abundance. Don Quixote is full of them, and the Spanish collections are
• 35:22
  extraordinarily rich. Now, the nation that can produce good proverbs should be able
• 35:27
  to produce good maxims. Hence we should expect the best book of maxims to
• 35:32
  emanate from a Spaniard. One characteristic of both these forms of practical wisdom is
• 35:38
  their artificiality. One has to think twice before the point of a proverb or
• 35:43
  a Maxim is perfectly clear. The early bird catches the worm seems at first
• 35:49
  sight as meaningless a proposition as there are milestones on the dover road. Hence,
• 35:54
  it is when the literature is passing through its artificial stage that Maxims would
• 36:00
  naturally appear, so that it was clearly preordained that when the Book of Maxims
• 36:06
  should appear, it would be by a Jesuit so as to be worldly yet
• 36:10
  not too worldly, by a Spaniard so that it should have the proverbial ring,
• 36:15
  and during the prevalence of curtismo, so that it should have the quaintness
• 36:22
  to attract attention three of the Oraculo Manol. Having thus proved our priori that
• 36:30
  the ideal Book of Maxims was destined to be the Oraculo Manual of Balthazar Gracian,
• 36:36
  let us proceed to prove our proof, as schoolboys do with their sums.
• 36:40
  That it is the best book of Maxims is a foregone conclusion because there
• 36:45
  is none other. Schopenhauer, who translated the book observes that there is nothing
• 36:50
  like it in German, and there is certainly none approaching it in English.
• 36:53
  And if France or Italy can produce its superior It is strange that its fame
• 36:59
  has remained and so confined to its native country. Not that there are not
• 37:02
  books teaching the art of self advancement in almost all languages. The success of
• 37:08
  doctor Smiles's volume on self Help is a sufficient instance of this. Curiously enough,
• 37:15
  doctor Smiles's book has had its greatest success in Italy, where it has
• 37:19
  given rise to quite a literatua sel fel pista, as the Italians themselves call
• 37:23
  it. Or rather not curiously, for if you wish to find the most
• 37:28
  unromantic set of ideals nowadays, you must go search among the romance nations.
• 37:34
  Gratian does not, however, compete with doctor Smiles. He does not deal
• 37:37
  with broadwisde. He assumes that the vulgar question of bread and butter has been
• 37:44
  settled in favor of his reader. He may be worldly, but he is
• 37:47
  thinking of the great world. He writes for man with a position, and
• 37:52
  how to make the most of it. Nor is the amy puts before such
• 37:55
  persons an entirely selfish one. The sole advantage, which of power, is
• 38:00
  that you can do more good. Is the only rational defense of ambition,
• 38:06
  and Carthian employs it maxim two hundred and eighty six. Indeed, the tone
• 38:10
  of the book is exceptionally high. It is impossible to accuse a man of
• 38:15
  any meanness who is the author of such maxims, as one cannot praise a
• 38:20
  man too much who speaks well of them who speak ill of him one hundred
• 38:25
  and sixty two. Friends are a second existence one hundred eleven. When to
• 38:31
  change the conversation when they talk scandal two hundred and fifty. In great crisis,
• 38:38
  there is no better companion than a bold heart one hundred and sixty seven.
• 38:44
  The Secret of long life, Lead a good life ninety be able to
• 38:50
  boast that if gallantry, generosity, and fidelity were lost in the world,
• 38:54
  man would be able to find them again in your own breast one hundred and
• 39:00
  sixty five. A man of honor should never forget what he is, because
• 39:05
  he sees what others are two hundred and eighty And there are whole sections dealing
• 39:10
  with such topics as rectitude twenty nine, sympathy with great minds forty four,
• 39:17
  a genial disposition seventy nine, and the like. Not that he is without
• 39:23
  the more subtle devices of the worldly wise, one could not wish to have
• 39:28
  anything more cynical or stinging than the following. Find out each man's thumb screw
• 39:36
  twenty six. A shrewd man knows that others, when they seek him,
• 39:40
  do not seek him but their advantage in him and by him two hundred and
• 39:45
  fifty two. The truth, but not the whole truth one hundred and eighty
• 39:52
  one. Keep to yourself the final touches of your art two hundred and twelve.
• 39:58
  Do not take payment in politeness one hundred and ninety one. Have a
• 40:02
  touch of the trader two hundred and thirty two. Think with the few and
• 40:08
  speak with the many forty three. Never have a companion who casts you in
• 40:15
  the shade one hundred and fifty two. Never become paradoxical in order to avoid
• 40:20
  detroit one hundred and forty three. Do not show your wounded finger one hundred
• 40:27
  and forty five. The characteristic of the book is this combination, or rather
• 40:32
  contrast, of high tone and shrewdness. Carathian is both wisely worldly and worldly
• 40:39
  wise. After all, there does not seem to be any inherent impossibility in
• 40:45
  the combination. There does not seem any radical necessity why a good man should
• 40:50
  be a fool one always has a certain grudge against Theckeray for making his kernel
• 40:54
  newcome so silly at times do perhaps the irony the Pathos, the tragedy of
• 41:00
  the book required it. As a matter of fact, the holiest of men
• 41:05
  have been some of the shrewdest for their friends, at least, if not
• 41:08
  for themselves. The explanation of the combination in Grathian is simple enough. He
• 41:15
  was a Jesuit, and the Jesuits have just that combination of high tone and
• 41:20
  worldly wisdom as their resondetre. And in the case of the Oraculo, the
• 41:24
  mixture was easily affected by Grathian or his friend Lastanoza. For Grathian had written
• 41:30
  at least two series of works in which this contrast was represented by separate books.
• 41:36
  Two of these, describing the qualities of the hero and the prudent man,
• 41:39
  E le Roi and El Discreto, were published and are represented in The
• 41:45
  Oraculo. Two others, dealing with the gallant and the cautious men, El
• 41:50
  Gallante and El Varona Tento, are referred to by Lastanoza in the preface of
• 41:54
  El Discreto, and are also doubtless represented in the book. Before us one
• 42:00
  may guess that the section on high mindedness one hundred and twenty eight or on
• 42:05
  nobility of feeling one hundred and thirty one comes from El Galante, while better
• 42:10
  mad with the rest of the world than wise alone one hundred and thirty three
• 42:15
  smacks of al Varon Natento. At times we get the two tones curiously intermingled.
• 42:22
  Choose an heroic ideal seventy five seems at first sight a noble sentiment,
• 42:28
  but Carthian goes on to qualify it by adding but rather to emulate than to
• 42:34
  imitate. The moderness of the tone is the thing that would strike most readers.
• 42:38
  Apart from these contrasts, Here and there one may be struck by an
• 42:43
  archaic note never compete, would scarcely be the advice of a worldly teacher nowadays.
• 42:49
  But on the whole there is a tone of modern good society about the
• 42:52
  maxims, which one would scarcely find in contemporary English works like Pitchems, or
• 42:58
  even in contemporary Friends authors like Charon. The reason is that modern society is
• 43:04
  permeated by influences which Gratian himself represented. The higher education of Europe for the
• 43:10
  last two and a half centuries has been in the hands of Jesuits or in
• 43:15
  schools formed on the razzio studiorum, and society in the stricter sense traces from
• 43:21
  the hotel Rombouille, where one have to influence was Spanish. Grathian thus directly
• 43:27
  represents the tone of the two societies which have set the tone of our society
• 43:31
  of today. And it is no wonder therefore if he is modern. Even
• 43:37
  in his style there is something of a modern epigrammatic ring. At times there
• 43:42
  is the euphuistic quaintness e g. One must pass to the circumference of time
• 43:47
  before arriving at the center of opportunity. But as a rule the terseness and
• 43:52
  point of the maxim approximate to the modern epigram l lees cuzarce anteste ocassion s
• 44:00
  culparce might be both the source and the model of quies excuse sacuse. The
• 44:07
  terseness is indeed excessive and carried to tacity in extremes Apoco sabert cameno real,
• 44:15
  ultima filithidad, El philosophard arto presto sibien. Carcian jerks out four or five
• 44:22
  words where a popular preacher would preach his sermon, Yet I cannot agree with
• 44:28
  the writers who call him obscure. He is one of the writers that make
• 44:30
  you think before you grasp his meaning. But the meaning is there, and
• 44:35
  put plainly enough, only tersely and very often indirectly, after the manner of
• 44:40
  proverbs. There is indeed no doubt that he and his predecessors were influenced by
• 44:46
  the form of the Spanish proverb in drawing up aphorisms and maxims. I say
• 44:52
  predecessors. For aphorismic literature, at any rate, was no novelty in Spain.
• 44:58
  Among the long list of books on ephora risms possessed by the late Sir
• 45:00
  William Sterling Maxwell and still at Kiir, there are fully a dozen Spanish ones
• 45:06
  who precede Grathian. Ernando Diaz Lopes de Corillas and Melchio de Santa Cruz are
• 45:13
  the most important, though the latter is more full of anecdotage. Among them
• 45:17
  is a book of aphorismos by Antonio Peris, whose Relationiones has been the chief
• 45:22
  means of blackening Philip the Second's character. The former are undoubtedly of the same
• 45:29
  style as Carathian, and probably influenced him Joe as they are aphorisms and not
• 45:34
  maxims. I have not been able to quote parallels in the notes. Thus
• 45:38
  una obra vallemiliars de Grathias peerras aforismos one one hundred and ninety eight has the
• 45:46
  same proverbial ring. It is curious to see litons the pen is mightier than
• 45:52
  the sort anticipated by persis la plum corta masquieres padres aphiliadas ibidem one hundred ninety
• 46:00
  nine, or Voltaire's speech was given us to conceal our thoughts. In pereses
• 46:07
  las palabras vestido de los Conceptos two, one hundred and thirty, this last
• 46:14
  example has all Grathian's terseness, while pereses Amigos destsiglo rostro soumanos corathones de fierras
• 46:22
  two seventy one has both terstness and cynicism. Certainly, the only other work
• 46:29
  in Spanish or any other literature preceding Rathian on anything like the same lines is
• 46:34
  this book of Aphorismos by Antonio Peris. It is somewhat of a question to
• 46:38
  my mind how far Grathian was the author of the final form of the maxims
• 46:44
  as we have them in the Oraculo. Those taken from El Eroe and El
• 46:49
  Discreto, differ from their originals with great advantage. They are tersa more to
• 46:54
  the point and less euphuistic. Now the Address to the Reader has all these
• 47:00
  qualities, and we may assume was written by its signatory, Don Vincentio de
• 47:05
  la Stanosa. It is just possible that we owe to him the extreme terseness
• 47:09
  and point of the majority of the maxims of the Oracula Manoir. It must,
• 47:15
  not, however, be assumed that they are all as pointed and epigrammatic
• 47:19
  as those I have quoted. Gracian seems advisedly to have embedded his jewels in
• 47:23
  a duller setting. At times he vies with the leaders of the great sect
• 47:29
  of the Platitudinarians, and he can be as banal as he is brilliant,
• 47:34
  even as it is his very brilliancy wearies, and after fifty maxims or so,
• 47:38
  one longs for a more fruity wisdom, a more digressive discussion of life,
• 47:44
  like those learned, wise and witty essays of mister Stevenson, which may
• 47:47
  some day take higher rank as literature than even his novels. Perhaps, after
• 47:52
  all, the weariness to which I refer may be due to the cautious tone
• 47:58
  of the book. To succeed one must be prudent. That is the great
• 48:01
  moral of the book. And if so, does it seem worth while to
• 48:06
  succeed? If life is to be denuded of the eliatory element, is it
• 48:12
  worth living well? Grathian meets you when in that temper too. It is
• 48:16
  indeed remarkable how frequently he refers to luck, how you are to trust your
• 48:22
  luck, weigh your luck, follow your luck, know your unlucky days,
• 48:25
  and so forth. Is all this a confession that, after all, life
• 48:30
  is too complex a game for any rules to be of much use. Granted,
• 48:35
  but there is one thing certain about life, and that is put by
• 48:38
  gerthe in the lines which I, following Schopenhauer, have placed at the head
• 48:43
  of my translation. One must be either hammer or envil in this world,
• 48:47
  and too great an excess of idealism only means that the unideal people should rule
• 48:53
  the world. To guard against both extremes, we have the paradoxical advice I
• 48:59
  have heard a tributed to mister Ruskin, fit yourself for the best society and
• 49:04
  then never enter it. Whether any ideal person will learn to rule the world
• 49:09
  by studying Gratian's or anyone else's maxims is somewhat more doubtful, for reasons I
• 49:15
  have given above in discussing proverbs. The man who can act on maxims can
• 49:21
  act without them, and so does not need them. And there is the
• 49:24
  same amount of contradiction in maxims as in proverbs. Thus, to quote an
• 49:30
  example from the book before us, from Maxim one hundred and thirty two,
• 49:35
  it would seem best to keep back an intended gift long expected is highest priced,
• 49:42
  whereas from Maxim two hundred and thirty six we learn that the promptness of
• 49:47
  the gift obliges the more strongly which maxim are we to act upon. That
• 49:52
  depends on circumstances, and the judgment that can decide on the circumstances can do
• 49:58
  without the maxims. I cannot therefore promise success in the world to whomsoever may
• 50:02
  read this book. Otherwise I should perhaps not have published it. But whether
• 50:07
  Grathian's maxims are true or useful scarcely affects their value to the student of literature.
• 50:14
  As such, the flimsiest sentiment or the merest paradox, aptly put,
• 50:19
  is worth the sublimest truth ill expressed, and there can be little doubt that
• 50:23
  Grathian puts his points well and vigorously. I cannot hope to have reproduced adequately
• 50:30
  all the vigor and force of his style, the subtlety of his distinctions,
• 50:34
  or the shrewdness of his mother wit. But enough, I hope has emerged
• 50:38
  during the process of translation to convince the reader that Grathian's or raculou Manoir has
• 50:45
  much wisdom, in small, compass and well put end of section two.
• 50:52
  No laws for the just, no counsels for the wise. Yet no one
• 50:58
  ever knew as much as he had. Need one thing you must forgive another.
• 51:01
  Thank me, for I have called this manual of worldly wisdom an oracle
• 51:07
  for at this one in curtness and sententiousness. On the other hand, I
• 51:12
  offer you in one all the twelve works of Gracian. Each of these is
• 51:16
  so highly thought of that his prudent man had scarcely appeared in Spain than it
• 51:22
  was enjoyed among the French, in whose language it was translated, and at
• 51:27
  whose court it was printed. May this be Wisdom's bill of fare at the
• 51:31
  banquet of her sages, in which she inscribes the items of the feast of
• 51:36
  reason to be found in Grathia's other works Don Vincenzio Juan de Lastanosa One.
• 51:44
  Everything is at its acme, especially the art of making one's way in the
• 51:49
  world. There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man than formerly
• 51:54
  to make seven sages, and more is needed nowadays to deal with a single
• 52:00
  person then was required with the whole people in former times. Two character and
• 52:07
  intellect, the two poles of our capacity. One without the other is but
• 52:13
  half way to happiness. Intellect suffices not Character is also needed. On the
• 52:20
  other hand, it is the fool's misfortune to fail in obtaining the position,
• 52:24
  the employment, the neighborhood, and the circle of friends that suit him.
• 52:30
  Three keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their novelty heightens the
• 52:37
  value of your achievements. It is both useless and insipid to play with the
• 52:43
  cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse
• 52:49
  expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general
• 52:53
  attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration.
• 53:01
  And when you explain, be not too explicit. Just as you do
• 53:06
  not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of
• 53:13
  holies, of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of.
• 53:19
  It only leaves room for criticism, and if it happens to fail, you
• 53:22
  are doubly unfortunate. Besides, you imitate the divine way when you cause men
• 53:29
  to wander and watch. Four. Knowledge and courage are the elements of greatness.
• 53:37
  They give immortality because they are immortal. Each is as much as he
• 53:43
  knows, and wise can do anything. A man without knowledge a world without
• 53:49
  light, wisdom, and strength, eyes and hands. Knowledge without courage is
• 53:55
  sterile. Five create a feeling of dependence. Not he that adorns, but
• 54:04
  he that adores makes a divinity. The wise man would rather see men needing
• 54:09
  him than thanking him. To keep them on the threshold of hope is diplomatic
• 54:15
  to trust to their gratitude boorish hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad
• 54:22
  one. More is to be got from dependence than from courtesy. He that
• 54:27
  has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well, and the orange,
• 54:31
  once sucked, falls from the golden platter into the waste basket. When dependence
• 54:37
  disappears, good behavior goes with it, as well as respect. Let it
• 54:42
  be one of the chief lessons of experience to keep hope alive without entirely satisfying
• 54:49
  it by preserving it. To make oneself always needed, even by a patron
• 54:53
  on the throne. But let not silence be carried to access lest you go
• 54:59
  wrong, nor let another's failing grow incurable, for the sake of your own
• 55:04
  advantage. Six a man at his highest point. We are not born perfect.
• 55:13
  Every day we develop in our personality and in our calling, till we
• 55:17
  reach the highest point of our completed being, to the full round of our
• 55:22
  accomplishments of our excellences. This is known by the purity of our taste,
• 55:28
  the clearness of our thought, the maturity of our judgment, and the firmness
• 55:32
  of our will. Some never arrive at being complete. Somewhat is always wanting,
• 55:38
  others ripen too late. The complete man, wise in speech, prudent
• 55:45
  in act, is admitted to the familiar intimacy of discreet persons, is even
• 55:51
  sought for by them. Seven. Avoid victories over superiors. All victories breed
• 55:59
  hate, And that over your superior is foolish or fatal. Superiority is always
• 56:06
  detested. Are for theory superiority over superiority. Caution can gloss over common advantages.
• 56:14
  For example, good looks may be cloaked by careless attire. There be
• 56:17
  some that will grant you precedence in good luck or good temper, but none
• 56:22
  in good sense. Least of all a prince, for good sense is a
• 56:27
  royal prerogative. Any claim to that is a case of lais majesty. They
• 56:31
  are princes, and wish to be so in that most princely of qualities.
• 56:37
  They will allow a man to help them, but not to surpass them,
• 56:40
  and will have any advice tender them appear like a recollection of something they have
• 56:45
  forgotten, rather than as a guide to something they cannot find. The stars
• 56:51
  teach us this Finesse with happy tact. Though they are his children and brilliant
• 56:55
  like him, they never rival the brilliancy of the Sun. Eight. To
• 57:01
  be without passions tis a privilege of the highest order of mind. Their very
• 57:07
  eminence redeems them from being affected by transient and low impulses. There is no
• 57:14
  higher rule than the one over one's self. Over one's impulses, there is
• 57:20
  the triumph of free will, while passion rules the character. No aiming at
• 57:24
  high office, the less the higher. It is the only refined way of
• 57:30
  avoiding scandals. Nay, tis the shortest way back to good repute. Nine.
• 57:37
  Avoid to faults of your nation. Water shares the good or bad qualities
• 57:43
  of the strata through which it flows, and man those of the climate in
• 57:46
  which he is born. Some ow more than others to their native land because
• 57:52
  there is a more favorable sky in the senith. There is not a nation,
• 57:55
  even among the most civilized, that has not some fault peculiar to itself,
• 58:00
  which other nations blame by way of boast or as a warning. Tis
• 58:05
  a triumph of cleverness. To correct in oneself such national failings, or even
• 58:09
  to hide them. You get great credit for being unique among your fellows,
• 58:15
  and as it is less expected of you, it is esteemed the more.
• 58:19
  There are also family failings, as well as faults of position, of office,
• 58:23
  or of age. If these all meet in one person and are not
• 58:27
  carefully guarded against, they make an intolerable monster. Ten. Fortune and fame,
• 58:35
  Where the one is fickle, the other is enduring, the first for
• 58:39
  life, the second afterwards the one against envy, the other against oblivion.
• 58:46
  Fortune is desired at times assisted fame is earned. The desire for fame springs
• 58:54
  from man's best part. It was and is the sister of the giants.
• 58:59
  It always goes to extremes, horrible monsters, or brilliant prodigies. End of
• 59:07
  section three. Cultivate those who can teach you. Let friendly intercourse be a
• 59:13
  school of knowledge, and culture be taught through conversation. Thus you make your
• 59:17
  friends your teachers, and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.
• 59:24
  Sensible persons thus enjoy alternating pleasures. They reap applause for what they say
• 59:30
  and gain instruction from what they hear. We are always attracted to others by
• 59:35
  our own interest, but in this case it is of a higher kind.
• 59:39
  Wise men frequent the houses of great noblemen, not because they are temples of
• 59:44
  vanity, but as theaters of good breeding. There be gentlemen who have the
• 59:49
  credit of worldly wisdom, because they are not only themselves oracles of all nobleness
• 59:54
  by their example and their behavior, but those who surround them form a well
• 59:59
  bred academy of worldly wisdom, of the best and noblest kind twelve Nature and
• 1:00:07
  art, material and workmanship. There is no beauty unadorned, and no excellence
• 1:00:13
  that would not become barbaric if it were not supported by artifice. This remedies
• 1:00:17
  the evil and improves the good. Nature scarcely ever, gives us the very
• 1:00:22
  best. For that, we must have recourse to art. Without this,
• 1:00:27
  the best of natural dispositions is uncultured, and have is lacking to any excellence.
• 1:00:32
  If training is absent, everyone has something unpolished without artificial training, and
• 1:00:38
  every kind of excellence needs some polish thirteen. Act, sometimes on second thoughts,
• 1:00:47
  sometimes on first impulse. Man's life is a warfare against the malice of
• 1:00:52
  men. Sagacity fights with strategic changes of intention. It never does what it
• 1:00:59
  threats. It aims only at escaping notice. It aims in the air with
• 1:01:04
  dexterity and strikes home in an unexpected direction, always seeking to conceal its game.
• 1:01:10
  It lets a purpose appear in order to attract the opponent's attention, but
• 1:01:15
  then turns round and conquers by the unexpected. But a penetrating intelligence anticipates this
• 1:01:22
  by watchfulness and lurks in ambush. It always understands the opposite of what the
• 1:01:28
  opponent wishes it to understand, and recognizes every fiend of guile. It lets
• 1:01:34
  the first impulse pass by and waits for the second or even the third.
• 1:01:39
  Sagacity now rises to higher flights on seeing its artifice foreseen, and tries to
• 1:01:45
  deceive by truth. Itself changes its game in order to change its deceit,
• 1:01:50
  and cheats by not cheating, and founds deception on the greatest candor. But
• 1:01:55
  the opposing intelligence is on guard with increased watchfulness, and discovers the darkness concealed
• 1:02:01
  by the light and deciphers every move, the more subtle because more simple.
• 1:02:08
  In this way, the guile of the python combats the far doubting rays of
• 1:02:14
  Apollo fourteen. The thing itself and the way it is done. Substance is
• 1:02:22
  not enough. Accident is also required, as does Scholastics say, a bad
• 1:02:27
  manner spoils everything, even reason and justice. A good one supplies everything,
• 1:02:32
  gilds a no sweetened truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age
• 1:02:38
  itself. The how plays a large part in affairs. A good manner steals
• 1:02:44
  into the affections. Fine behavior is a joy in life, and a pleasant
• 1:02:50
  expression helps out of a difficulty in a remarkable way. Fifteen, keep ministering
• 1:02:57
  spirits. It is a privilege of them mighty to surround themselves with the champions
• 1:03:01
  of intellect. These extricate them from every fear of ignorance. These worry out
• 1:03:07
  for them the moot points of every difficulty. Tis a rare greatness to make
• 1:03:13
  use of the wise, and far exceeds the barbarous taste of Tigranis, who
• 1:03:16
  had a fancy for captive monarchs as his servants. It is a novel kind
• 1:03:22
  of supremacy, the best that life can offer. To have as servants by
• 1:03:27
  skill, those who by nature are our masters, tis a great thing to
• 1:03:31
  know little, to live no real life without knowledge. There is remarkable cleverness
• 1:03:37
  in studying without study, in getting much by means of many, and through
• 1:03:44
  them all to become wise. Afterwards, you speak in the council chamber on
• 1:03:49
  behalf of many, and as many sages speak through your mouth, as were
• 1:03:52
  consulted beforehand. You thus obtain the fame of an oracle by others. Toil
• 1:03:59
  such ministry, spirits distill the best books, and serve up the quintessence of
• 1:04:03
  wisdom. But he that cannot have sages in service should have them for his
• 1:04:09
  friends. Sixteen Knowledge and good intentions to gather ensure continuance of success. A
• 1:04:17
  fine intellect wedded to a wicked will was always an unnatural monster. A wicked
• 1:04:24
  will and venoms all excellences helped by knowledge. It only ruins with greater subtlety.
• 1:04:30
  'tis a miserable superiority that only results in ruin. Knowledge without sense is
• 1:04:36
  double folly. Seventeen. Vary the mode of action not always the same way,
• 1:04:44
  so as to distract attention, especially if there be a rival, not
• 1:04:48
  always from first impulse. They will soon recognize the uniformity, and by anticipating,
• 1:04:54
  frustrate your designs. It is easy to kill a bird on the wing
• 1:04:58
  that flies straight, So one that twists, nor always act on second thoughts
• 1:05:03
  take can discern the plan. The second time the enemy is on the watch,
• 1:05:09
  great skill is required to circumvent him. The gamester never places the card.
• 1:05:13
  The opponent expects still less that which he wants. Eighteen Application and ability.
• 1:05:21
  There is no attaining eminence without both, and where they unite there is
• 1:05:27
  the greatest eminence. Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it. Work
• 1:05:33
  is the price which is paid for reputation. What costs little is little worth
• 1:05:40
  even for the highest posts. It is only in some cases application that is
• 1:05:44
  wanting. Rarely the talent to prefer moderate success in great things than eminence in
• 1:05:49
  a humble post has the excuse of a generous mind. But not so to
• 1:05:55
  be content with humble mediocrity when you could shine among the highest does. Nature
• 1:06:00
  and art are both needed, and application sets on them. The Seal nineteen
• 1:06:06
  arouse no exaggerated expectations on entering. It is the usual ill luck of all
• 1:06:13
  celebrities not to fulfill afterwards the expectations beforehand formed of them. The real can
• 1:06:19
  never equal be imagined, for it is easy to form ideals, but very
• 1:06:24
  difficult to realize them. Imagination wedds hope and gives birth to much more than
• 1:06:30
  things are in themselves. However great the excellencies, they never suffice to fulfill
• 1:06:36
  expectations, And as men find themselves disappointed with their exorbitant expectations, they are
• 1:06:42
  more ready to be disillusioned than to admire. Hope is a great falsifier of
• 1:06:47
  truth. Let's skill guard against this by ensuring that fruition exceeds desire. A
• 1:06:55
  few creditable attempts at the beginning are sufficient to arouse curiosity without pledging one to
• 1:07:00
  the final object. It is better that reality should surpass the design and is
• 1:07:05
  better than was thought. This rule does not apply to the wicked, for
• 1:07:11
  the same exaggeration is a great aid to them. They are defeated amid general
• 1:07:15
  applause, and what seemed at first extreme ruin comes to be thought quite bearable.
• 1:07:21
  Twenty A man of the age. The rarest individuals depend on their age.
• 1:07:29
  It is not every one that finds the age he deserves, and even
• 1:07:32
  when he finds it, he does not always know how to utilize it.
• 1:07:35
  Some men have been worthy of a better century, for every species of good
• 1:07:41
  does not always triumph. Things have their period. Even excellencies are subject to
• 1:07:46
  fashion. The sage has one advantage he is immortal. If this is not
• 1:07:53
  his century, many others will be. And of section four the art of
• 1:08:00
  being lucky, there are rules of luck. It is not all chance with
• 1:08:04
  the wise. It can be assisted by care. Some content themselves with placing
• 1:08:11
  themselves confidently at the gate of fortune, waiting till she opens it. Others
• 1:08:15
  do better and press forward and profit by their clever boldness, reaching the Goddess
• 1:08:21
  and winning her favor on the wings of their virtue and valor. But on
• 1:08:26
  a true philosophy, there is no other umpire than virtue and insight. For
• 1:08:30
  there is no luck or ill luck except wisdom and the reverse. Twenty two
• 1:08:38
  A man of knowledge to the point. Wise men arm themselves with tasteful and
• 1:08:43
  elegant erudition, a practical knowledge of what is going on, not of a
• 1:08:47
  common kind, but more like an expert. They possess a copious store of
• 1:08:53
  wise and witty sayings and of noble deeds, and know how to employ them
• 1:08:58
  on fitting occasions. More is often taught by a jest, done by the
• 1:09:01
  most serious teaching. Pet knowledge helps some more than the seven arts, be
• 1:09:08
  they ever so liberal. Twenty three b spotless the indispensable condition of perfection.
• 1:09:16
  Few live without some weak point, either physical or moral, which they pamper
• 1:09:21
  because they could easily cure it. The keenness of others often regrets to see
• 1:09:27
  a slight defect attaching itself to a whole assembly of elevated qualities. And yet
• 1:09:31
  a single cloud can hide the whole of the sun. There are likewise patches
• 1:09:36
  on our reputation, which ill will soon finds out, and is continually noticing.
• 1:09:43
  The highest skill is to transform them into ornament. So Caesar hid his
• 1:09:48
  natural defects with the laurel. Twenty four. Keep the imagination under control,
• 1:09:56
  sometimes correcting, sometimes assisting it for a all important for our happiness, and
• 1:10:01
  even sets the reason right. It can tyrannize and is not content with looking
• 1:10:06
  on, but influences and even often dominates life, causing it to be happy
• 1:10:12
  or burdensome according to the folly to which it leads. For it makes us
• 1:10:16
  either contented or discontented with ourselves. Before some it continually holds up the penalties
• 1:10:24
  of action and becomes the mortifying lash of these fools. To others, it
• 1:10:29
  promises happiness and adventure with blissful delusion. It can do all this unless the
• 1:10:34
  most prudent self control keeps it in subjection. Twenty five. Know how to
• 1:10:42
  take a hint Twas once the art of arts to be able to discourse,
• 1:10:46
  now tis no longer sufficient. We must know how to take a hint,
• 1:10:51
  especially in disabusing ourselves. He cannot make himself understood who does not himself easily
• 1:10:58
  understand. But on the other hand, and there are pretended diviners of the
• 1:11:01
  heart and lynxes of the intentions. The very truth which concern us most can
• 1:11:08
  only be half spoken, but with a tension we can grasp the whole meaning.
• 1:11:13
  When you hear anything favorable, keep a tight rein on your credulity.
• 1:11:17
  If unfavorable, give it the spur Twenty six. Find out each man's thumb
• 1:11:25
  screw tis the art of setting their wills in action. It needs more skill
• 1:11:30
  than resolution. You must know where to get at any one. Every volition
• 1:11:36
  has a special motive, which varies according to taste. All men are idolatus,
• 1:11:42
  some of fame, others of self interest, most of pleasure. Skill
• 1:11:47
  consists in knowing these idols in order to bring them into play. Knowing any
• 1:11:53
  man's mainspring of motive, you have, as it were, the key to
• 1:11:57
  his will. Have resort to prime remoters, which are not always the highest,
• 1:12:01
  but more often the lowest part of his nature. There are more dispositions
• 1:12:06
  badly organized than while first guess a man's ruling passion, appeal to it by
• 1:12:13
  a word, set it in motion by temptation, and you will infallibly give
• 1:12:17
  check mate to his freedom of will. Twenty seven price intensity more than extent.
• 1:12:27
  Excellence resides in quality, not in quantity. The best is always few
• 1:12:32
  and rare, much lower's value. Even among men, giants are commonly the
• 1:12:39
  real dwarfs. Some reckon books by the thickness, as if they were written
• 1:12:44
  to try the brawn more than the brain. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity.
• 1:12:49
  It is the misfortune of universal geniuses, that, in attempting to be
• 1:12:54
  at home everywhere, are so nowhere. Intensity gives eminence and rises to the
• 1:13:00
  heroic in matters sublime twenty eight. Common in nothing. First, not in
• 1:13:09
  taste. O great and wise to be ill at ease when your deeds please
• 1:13:13
  the mob. The excesses of popular applause never satisfied a sensible Some. There
• 1:13:19
  are such chameleons of popularity that they find enjoyment not in the sweet savors of
• 1:13:25
  Apollo, but in the breath of the mob. Secondly, not in intelligence,
• 1:13:30
  take no pleasure in the wonder of the mob. For ignorance never gets
• 1:13:33
  beyond wonder, While vulgar folly wanders, wisdom watches for the trick twenty nine.
• 1:13:42
  A man of reptitude clings to the sect of right with such tenacity of
• 1:13:46
  purpose, that neither the passions of the mob nor the violence of the tyrant
• 1:13:51
  can ever cause him to transgressed bounds of right. But who shall be such
• 1:13:57
  a phoenix of equity? What a scanty for following has rectitude? Many praise
• 1:14:01
  it, indeed, but for others others follow it till danger threatens. Then
• 1:14:09
  the false deny it, the politic conceal it, for it cares not if
• 1:14:13
  it fights with friendship, power, or even self interest. Then comes the
• 1:14:17
  danger of desertion. Then astute man make plausible distinctions so as not to stand
• 1:14:24
  in the way of their superiors or of reasons of state. But a straightforward
• 1:14:28
  and constant regard dissimulation as a kind of treason, and set more store on
• 1:14:33
  tenacity than on sagacity. Such are always to be found on the side of
• 1:14:39
  truth, And if they desert a party, they do not change from fickleness.
• 1:14:44
  But because the others have first deserted truth, thirty have naught to do
• 1:14:50
  with occupations of ill repute, still less with fads that bring more notoriety than
• 1:14:57
  repute. There are many fanciful sects, and from all the prudent man has
• 1:15:02
  to flee. There are bizarre tastes that always take to their heart all that
• 1:15:06
  wise men repudiate. They live in love with singularity. This may make them
• 1:15:13
  well known, indeed, but more as objects of ridicule than of repute.
• 1:15:17
  A cautious man does not even make profession of his wisdom, still less of
• 1:15:21
  those matters that make their followers ridiculous. These need not be specified, for
• 1:15:28
  common contempt has sufficiently singled them out. End of Section five. Select the
• 1:15:35
  lucky and avoid the unlucky. Ill luck is generally the penalty of folly,
• 1:15:43
  and there is no disease so contagious to those who share in it. Never
• 1:15:47
  open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink
• 1:15:53
  in after it. The greatest skill at cards is to know when to discard
• 1:15:58
  it. The smallest of current trumps is worth more than the ace of trumps
• 1:16:02
  of the last game. When in doubt, follow the suit of the wise
• 1:16:06
  and the prudent. Sooner or later they will win the odd trick. Thirty
• 1:16:13
  two have the reputation of being gracious. Tis the chief glory of the high
• 1:16:18
  and mighty. To be gracious a prerogative of kings to conquer universal good will,
• 1:16:25
  that is the great advantage of a commanding position to be able to do
• 1:16:29
  more good than others. Those make friends who do friendly acts. On the
• 1:16:33
  other hand, there are some who lay themselves out for not being gracious,
• 1:16:39
  not on account of the difficulty, but from a bad disposition in all things.
• 1:16:44
  They are the opposite of divine grace. Thirty three. Know how to
• 1:16:49
  withdraw. If it is a great lesson in life to know how to deny,
• 1:16:55
  it is still greater to know how to deny one's self. As regards
• 1:16:59
  both affairs and persons, there are extraneous occupations which eat away precious time.
• 1:17:05
  To be occupied in what does not concern you is worse than doing nothing.
• 1:17:11
  It is not enough for a careful man not to interfere with others. He
• 1:17:15
  must see that they do not interfere with him. One is not obliged to
• 1:17:19
  belong so much to all as not to belong at all to oneself. So
• 1:17:25
  with friends, their help should not be abused or more demanded from them than
• 1:17:30
  they themselves will grant. All access is a failing, but above all in
• 1:17:34
  personal intercourse, a wise moderation in this best preserves the good will and esteem
• 1:17:41
  of all, For by this means that precious boon of courtesy is not gradually
• 1:17:46
  worn away. Thus you preserve your genius, free to select the elect and
• 1:17:51
  never sin against the unwritten laws of good taste. Thirty four. Know your
• 1:17:58
  strongest point, your pre eminent gift. Cultivate that, and you will assist
• 1:18:04
  the rest. Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong
• 1:18:09
  point. Notice in what quality you surpass, and take charge of that In
• 1:18:15
  some judgment excels in others. Valor most to violence to their natural aptitude,
• 1:18:21
  and thus attains superiority in nothing. Time disillusionizes us too late of what first
• 1:18:28
  flattered the passions. Thirty five Think over things most over the most important.
• 1:18:36
  All fools come to grief from want of thought. They never see even the
• 1:18:42
  half of things, and as they do not observe their own loss or gain,
• 1:18:45
  still less do they apply any diligence to them. Some make much of
• 1:18:49
  what imports little, and little of much, always weighing in the wrong scale.
• 1:18:56
  Many never lose their common sense because they have none to lose. There
• 1:19:00
  are matters which should be observed with the closest attention of the mind, and
• 1:19:04
  thenceforth kept in its lowest depths. The wise man thinks over everything, but
• 1:19:11
  with the difference most profoundly where there is some profound difficulty, and thinks that
• 1:19:16
  perhaps there is more in it than he thinks. Thus his comprehension extends as
• 1:19:21
  far as his apprehension. Thirty six. In acting or refraining, weigh your
• 1:19:28
  luck. More depends on that than on noticing your temperament. If he is
• 1:19:33
  a fool who at forty applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he
• 1:19:39
  one who then applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of
• 1:19:43
  skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it. For
• 1:19:47
  something is to be done with it by waiting, so as to use it
• 1:19:51
  at a proper moment. Since it has periods and offers opportunities, though one
• 1:19:57
  cannot calculate its path, it steps us so irregular. When you find fortune
• 1:20:01
  favorable, stride boldly forward, for she favors the bold, and being a
• 1:20:08
  woman the young. But if you have bad luck, keep retired, so
• 1:20:13
  as not to redouble the influence of your unlucky star. Thirty seven. Keep
• 1:20:17
  a store of sarcasms and know how to use them. This is the point
• 1:20:23
  of greatest tact in human intercourse. Such sarcasms are often thrown out to test
• 1:20:29
  man's mood, and by their means one often obtains the most subtle and penetrating
• 1:20:33
  touchstone of the heart. Other sarcasms are malicious, insolent, poisoned by envy
• 1:20:40
  or envenomed by passion, unexpected flashes, which destroy at once all favor and
• 1:20:45
  esteem. Struck by the slightest word of this kind, many fall away from
• 1:20:50
  the closest intimacy with superiors or inferiors, which could not be the slightest shaken
• 1:20:57
  by a whole conspiracy of popular insinuation or private malevolence. Other sarcasms, on
• 1:21:02
  the other hand, work favorably confirming and assisting one's reputation. But the greater
• 1:21:09
  the skill with which they are launched, the greater the caution with which they
• 1:21:13
  should be received, and the foresight with which they should be foreseen. For
• 1:21:17
  here a knowledge of the evil is in itself a means of defense, and
• 1:21:23
  the shot foreseen always misses its mark. Thirty eight. Leave your luck while
• 1:21:30
  winning. All the best players do it. A fine retreat is as good
• 1:21:35
  as a gallant attack. Bring your exploits under cover when there are enough,
• 1:21:41
  or even when there are many of them. Luck long lasting, was ever
• 1:21:45
  suspicious. Interrupted seems safer, and is even sweeter to the taste for a
• 1:21:51
  little infusion of bitter sweet. The higher the heap of luck, the greater
• 1:21:56
  the risk of a slip, and down comes all. Fortune pays you sometimes
• 1:22:01
  for the intensity of her favors, by the shortness of their duration. She
• 1:22:06
  soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders. Thirty nine. Recognize
• 1:22:14
  when things are ripe, and then enjoy them. The works of nature all
• 1:22:19
  reach a certain point of maturity, up to deb they improve. After that
• 1:22:25
  they degenerate. Few works of art reach such a point that they cannot be
• 1:22:30
  improved. It is an especial privilege of good taste to enjoy everything at its
• 1:22:35
  ripest. Not all can do this, nor do all who can notice there
• 1:22:41
  is a ripening point too. For fruits of intellect. It is well to
• 1:22:45
  know this, both for their value in use and for their value in exchange.
• 1:22:51
  Forty The good will of people tis much to gain universal admiration, more
• 1:22:59
  universal love. Something depends on natural disposition, more on practice. The first
• 1:23:05
  founds the second, then builds on that foundation. Brilliant parts suffice not though
• 1:23:13
  they are presupposed win good opinion. It is easy to win goodwill. Kindly
• 1:23:18
  acts besides are required to produce kindly feelings, doing good with both hands,
• 1:23:25
  good words, and better deeds, loving so as to be loved. Courtesy
• 1:23:30
  is the politic witchery of great personages. First lay hand on deeds, and
• 1:23:36
  then on pens. Words follow swords, for there is good will to be
• 1:23:42
  won among writers, and it is eternal. End of section six. Never
• 1:23:48
  exaggerate. It is an important object of attention not to talk in superlatives,
• 1:23:55
  so as neither to offend against truth, nor to give a mean eye idea
• 1:24:00
  of one's understanding. Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment, which shows the
• 1:24:05
  narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste. Praise arouses lively, curiosity begets desire,
• 1:24:15
  and if afterwards the value does not correspond to the price, as generally
• 1:24:19
  happens, expectation revolts against the deception and revenges itself by underestimating the thing recommended
• 1:24:28
  and the person recommending. A prudent man goes more cautiously to work, and
• 1:24:33
  prefers to err by omission than by commission. Extraordinary things are rare Therefore moderate
• 1:24:43
  ordinary valuation. Exaggeration is a branch of lying, and you lose by it
• 1:24:48
  the credit of good taste, which is much, and of good sense,
• 1:24:53
  which is more. Forty two. Born to command. It is a secret
• 1:25:00
  force of superiority, not to have to get on by artful trickery, but
• 1:25:04
  by an inborn power of rule. All submit to it without knowing why,
• 1:25:10
  recognizing the secret vigor of connatural authority. Such magisterial spirits are kings by merit,
• 1:25:17
  and lions by innate privilege. By the esteem which they inspire, they
• 1:25:24
  hold the hearts and minds of the rest, if their other qualities permit.
• 1:25:28
  Such men are born to be the prime motors of the state. They perform
• 1:25:32
  more by a gesture than others by a long harangue. Forty three. Think
• 1:25:41
  with the few, and speak with the many by swimming against the stream.
• 1:25:45
  It is impossible to remove error, easy to fall into danger, only as
• 1:25:50
  Socrates can undertake it. To dissent from others views is regarded as an insult
• 1:25:57
  because it is their condemnation. Disgust is doubled on account of the thing blamed
• 1:26:02
  and of the person who praised it. Truth is for the few. Error
• 1:26:09
  is both common and vulgar. The wise man is not known by what he
• 1:26:14
  says on the housetops, for there he speaks not with his own voice,
• 1:26:17
  but with that of common folly. However much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it.
• 1:26:24
  The prudent avoid being contradicted as much as contradicting. Though they have their
• 1:26:29
  censure ready, they are not ready to publish it. Thought is free.
• 1:26:32
  Force cannot and should not be used to it. The wise man therefore retires
• 1:26:39
  into silence, and if he allows himself to come out of it, he
• 1:26:43
  does so in the shade and before few and fit persons. Forty four.
• 1:26:50
  Sympathy with great minds. It is an heroic quality to agree with heroes.
• 1:26:58
  Tis like a miracle of nature. For mystery and for use, there is
• 1:27:02
  a natural kinship of hearts and minds. Its effects are such that vulgar ignorance,
• 1:27:09
  sense, witchcraft, esteem established, good will follows, which at times
• 1:27:15
  reaches affection. It persuades without words and obtains without earning. This sympathy is
• 1:27:20
  sometimes active, sometimes passive, both alike felicific. The more so the more
• 1:27:27
  sublime. Tis a great art to recognize, to distinguish, and to utilize
• 1:27:32
  this gift. No amount of energy suffices without that favor of nature. Forty
• 1:27:40
  five. Use, but do not abuse cunning. One ought not to delight
• 1:27:47
  in it, still less to boast of it. Everything artificial should be concealed.
• 1:27:53
  Most of all cunning, which is hated deceit is much in use.
• 1:27:58
  Therefore our caution to be redoubled, but not so as to show itself,
• 1:28:02
  for it arouses distrust, causes much annoy, awakens revenge, and gives rise
• 1:28:09
  to more ills than you would imagine. To go to work with. Caution
• 1:28:14
  is of great advantage in action, and there is no greater proof of wisdom.
• 1:28:19
  The greatest skill in any deed consists in the sure mastery with which it
• 1:28:25
  is executed. Forty six Master your antipathies. We often allow ourselves to take
• 1:28:34
  dislikes, and that before we know anything of a person. At times,
• 1:28:39
  this innate yet vulgar aversion attaches itself to eminent personalities. Good sense masters this
• 1:28:45
  feeling, for there is nothing more discreditable than to dislike those better than ourselves.
• 1:28:53
  As sympathy with great men ennobles us, so dislike to them degrades us.
• 1:29:00
  Forty seven Avoid affairs of honor, one of the chiefest aims of prudence.
• 1:29:06
  In men of great ability, the extremes are kept far asunder, so
• 1:29:12
  that there is a long distance between them, and they always keep in the
• 1:29:15
  middle of their caution, so that they take time to break through it.
• 1:29:20
  It is easier to avoid such affairs than to come well out of them.
• 1:29:24
  They test our judgment. It is better to avoid them than to conquer in
• 1:29:29
  them. One affair of honor leads to another, and may lead to an
• 1:29:32
  affair of dishonor. There are men so constituted by nature or by nation that
• 1:29:39
  they easily enter upon such obligations. But for him that walks by the light
• 1:29:45
  of reason, such a matter requires long thinking over. There is more valor
• 1:29:49
  needed not to take up the affair than to conquer in it. When there
• 1:29:55
  is one fool ready for the occasion, one may excuse oneself from being the
• 1:29:59
  second forty eight b thorough. How much depends on the person. The interior
• 1:30:09
  must be at least as much as the exterior. How much depends on the
• 1:30:14
  person. The interior must be at least as much as the exterior. There
• 1:30:19
  are natures all frontage like houses. For want of means have the portico of
• 1:30:25
  a palace leading to the rooms of a cottage. It is no use boring
• 1:30:29
  into such persons, although they bore you for conversation. Flags After the first
• 1:30:33
  salutation, they prance through the first compliments like Sicilian barbes, but silence soon
• 1:30:41
  succeeds, for the flow of words soon ceases. Where there is no spring
• 1:30:45
  of thoughts. Others may be taken in by them, because they themselves have
• 1:30:50
  but a view of the surface, But not the prudent, who look within
• 1:30:55
  them and find nothing there except material for scorn. Forty nine. Observation and
• 1:31:03
  judgment. A man with these rules things not they him, He sounds at
• 1:31:11
  once the profoundest depths. He is a phrenologist by means of physiognomy. On
• 1:31:16
  seeing a person, he understands him and judges of his inmost nature. From
• 1:31:21
  a few observations, he deciphers the most hidden recesses of his nature. Keen
• 1:31:27
  observation, subtle insight, judicious inference. With these, he discovers, notices,
• 1:31:33
  grasps, and comprehends everything. Fifty Never lose self respect or be too
• 1:31:44
  familiar with oneself. Let your own right feeling be the true standard of your
• 1:31:48
  rectitude. And owe more to the strictness of your own self judgment than to
• 1:31:54
  all external sanctions. Leave off anything unseemly, more from regard for your own
• 1:32:00
  self respect than from fear of external authority. Pay regard to that, and
• 1:32:06
  there is no need of Seneca's imaginary tutor end of section seven. Know how
• 1:32:16
  to choose well. Most of life depends thereon. It needs good taste and
• 1:32:21
  correct judgment, for which neither intellect nor study suffices. To be choice,
• 1:32:28
  you must choose, and for this two things are needed to be able to
• 1:32:31
  choose at all, and then to choose the best. There are many men
• 1:32:36
  of fecond and subtle mind, of keen judgment, of much learning, and
• 1:32:41
  of great observation, who yet are at a loss when they come to choose.
• 1:32:45
  They always take the worst, as if they had tried to go wrong.
• 1:32:48
  Thus this is one of the greatest gifts from above. Fifty two.
• 1:32:55
  Never be put out tis a great aim of prudence, never to be embarrassed.
• 1:33:00
  It is the sign of a real man, of a noble heart.
• 1:33:04
  For magnanimity is not easily put out. The passions are the humors of the
• 1:33:10
  soul, and every excess in them weakens prudence. If they overflow through the
• 1:33:15
  mouth, the reputation will be in danger. Let a man therefore be so
• 1:33:19
  much and so great a master over himself, that neither in the most fortunate
• 1:33:25
  nor in the most adverse circumstances, can anything cause his reputation injury by disturbing
• 1:33:30
  his self possession, but rather enhance it by showing his superiority. Fifty three
• 1:33:39
  Diligent and intelligent. Diligence promptly executes what intelligence slowly excogitates. Hurry is the
• 1:33:47
  failing of fools. They know not the crucial point and set to work without
• 1:33:51
  preparation. On the other hand, the wis more often fail from procrastination.
• 1:33:58
  Foresight begets deliberation, and remiss action often nullifies prompt judgment. Celerity is the
• 1:34:04
  mother of good fortune. He has done much, who leaves nothing over till
• 1:34:10
  tomorrow. Festina lente is a royal motto. Fifty four know how to show
• 1:34:17
  your teeth. Even hairs can pull the mane of a dead lion. There
• 1:34:23
  is no joke about courage. Give way to the first, and you must
• 1:34:28
  yield to the second, and so on till the last. And to gain
• 1:34:30
  your point at last cost as much trouble, as would have gained much more
• 1:34:34
  at first. Moral courage exceeds physical. It should be like a sword kept
• 1:34:40
  ready for use in the scabbard of caution. It is the shield of great
• 1:34:44
  place. Moral cowardice lowers one more than physical. Many have had eminent qualities,
• 1:34:50
  yet for want of a stout heart, they passed inanimate lives and found
• 1:34:55
  a tomb in their own sloth. Wise nature has thought nottfully combined in the
• 1:35:00
  bee the sweetness of its honey with the sharpness of its sting. Fifty five
• 1:35:08
  Wait, it's a sign of a noble heart, dowered with patience. Never
• 1:35:13
  to be in a hurry, never to be in a passion. First be
• 1:35:16
  master over yourself. If you would be master over others, you must pass
• 1:35:21
  through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity. A wise
• 1:35:28
  reserve seasons the aims and matures the means. Times crutch affects more than the
• 1:35:33
  iron club of Hercules. God himself chasteneth not with a rod, but with
• 1:35:40
  time. He spake a great word, who said time, and iye against
• 1:35:44
  any two charles. The fifth fortune herself rewards waiting with the first prize fifty
• 1:35:53
  six. Have presence of mind, the child of a happy promptitude of spirit.
• 1:36:00
  Owing to this vivacity and wide awakeness, there is no fear of danger
• 1:36:04
  or mischance. Many reflect much, only to go wrong in the end.
• 1:36:10
  Others attain their aim without thinking of it beforehand. There are natures of antiperistasis
• 1:36:15
  who work best in an emergency. They are like monsters who succeed in all
• 1:36:20
  they do off hand, but fail in aught they think over. A thing
• 1:36:26
  occurs to them at once or never. For them, there is no court
• 1:36:29
  of appeal. Celerity wins applause because it proves remarkable capacity, subtlety of judgment,
• 1:36:35
  prudence in action. Fifty seven Slow and sure, early enough, if
• 1:36:44
  well quickly done, can be quickly undone. To last, an eternity requires
• 1:36:48
  an eternity of preparation. Only excellence counts. Only achievement endures. Profound intelligence
• 1:36:57
  is the only foundation for immortality. Worth much costs much. The precious metals
• 1:37:02
  are the heaviest. Fifty eight. Adapt yourself to your company. There is
• 1:37:10
  no need to show your ability before everyone. Employ no more force than is
• 1:37:15
  necessary. Let there be no unnecessary expenditure, either of knowledge or of power.
• 1:37:19
  The skillful falconer only flies enough birds to serve for the chase. If
• 1:37:25
  there is too much display today, there will be nothing to show tomorrow.
• 1:37:30
  Always have some novelty wherewith to dazzle, To show something fresh each day,
• 1:37:34
  keeps expectation alive and conceals the limits of capacity. Fifty nine. Finish off
• 1:37:44
  well in the house of fortune. If you enter by the gate of pleasure,
• 1:37:47
  you must leave by that of sorrow, and vice versa. You ought,
• 1:37:51
  therefore, to think of the finish, and attach more importance to a
• 1:37:56
  graceful exit than to applause on entrance. Tis the common law of the unlucky
• 1:38:01
  to have a very fortunate outset and a very tragic end. The important point
• 1:38:06
  is not the vulgar applause on entrance that comes to nearly all, but the
• 1:38:11
  general feeling at exit. Few in life are felt to deserve an encore.
• 1:38:16
  Fortune rarely accompanies any one to the door. Warmly, as she may welcome
• 1:38:21
  the coming, she speeds, but coldly the parting guest sixty a sound judgment.
• 1:38:30
  Some are born wise, and with this natural advantage, enter upon their
• 1:38:34
  studies with a moety, already mastered with age and experience. Their reason ripens,
• 1:38:41
  and thus they attain a sound judgment. They abhor everything whimsical as leading
• 1:38:45
  prudence astray, especially in matters of state, where certainty is so necessary.
• 1:38:51
  Owing to the importance of the affairs involved, such men deserve to stand by
• 1:38:57
  the helm of state, either as pilots or as men. At the wheel
• 1:39:01
  end of section eight, to excel in what is excellent a great rarity among
• 1:39:10
  excellences. You cannot have a great man without something pre eminent. Mediocrates never
• 1:39:16
  win applause. Eminence in some distinguished post distinguishes one from the vulgar mob and
• 1:39:24
  ranks us with the elect To be distinguished in a small post is to be
• 1:39:29
  great in little. The more comfort, the less glory. The highest eminence
• 1:39:35
  in great affairs has the royal characteristic of exciting admiration and winning good will.
• 1:39:43
  Sixty two. Use good instruments, some would have the subtlety of their wits
• 1:39:49
  proven by the meanness of their instruments. Tis a dangerous satisfaction and deserves a
• 1:39:56
  fatal punishment. The excellence of a minister never diminished the greatness of his lord.
• 1:40:02
  All the glory of exploits reverts to the principal actor. Also all the
• 1:40:08
  blame. Fame only does business with principles. She does not say this had
• 1:40:14
  good that had bad servants, But this was a good artist, that a
• 1:40:18
  bad one. Let your assistance be selected and tested therefore, for you have
• 1:40:25
  to trust to them for an immortality of fame. Sixty three. To be
• 1:40:31
  the first of the kind is an excellence, and to be eminent in it
• 1:40:38
  as well a double one. To have the first move is a great advantage
• 1:40:43
  when the players are equal. Many a man would have been a veritable phoenix
• 1:40:47
  if he had been the first of the sort. Those who come first are
• 1:40:51
  the heirs of fame. The others get only a younger brother's allowance. Whatever
• 1:40:57
  they do, they cannot persuade the world. They are anything more than parrots.
• 1:41:01
  The skill of prodigies may find a new path to eminence, but prudence
• 1:41:06
  accompanies them all the way. By the novelty of their enterprises, sage write
• 1:41:12
  their names in the Golden Book of heroes. Some prefer to be first in
• 1:41:16
  things of minor import then second in greater exploits. Sixty four. Avoid worry.
• 1:41:28
  Such prudence brings its own reward. It escapes much, and is thus
• 1:41:32
  the midwife of comfort and so of happiness. Neither give nor take bad news
• 1:41:39
  unless it can help. Some men's ears are stuffed with the sweets of flattery,
• 1:41:45
  others with the bitters of scandal. While some cannot live without a daily
• 1:41:49
  annoyance, no more than Mithradates could without poison. It is no rule of
• 1:41:56
  life to prepare for yourself lifelong trouble in order to give a temper rary enjoyment
• 1:42:00
  to another. However near and dear, you never ought to spoil your own
• 1:42:04
  chances to please another who advises and keeps out of the affair. And in
• 1:42:10
  all cases where to oblige another involves disobliging yourself. Tis a standing rule that
• 1:42:15
  it is better he should suffer now than you afterwards. And in Vain sixty
• 1:42:23
  five elevated taste, you can train it like the intellect. Full knowledge Wett's
• 1:42:30
  desire and increases enjoyment. You may know a noble spirit by the elevation of
• 1:42:35
  his taste. It must be a great thing that can satisfy a great mind.
• 1:42:41
  Big bites for big mouths, lofty things for lofty spirits before their judgment,
• 1:42:47
  the bravest tremble, the most perfect lose confidence. Things of the first
• 1:42:53
  importance are few. Let appreciation be rare. Taste can be imparted by inter
• 1:43:00
  course. Great good luck. To associate with the highest taste, but do
• 1:43:04
  not affect. To be dissatisfied with everything tis the extreme of folly, and
• 1:43:10
  more odious if from affectation than if from quicksitree. Some would have God create
• 1:43:15
  another world and other ideals to satisfy their fantastic imagination. Sixty six see the
• 1:43:26
  things end well. Some regard more the rigor of the game than the winning
• 1:43:31
  of it. But to the world, the discredit of the final failure does
• 1:43:35
  away with any recognition of the previous care. The victor need not explain.
• 1:43:42
  The world does not notice the details of the measures employed, but only the
• 1:43:45
  good or ill result. You lose nothing if you gain your end. A
• 1:43:51
  good end gilds everything, however unsatisfactory the means. Thus, at times it
• 1:43:59
  is part of the art of life to transgress the rules of the art.
• 1:44:03
  If you cannot end well otherwise sixty seven. Prefer callings and evidence. Most
• 1:44:13
  things depend on the satisfaction of others. Esteem is to excellence what the zephyr
• 1:44:18
  is to flowers, the breath of life. There are some callings which gain
• 1:44:24
  universal esteem, while others, more important are without credit. The former,
• 1:44:29
  pursued before the eyes of all, obtain the universal favor. The others,
• 1:44:33
  though they are rarer and more valuable, remain obscure and unperceived, honored but
• 1:44:40
  not applauded. Among princes, conquerors are the most celebrated, and therefore the
• 1:44:46
  kings of Aragon earn such applause as warriors, conquerors, and great men.
• 1:44:51
  An able man will prefer callings and evidence which all men know of and utilize,
• 1:44:58
  and he thus becomes mortalized by universal suffrage. Sixty eight. It is
• 1:45:05
  better to help with intelligence than with memory, the more as the latter needs
• 1:45:11
  only recollection the former vous. Many persons omit the apropos because it does not
• 1:45:17
  occur to them. A friend's advice on such occasions may enable them to see
• 1:45:23
  the advantages. Tis one of the greatest gifts of mind. To be able
• 1:45:27
  to offer what is needed at the moment. For want of that many things
• 1:45:31
  fail to be performed. Share the light of your intelligence when you have any,
• 1:45:36
  and ask for it when you have it. Not the first cautiously,
• 1:45:41
  the last anxiously. Give no more than a hint. This finesse is especially
• 1:45:46
  needful when it touches the interest of him whose attention you awaken. You should
• 1:45:53
  give but a taste at first, and then pass on to more when that
• 1:45:57
  is not sufficient. If he thinks no, go in search of yes.
• 1:46:01
  Therein lies the cleverness. For most things are not obtained simply because they are
• 1:46:06
  not attempted. Sixty nine. He is a great man who never allows himself
• 1:46:14
  to be influenced by the impressions of others. Self reflection is the school of
• 1:46:19
  wisdom. To know one's disposition and to allow for it, even going to
• 1:46:25
  the other extreme, so as to find the just milieu between nature and art.
• 1:46:30
  Self knowledge is the beginning of self improvement. There be some whose humors
• 1:46:35
  are so monstrous that they are always under the influence of one or the other
• 1:46:40
  of them, and put them in place of their real inclinations. They are
• 1:46:45
  torn asunder by such disharmony and get involved in contradictory obligations. Such excesses not
• 1:46:51
  only destroy firmness of will, all power of judgment gets lost, desire and
• 1:46:58
  knowledge pulling in opposite directions. Seventy know how to refuse one ought, not
• 1:47:08
  to give way in everything, nor to everybody. To know how to refuse
• 1:47:13
  is therefore as important as to know how to consent. This is especially the
• 1:47:16
  case with men of position. All depends on the how some men's know is
• 1:47:23
  thought of more than the yes of others. For a gilded no is more
• 1:47:28
  satisfactory than a dry yes. There are some who always have no on their
• 1:47:32
  lips, whereby they make everything distasteful. No always comes first with them,
• 1:47:39
  and when sometimes they give way, after all, it does them no good
• 1:47:43
  on account of the unpleasing herald. Your refusal need not be point blank.
• 1:47:47
  Let the disappointment come by degrees. Nor let the refusal be final. That
• 1:47:54
  would be to destroy dependence. Let some spice of hope remain to soften the
• 1:48:00
  rejection. Let politeness compensate, and fine words supply the place of deeds.
• 1:48:05
  Yes and no are soon said, But give much to think over. End
• 1:48:12
  of Section nine. Do not vacillate. Let not your actions be abnormal,
• 1:48:18
  either from disposition or affectation. An able man is always the same in his
• 1:48:24
  best qualities. He gets the credit of trustworthiness. If he changes, he
• 1:48:30
  does so for good reason or good consideration. In matters of conduct, change
• 1:48:34
  is hateful. There are some who are different every day. Their intelligence varies
• 1:48:40
  still more their will, and with this their fortune. Yesterday's white is today's
• 1:48:45
  black, today's no was yesterday's yes. They always give the lie to their
• 1:48:49
  own credit and destroy their credit with others. Seventy two. Be resolute.
• 1:48:58
  Bad execution of your design does less harm than irresolution informing them. Streams do
• 1:49:04
  less harm flowing than when dammed up. There are some men so infirm of
• 1:49:09
  purpose that they always require direction from others, and this not on account of
• 1:49:14
  any perplexity, for they judge clearly, but from sheer incapacity for action.
• 1:49:19
  It needs some skill to find out difficulties, but more to find a way
• 1:49:24
  out of them. There are others who are never in straits. Their clear
• 1:49:28
  judgment and determined character fit them for the highest callings. Their intelligence tells them
• 1:49:33
  where to insert the thin end of the wedge, their resolution how to drive
• 1:49:39
  it home. They soon get through anything. As soon as they have done
• 1:49:43
  with one sphere of action, they are ready for another. A fiance to
• 1:49:45
  fortune, they make themselves sure of success. Seventy three. Utilize slips.
• 1:49:55
  That is how smart people get out of difficulties. They extricate themselves from the
• 1:50:00
  most intricate labyrinth by some witty application of a bright remark. They get out
• 1:50:04
  of a serious contention by an airing nothing, or by raising a smile.
• 1:50:10
  Most of the great leaders are well grounded in this art. When you have
• 1:50:14
  to refuse, it is often the polite way to talk of something else.
• 1:50:17
  Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand. Seventy four. Do not
• 1:50:25
  be unsociable. The truest wild beasts live in the most populous places. To
• 1:50:31
  be inaccessible is the fault of those who distrust themselves, whose honors change their
• 1:50:38
  manners. It is no way of earning people's good will by being ill tempered
• 1:50:42
  with them. It is a sight to see one of those unsociable monsters who
• 1:50:45
  make a point of being proudly impertinent. Their dependents, who have the misfortune
• 1:50:50
  to be obliged to speak with them, enter as if prepared for a fight
• 1:50:55
  with a tiger. Armed with patience and with fear. Do obtain their posts.
• 1:51:00
  These persons must have ingratiated themselves with every one, but having once subtained
• 1:51:03
  it, they seek to indemnify themselves by disobliging all. It is a condition
• 1:51:10
  of their position that they should be accessible to all, yet from pride or
• 1:51:14
  spleen they are so to none. Tis a civil way to punish such men
• 1:51:18
  by letting them alone and depriving them of opportunities of improvement, by granting them
• 1:51:24
  no opportunity of intercourse Seventy five. Choose an heroic ideal, but rather to
• 1:51:32
  emulate than to imitate. There are exemplars of greatness, living texts of honor.
• 1:51:39
  Let every one have before his mind the chief of his calling, not
• 1:51:42
  so much to follow him as to spur himself on. Alexander wept not on
• 1:51:46
  account of Achilles, dead and buried, but over himself, because his fame
• 1:51:50
  had not yet spread throughout the world. Nothing arouses ambition so much in the
• 1:51:56
  heart as the trumpet clang of another's fame. The same thing that sharpens envy
• 1:52:01
  nourishes a generous spirit Seventy six. Do not always be jesting. Wisdom is
• 1:52:10
  shown in serious matters, and is more appreciated than mere wit. He that
• 1:52:15
  is always ready for jests is never ready for serious things. They resemble liars,
• 1:52:19
  and that men never believe either, always expecting a lie in one a
• 1:52:24
  joke in the other. One never knows when you speak with judgment which is
• 1:52:28
  the same as if you had none. A continual jest soon loses all zest.
• 1:52:33
  Many get the rapture of being witty, but thereby lose the credit of
• 1:52:38
  being sensible. Jest has its little hour, seriousness should have all the rest.
• 1:52:45
  Seventy seven be all things to all men, a discreet proteus, learned
• 1:52:50
  with the learned, saintly with the sainted. It is the great art to
• 1:52:55
  gain everyone's suffrages their good will, gains general agreement. Notice men's moods,
• 1:53:00
  and adapt yourself to each, genial or serious, as the case may be,
• 1:53:05
  follow their lead, glossing over the changes as cunningly as possible. This
• 1:53:11
  is an indispensable art for dependent persons. But this savoir faire calls for great
• 1:53:16
  cleverness. He only will find no difficulty who has a universal genius in his
• 1:53:20
  knowledge and universal ingenuity in his wit. Seventy eight the art of undertaking things.
• 1:53:30
  Fools rush in through the door, for folly is always bold. The
• 1:53:35
  same simplicity which robs them of all attention to precautions, deprives them of all
• 1:53:41
  sense of shame at failure. But prudence enters with more deliberation. Its forerunners
• 1:53:46
  are caution and care, they advance and discover whether you can also advance without
• 1:53:51
  danger. Every rush forward is freed from danger by caution, while fortune sometimes
• 1:53:57
  helps. In such cases, step cautiously where you suspect depth, sagacity goes
• 1:54:03
  cautiously forward, while precaution covers the ground. Nowadays there are unsuspected depths in
• 1:54:11
  human intercourse. You must therefore cast the lead at every step. Seventy nine.
• 1:54:18
  A genial disposition, if with moderation, is an accomplishment, not a
• 1:54:25
  defect. A grain of gaiety seasons all the greatest men join in the fun
• 1:54:30
  at times, and it makes them liked by all. But they should always,
• 1:54:33
  on such occasions preserve their dignity, nor go beyond the bounds of decorum.
• 1:54:40
  Others again, get themselves out of difficulty quickest by a joke, For
• 1:54:44
  there are things you must take in fun, though others perhaps mean them.
• 1:54:47
  In earnest you show a sense of placability, which acts as a magnet on
• 1:54:53
  all hearts. Eighty take care to get information. We live by information,
• 1:55:00
  not by sight. We exist by faith in others. The ear is the
• 1:55:05
  area gate of truth, but the front door of lies. The truth is
• 1:55:10
  generally seen rarely heard. Seldom she comes in elemental purity, especially from Afar.
• 1:55:16
  There is always some admixture of the moods of those through whom she has
• 1:55:20
  passed, the passions tinge her with their colors wherever they touch her, sometimes
• 1:55:27
  favorably, sometimes the reverse. She always brings out the disposition. Therefore,
• 1:55:31
  receive her with caution from him that praises, with more caution from him that
• 1:55:36
  blames. Pay attention to the intention of the speaker. You should know beforehand
• 1:55:43
  on what footing he comes. Let reflection a say, falsity and exaggeration.
• 1:55:50
  End of Section ten. Renew your brilliance tis the privilege of the phoenix.
• 1:55:59
  Ability is wont to grow old and with it fame. The staleness of custom
• 1:56:04
  weakens admiration, and a mediocrity that's new often eclipses the highest excellence grown old.
• 1:56:12
  Try, therefore, to be born again in valor ingenious in fortune.
• 1:56:16
  In all display, startling novelties rise afresh like the sun. Every day.
• 1:56:23
  Change to the scene on which you shine, so that your loss may be
• 1:56:27
  felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers
• 1:56:30
  wins you applause in the new. Eighty two drain nothing to the dregs,
• 1:56:36
  neither good nor ill. A sage once reduced all virtue to the golden Mian.
• 1:56:43
  Push right to the extreme and it becomes wrong. Press all the juice
• 1:56:46
  from an orange, and it becomes bitter. Even in enjoyment, never go
• 1:56:50
  to extremes. Thought too subtle is dull. If you milk a cow too
• 1:56:56
  much, you draw blood, not milk. Eighty three, allow yourself some
• 1:57:02
  venial fault. Some such carelessness is often the greatest recommendation of talent. For
• 1:57:09
  envy exercises ostracism, most envenomed, when most polite. It counts a too
• 1:57:15
  perfection as a failing that it has no faults. For being perfect in all,
• 1:57:19
  it condemns it. In all it becomes an argus all eyes for imperfection
• 1:57:26
  tis its only consolation. Blame is like the lightning, It hits the highest.
• 1:57:31
  Let Homer nod now and then and affect some negligence in valor or in
• 1:57:35
  intellect, not in prudence, so as to disarm malevolence, or at least
• 1:57:42
  to prevent its bursting with its own venom. You thus leave your cloak on
• 1:57:45
  the horns of envy, in order to save your immortal parts eighty four,
• 1:57:53
  make use of your enemies. You should learn to seize things not by the
• 1:57:58
  blade which cuts, but by the handle which saves you from harm. Especially,
• 1:58:01
  is this the rule with the doings of your enemies. A wise man
• 1:58:05
  gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Their ill
• 1:58:11
  will often levels mountains of difficulties which one would otherwise not face. Many have
• 1:58:16
  had their greatness made for them by their enemies. Flattery is more dangerous than
• 1:58:23
  hatred, because it covers the stains which the other causes to be wiped out.
• 1:58:28
  The wise will turn ill will into a mirror more faithful than that of
• 1:58:31
  kindness, and remove or improve the faults referred to. Caution thrives well when
• 1:58:38
  rivalry and ill will are next door neighbors. Eighty five Do not play Manville.
• 1:58:46
  It is a fault of excellence that, being so much in use,
• 1:58:49
  it is liable to abuse. Because all covet it, all are vexed by
• 1:58:55
  it. It is a great misfortune to be of use to nobody, scarcely
• 1:58:59
  less to be of use to everybody. People who reach this stage lose by
• 1:59:03
  gaining, and at last bore those who desired them. Before these manils wear
• 1:59:10
  away all kinds of excellence, losing the earlier esteem of the few, they
• 1:59:15
  obtain discredit among the vulgar. The remedy against this extreme is to moderate your
• 1:59:20
  brilliance. Be extraordinary in your excellence, if you like, but be ordinary
• 1:59:26
  in your display of it. The more light a torch gives, the more
• 1:59:29
  it burns away, and the narratives to going out. Show yourself less,
• 1:59:33
  and you will be rewarded by being esteemed more. Eighty six. Prevent scandal.
• 1:59:43
  Many heads go to make the mob, and in each of them are
• 1:59:45
  eyes for malice to use, and a tongue for detraction to wag. If
• 1:59:50
  a single ill report spread, it casts a blemish on your fair fame,
• 1:59:55
  and if it clings to you with a nickname, your reputation is in danger.
• 2:00:00
  Generally, it is some salient defect or ridiculous trait that gives rise to
• 2:00:04
  the rumors. At times, these are malicious additions of private envy to general
• 2:00:09
  distrust, For there are wicked tongues that ruin a great reputation more easily by
• 2:00:15
  a witty sneer than by a direct accusation. It is easy to get into
• 2:00:19
  bad repute because it is easy to believe evil of any one, it is
• 2:00:24
  not easy to clear yourself. The wise accordingly avoid these mischances. Guarding against
• 2:00:30
  vulgar scandal with sedulous vigilance. It is far easier to prevent than to rectify.
• 2:00:39
  Eighty seven. Culture and elegance. Man is a born barbarian, and
• 2:00:45
  only raises himself above the beast by culture. Culture therefore makes the man,
• 2:00:50
  the more a man, the higher. Thanks to it, Greece could call
• 2:00:54
  the rest of the world barbarians. Ignorance is very raw. Nothing contributes so
• 2:01:00
  much to culture as knowledge, But even knowledge is coarse if without elegance.
• 2:01:04
  Not alone must our intelligence be elegant, but our desires and above all our
• 2:01:10
  conversation. Some men are naturally elegant in internal and external qualities, in their
• 2:01:16
  thoughts, in their address, in their dress, which is the rind of
• 2:01:19
  the soul, and in their talents, which is its fruit. There are
• 2:01:25
  others, on the other hand, so ghosh that everything about them, even
• 2:01:28
  their very excellencies, is tarnished by an intolerable and barbaric want of neatness.
• 2:01:34
  Eighty eight Let your behavior be fine and noble. A great man ought not
• 2:01:42
  to be little in his behavior. He ought never to pry to minutely into
• 2:01:46
  things, least of all in unpleasant matters. For though it is important to
• 2:01:50
  know all, it is not necessary to know all about all. One ought
• 2:01:56
  to act in such cases with the generosity of a gentleman, conduct worthy of
• 2:02:00
  a gallant man. To overlook forms a large part of the work of ruling.
• 2:02:06
  Most things must be left unnoticed among relatives and friends, and even among
• 2:02:12
  enemies. All superfluity is annoying, especially in things that annoy To keep hovering
• 2:02:17
  around the object of your annoyance is a kind of mania. Generally speaking,
• 2:02:24
  every man behaves according to his heart and his understanding. Eighty nine. Know
• 2:02:30
  yourself in talents and capacity, in judgment and inclination. You cannot master yourself
• 2:02:38
  unless you know yourself. There are mirrors for the face, but none for
• 2:02:42
  the mind. Let careful thought about yourself serve as a substitute when the outer
• 2:02:47
  image is forgotten. Keep the inner one to improve and perfect. Learn the
• 2:02:53
  force of your intellect and capacity for affairs. Test the force of your courage
• 2:02:58
  in order to apply it, and keep your foundation secure and your head clear
• 2:03:02
  for everything. Eighty The secret of long life. Lead a good life.
• 2:03:11
  Two things bring life speedily to an end folly and immorality. Some lose their
• 2:03:16
  life because they have not the intelligence to keep it, others because they have
• 2:03:20
  not the will. Just as virtue is its own reward, so is vice
• 2:03:27
  its own punishment. He who lives a fast life runs through life. In
• 2:03:30
  a double sense, a virtuous life never dies. The firmness of the soul
• 2:03:36
  is communicated to the body, and a good life is long, not only
• 2:03:41
  in intention but also in extension. End of Section eleven. Never set to
• 2:03:49
  work at anything if you have any doubts of its prudence. A suspicion of
• 2:03:55
  failure in the mind of the doer is proof positive of it in that of
• 2:03:59
  the awe looker, especially if he is a rival. If in the heat
• 2:04:03
  of action, your judgment feels scruples, it will afterwards, in cool reflection,
• 2:04:09
  condemn it as a piece of folly. Action is dangerous where prudence is
• 2:04:14
  in doubt. Better leave such things alone. Wisdom does not trust to probabilities.
• 2:04:19
  It always marches in the mid day light of reason. How can an
• 2:04:25
  enterprise succeed which the judgment condemns as soon as conceived? And if resolutions past
• 2:04:31
  Nam Khan by inner court often turn out unfortunately. What can we expect of
• 2:04:38
  those undertaken by a doubting reason and a vacillating judgment? Ninety two Transcendent wisdom
• 2:04:47
  I mean in everything, the first and highest rule of all deed and speech.
• 2:04:54
  The more necessary to be followed, the higher and more numerous our posts
• 2:04:58
  is. An ounce of wisdom is worth more than tons of cleverness. It
• 2:05:04
  is the only sure way, though it may not gain so much applause.
• 2:05:09
  The reputation of wisdom is the last triumph of fame. It is enough if
• 2:05:15
  you satisfy the wise, for their judgment is the touchstone of true success.
• 2:05:21
  Ninety three Versatility. A man of many excellences equals many men. By imparting
• 2:05:29
  his own enjoyment of life to his circle, he enriches their life. Variety
• 2:05:34
  in excellences is the delight of life. It is a great art to profit
• 2:05:39
  by all that is good. And since Nature has made man in his highest
• 2:05:44
  development and abstract of herself, so let art create in him a true microcosm
• 2:05:49
  by training his taste and intellect. Ninety four Keep the extent of your abilities
• 2:05:58
  unknown. The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded
• 2:06:03
  to the bottom. If he desires to be honored by all, he allows
• 2:06:09
  you to know them, but not to comprehend them. No one must know
• 2:06:13
  the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has
• 2:06:17
  an opportunity of fathoming him entirely, for guesses and doubts about the extent of
• 2:06:23
  his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so
• 2:06:29
  great. Ninety five Keep expectation alive, keep stirring it up. Let much
• 2:06:38
  promise more and great deeds herald greater. Do not rest your whole fortune on
• 2:06:43
  a single cast of the die. It requires great skill to moderate your forces
• 2:06:48
  so as to keep expectation from being dissipated. Ninety six the highest discretion.
• 2:06:58
  It is the throne of reason, the foundation of prudence. By its means,
• 2:07:02
  success is gained at little cost. It is a gift from above,
• 2:07:06
  and should be prayed for as the first and best quality tis the main piece
• 2:07:12
  of the panoply, and so important that its absence makes a man imperfect.
• 2:07:16
  Whereas with other qualities, it is merely a question of more or less.
• 2:07:21
  All the actions of life depend on its application, all require its assistance.
• 2:07:27
  For everything needs intelligence. Discretion consists in a natural tendency to the most rational
• 2:07:33
  course, combined with a liking for the surest. Ninety seven obtain and preserve
• 2:07:42
  a reputation. It is the usufrct of fame. It is expensive to obtain
• 2:07:47
  a reputation, for it only attaches to distinguished abilities, which are as rare
• 2:07:53
  as mediocrities are common. Once obtained, it is easily preserved. It confers
• 2:07:59
  many an other obligation. But it does more when it is owing to elevated
• 2:08:03
  powers or lofty spheres of action. It rises to a kind of veneration and
• 2:08:09
  yields a sort of majesty. But it is only a well founded reputation that
• 2:08:15
  lasts permanently. Ninety eight Write your intentions in cipher. The passions are the
• 2:08:24
  gates of the soul. The most practical knowledge consists in disguising them. He
• 2:08:30
  that plays with cards exposed runs a risk of losing the stakes. The reserve
• 2:08:35
  of caution should combat the curiosity of inquirers. Adopt the policy of the cuttlefish.
• 2:08:41
  Do not even let your tastes be known, lest others utilize them,
• 2:08:46
  either by running counter to them or by flattering them. Ninety nine. Reality
• 2:08:52
  and appearance. Things pass for what they seem, not for what they are.
• 2:08:58
  Few see inside, many take to the outside. It is not enough
• 2:09:03
  to be right if right seem false and ill one hundred A man without illusions,
• 2:09:09
  a wise Christian, a philosophic courtier. Be all these not merely seem
• 2:09:16
  to be them, still less affect to be them. Philosophy is nowadays discredited,
• 2:09:22
  but yet it was always the chiefest concern of the wise. The art
• 2:09:26
  of thinking has lost all its former repute. Seneca introduced it at Rome.
• 2:09:31
  It went to court for some time, but now it is considered out of
• 2:09:35
  place there. And yet the discovery of deceit was always thought the true nourishment
• 2:09:41
  of a thoughtful mind, the true delight of a virtuous soul. End of
• 2:09:46
  Section twelve. One half of the world laughs at the other, And fools
• 2:09:54
  are they? All everything is good or everything is bad, according to the
• 2:09:58
  votes they gain, what one pursues and other persecutes. He is an insufferable
• 2:10:03
  ass that would regulate everything according to his ideas. Excellences do not depend on
• 2:10:09
  a single man's pleasure. So many men, so many tastes, all different.
• 2:10:15
  There is no defect which is not affected by some. Nor need we
• 2:10:18
  lose heart if things please not some, for others will appreciate them, nor
• 2:10:24
  need their applause. Turn our head, for there will be surely others to
• 2:10:28
  condemn. The real test of praise is the approbation of famous men and of
• 2:10:33
  experts in the matter. You should aim to be independent of any one vote,
• 2:10:37
  of any one fashion, of any one century one hundred and two,
• 2:10:43
  be able to stomach big slices of luck in the body of wisdom. Not
• 2:10:48
  the least important organ is a big stomach, For great capacity implies great parts.
• 2:10:54
  Big bits of luck do not embarrass one who can digest still bigger ones.
• 2:11:00
  What is a surfeit for one may be hunger for another. Many are
• 2:11:03
  troubled, as it were, with weak digestion owing to their small capacity,
• 2:11:09
  being neither born nor trained for great employment, Their actions turn sour, and
• 2:11:13
  the humors that arise from their undeserved honors turn their head, and they incur
• 2:11:18
  great risks in high place. They do not find their proper place, for
• 2:11:24
  luck finds no proper place in them. A man of talent, therefore,
• 2:11:28
  should know that he has more room for even greater enterprises, and above all
• 2:11:33
  avoid showing signs of a little heart. One hundred three. Let each keep
• 2:11:39
  up his dignity. Let each deed of a man in its degree, though
• 2:11:45
  he be not a king, be worthy of a prince, And let his
• 2:11:48
  action be princely within due limits, sublime in action, lofty in thought,
• 2:11:56
  in all things, like a king, at least in merit, if not
• 2:11:58
  in might. For true kingship lies in spotless rectitude, and he need not
• 2:12:05
  envy greatness. Who can serve as a model of it. Especially should those
• 2:12:09
  near the throne aim at true superiority and prefer to share the true qualities of
• 2:12:15
  royalty rather than take parts in its mere ceremonies, yet without affecting its imperfections,
• 2:12:22
  but sharing in its true dignity. One hundred and four. Try your
• 2:12:28
  hand at office. It requires varied qualities, and to know which is needed
• 2:12:35
  taxes, attention and calls for masterly discernment. Some demand courage, others tact.
• 2:12:41
  Those that merely require rectitude are the easiest, the most difficult those requiring
• 2:12:48
  cleverness. For the former, all that is necessary is character. For the
• 2:12:52
  latter, all one's attention and zeal may not suffice.'tis a troublesome business
• 2:12:58
  to rule men still more fools or blockheads. Double sense is needed with those
• 2:13:05
  who have none. It is intolerable when an office engrosses a man with fixed
• 2:13:09
  hours and a settled routine. Those are better that leave a man free to
• 2:13:15
  follow his own devices. Combining variety with importance for the change refreshes the mind.
• 2:13:22
  The most in repute are those that have least or most distant dependence on
• 2:13:26
  others. The worst is that which worries us both here and hereafter one hundred
• 2:13:33
  and five. Don't be a bore. The man of one business or of
• 2:13:39
  one topic is apt to be heavy. Brevity flatters and does better business.
• 2:13:45
  It gains by courtesy what it loses by curtness. Good things when short,
• 2:13:50
  are twice as good. The quintessence of the matter is more effective than a
• 2:13:54
  whole farrago of details. It is a well known truth that pocket of folk
• 2:14:00
  rarely have much sense, whether in dealing with the matter itself or its formal
• 2:14:05
  treatment. There are that serve more for stumbling stones than centerpieces useless lumber.
• 2:14:11
  In every one's way, the wise avoid being bores, especially to the great
• 2:14:16
  who are fully occupied. It is worse to disturb one of them, than
• 2:14:20
  all the rest well said is soon said. One hundred and six. Do
• 2:14:28
  not parade your position to outshine Indignity is more offensive than in personal attractions.
• 2:14:35
  To pose as a personage is to be hated. Envy is surely enough.
• 2:14:39
  The more you seek esteem, the less you obtain it, For it depends
• 2:14:43
  on the opinion of others. You cannot take it, but must earn and
• 2:14:48
  receive it from others. Great positions require an amount of authority sufficient to make
• 2:14:54
  them efficient. Without it, they cannot be adequately filled. Preserve therefore enough
• 2:15:01
  dignity to carry on the duties of the office. Do not enforce respect,
• 2:15:07
  but try and create it. Those who insist on the dignity of their office
• 2:15:11
  show they have not deserved it, and that it is too much for them.
• 2:15:16
  If you wish to be valued, be valued for your talents, not
• 2:15:20
  for anything adventitious. Even kings prefer to be honored for their personal qualifications rather
• 2:15:28
  than for their station. One O. Seven. Show no self satisfaction.
• 2:15:35
  You must neither be discontented with yourself, and that were poor spirited nor self
• 2:15:41
  satisfied, and that is folly. Self satisfaction arises mostly from ignorance. It
• 2:15:46
  would be a happy ignorance, not without its advantages, if it did not
• 2:15:50
  injure our credit. Because a man cannot achieve the superlative perfections of others,
• 2:15:56
  he contents himself with any mediocre talent of his own. Distrust is wise and
• 2:16:03
  even useful, either to evade mishaps or to afford consolation when they come.
• 2:16:09
  For a misfortune cannot surprise a man who has already feared it. Even Homer
• 2:16:15
  nods at times, and Alexander fell from his lofty state and out of his
• 2:16:18
  illusions. Things depend on many circumstances. What constitutes triumph in one set may
• 2:16:26
  cause a defeat in another. In the midst of all, incorrigible folly remains
• 2:16:31
  the same with empty self satisfaction, blossoming, flowering, and running all to
• 2:16:37
  seed one O eight. The path to greatness is along with others intercourse works,
• 2:16:45
  well, manners, and taste are shared. Good sense, and even
• 2:16:48
  talent grow insensibly. Let the sanguine man then make a comrade of the lymphatic,
• 2:16:56
  and so with the other temperaments, so that without any forcing, the
• 2:17:00
  golden mean is obtained. It is a great art to agree with others.
• 2:17:05
  The alternation of contraries beautifies and sustains the world. If it can cause harmony
• 2:17:09
  in the physical world, still more can it do so in the moral Adopt
• 2:17:15
  this policy in the choice of friends and defendants. By joining extremes, the
• 2:17:20
  more effective middle way is found. One O nine. Be not censorious.
• 2:17:28
  There are men of gloomy character who regard everything as faulty, not from any
• 2:17:33
  evil motive, but because it is their nature to They condemn all these for
• 2:17:39
  what they have done, those for what they will do. This indicates a
• 2:17:43
  nature worse than cruel vile. Indeed, they accuse with such exaggeration that they
• 2:17:50
  make out of moats beams wherewith to force out the eyes. They are always
• 2:17:54
  taskmasters, who could turn a paradise into a prison. If passion and intervenes,
• 2:18:01
  they drive matters to the extreme. A noble nature, on the contrary,
• 2:18:05
  always knows how to find an excuse for failings, if not in the
• 2:18:09
  intention, at least from oversight. One ten. Do not wait till you
• 2:18:16
  are a sinking sun. Tis a maxim of the wise. To leave things
• 2:18:20
  before things leave them. One should be able to snatch a triumph at the
• 2:18:24
  end, just as the sun, even at its brightest often retires behind a
• 2:18:30
  cloud, so as not to be seen sinking, and to leave in doubt
• 2:18:33
  whether he has sunk or no. Wisely withdraw from the chance of mishaps,
• 2:18:39
  lest you have to do so from the reality. Do not wait till they
• 2:18:43
  turn you the cold shoulder and carry you to the grave, alive in feeling,
• 2:18:48
  but dead in esteem. Wise trainers put racers to grass before they arouse
• 2:18:54
  derision by falling on the course. A beauty should break her mirror early,
• 2:19:00
  lest she do so later with open eyes. End of Section thirteen. Have
• 2:19:07
  friends tis a second existence. Every friend is good and wise. For his
• 2:19:13
  friend among them, all everything turns to good. Everyone is as others wish
• 2:19:20
  him. That they may wish him well, he must win their hearts and
• 2:19:24
  sow their tongues. There is no magic like a good turn, And the
• 2:19:28
  way to gain friendly feelings is to do friendly acts. The most and best
• 2:19:33
  of us depend on others. We have to live either among friends or among
• 2:19:37
  enemies. Seek someone every day to be a well wisher, if not a
• 2:19:43
  friend, by and by after trial, some of these will become intimate.
• 2:19:48
  One twelve. Gain good will for thus the first and highest cause foresees and
• 2:19:56
  furthers the greatest objects. By gaining their good will, you gain men's good
• 2:20:01
  opinion. Some trust so much to merit that they neglect grace. But wise
• 2:20:07
  men know that service road without a lift from favor is a long way.
• 2:20:11
  Indeed, good will facilitates and supplies everything it supposes, gifts, or even
• 2:20:18
  supplies them as courage, zeal, knowledge, or even discretion. Whereas defects
• 2:20:24
  it will not see because it does not search for them. It arises from
• 2:20:28
  some common interest, either material as disposition, nationality, relationship, fatherland,
• 2:20:35
  office, or formal, which is a higher kind of communion in capacity,
• 2:20:41
  obligation, reputation, or merit. The whole difficulty is to gain good will.
• 2:20:46
  To keep it is easy. It has, however, to be sought
• 2:20:50
  for and when found to be utilized. One thirteen. In prosperity, prepare
• 2:20:58
  for adversity. It is both wiser and easier to collect winter stores in summer.
• 2:21:05
  In prosperity, favors are cheap, and friends are many. Tis well.
• 2:21:09
  Therefore to keep them for more unlucky days. For adversity costs dear and
• 2:21:15
  has no helpers retain a store of friendly and obliged persons. The day may
• 2:21:20
  come when their price will go up. Low minds never have friends. In
• 2:21:26
  luck, they will not recognize them. In misfortune, they will not be
• 2:21:31
  recognized by them. Fourteen Never compete. Every competition damages the credit. Our
• 2:21:39
  rivals seize occasion to obscure us so as to outshine us. Few wage honorable
• 2:21:46
  war. Rivalry discloses faults which courtesy would hide. Many have lived in good
• 2:21:52
  repute while they had no rivals. The heat of conflict gives life or even
• 2:21:56
  new life, to dead scandals and digs up long buried skeletons. Competition begins
• 2:22:03
  with the belittling and seeks aid wherever it can, not only where it ought.
• 2:22:09
  And when the weapons of abuse do not affect their purpose as often or
• 2:22:13
  mostly happens our opponents, use them for revenge, and use them at least
• 2:22:18
  for beating away the dust of oblivion from anything to our discredit. Men of
• 2:22:24
  good will are always at peace. Men of good repute and dignity are men
• 2:22:30
  of good will. Fifteen. Get used to the failings of your familiars as
• 2:22:37
  you do to ugly faces. It is indispensable if they depend on us or
• 2:22:41
  we on them. There are wretched characters with whom one cannot live, yet
• 2:22:46
  not without them. Therefore, clever folks get used to them as to ugly
• 2:22:52
  faces, so that they are not obliged to do so suddenly, under the
• 2:22:56
  pressure of necessity. At first they arouse discuss, but gradually they lose this
• 2:23:01
  influence, and reflection provides for disgust or puts up with it. Sixteen.
• 2:23:09
  Only act with honorable men. You can trust them and they you. Their
• 2:23:16
  honor is the best surety of their behavior, even in misunderstandings, for they
• 2:23:20
  always act having regard to what they are. Hence, tis better to have
• 2:23:26
  a dispute with honorable people than to have a victory over dishonorable ones. You
• 2:23:31
  cannot treat with the ruined, for they have no hostages for rectitude. With
• 2:23:37
  them, there is no true friendship, and their agreements are not binding,
• 2:23:41
  however stringent they may appear, because they have no feeling of honor. Never
• 2:23:46
  have to do with such men. For if honor does not restrain a man,
• 2:23:50
  virtue will not, since honor is the throne of rectitude. Seventeen Never
• 2:23:58
  talk of yourself. You must either praise yourself, which is vain, or
• 2:24:03
  blame yourself, which is little minded. It ill beseems him that speaks,
• 2:24:09
  and ill pleases him that hears. And if you should avoid this in ordinary
• 2:24:13
  conversation, how much more in official matters, and above all in public speaking,
• 2:24:18
  where every appearance of unwisdom really is unwise. The same want of tact
• 2:24:26
  lies in speaking of a man in his presence, owing to the danger of
• 2:24:28
  going to one of two extremes flattery or censure. Eighteen. Acquire the reputation
• 2:24:37
  of courtesy, for it is enough to make you liked. Politeness is the
• 2:24:43
  main ingredient of culture, a kind of witchery that wins the regard of all
• 2:24:48
  as surely as discourtesy gains their disfavor and opposition. If this latter springs from
• 2:24:54
  pride, it is abominable, and if from bad breeding it is despicable.
• 2:25:01
  Better too much courtesy than too little, provided it be not the same for
• 2:25:05
  all which degenerates into injustice between opponents. It is especially due as a proof
• 2:25:11
  of valor. It costs little and helps much. Everyone is honored who gives
• 2:25:18
  honor. Politeness and honor have this advantage that they remain with him who displays
• 2:25:24
  them to others. Nineteen. Avoid becoming disliked. There is no occasion to
• 2:25:33
  seek dislike it comes without seeking quickly enough. There are many who hate of
• 2:25:39
  their own accord, without knowing the why or the how. Their ill will
• 2:25:43
  outruns our readiness to please. Their ill nature is more prone to do others
• 2:25:50
  harm than their cupidity is eager to gain advantage for themselves. Some manage to
• 2:25:56
  be on bad terms with all because they always either produce or experience vexation of
• 2:26:01
  spirit. Once hate has taken root, it is like bad repute, difficult
• 2:26:07
  to eradicate. Wise men are feared, the malevolent are abhorred, the arrogant
• 2:26:13
  are regarded with disdain, buffoons with contempt, eccentrics with neglect. Therefore,
• 2:26:20
  pay respect that you may be respected, and know that to be esteemed you
• 2:26:26
  must show esteem. One twenty Live practically. Even knowledge has to be in
• 2:26:35
  the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
• 2:26:39
  Thought and taste change with the times. Do not be old fashioned in
• 2:26:45
  your ways of thinking, and let your taste be in the modern style.
• 2:26:48
  In everything, the taste of the many carries the votes for the time being.
• 2:26:54
  One must follow it in the hope of leading it to higher things.
• 2:26:58
  In the adornment of the body as of the mind. Adapt yourself to the
• 2:27:01
  present, even though the past appear better. But this rule does not apply
• 2:27:07
  to kindness. For goodness is for all time. It is neglected nowadays and
• 2:27:13
  seems out of date. Truth speaking, keeping your word, and so too.
• 2:27:18
  Good people seem to come from the good old times. Yet they are
• 2:27:22
  liked for all that, but in such a way that, even when they
• 2:27:26
  all exist, they are not in the fashion and are not imitated. What
• 2:27:31
  a misfortune for our age that it regards virtue as a stranger and vice as
• 2:27:37
  a matter of course. If you are wise, live as you can.
• 2:27:41
  If you cannot live as you would think more highly of what fate has given
• 2:27:46
  you than of what it has denied. End of Section fourteen. Do not
• 2:27:52
  make a business of what is no business. As some make gossip out of
• 2:27:58
  everything, so others business. They always talk big, take everything in earnest,
• 2:28:05
  and turn it into a dispute or secret. Troublesome things must not be
• 2:28:09
  taken too seriously, if they can be avoided. It is preposterous to take
• 2:28:15
  to heart that which you should throw over your shoulders. Much that would be
• 2:28:20
  something has become nothing by being left alone and what was nothing has become of
• 2:28:26
  consequence by being made much of. At the outset, things can be easily
• 2:28:31
  settled, but not afterwards. Often the remedy causes the disease tis by no
• 2:28:37
  means the least of life's rules to let things alone one hundred twenty two.
• 2:28:46
  Distinction in speech and action. By this you gain a position in many places,
• 2:28:52
  and carry esteem beforehand. It shows itself in everything, in talk,
• 2:28:56
  in look, even in gait. It is a great victory to conquer men's
• 2:29:01
  hearts. It does not arise from any foolish presumption or pompous talk, but
• 2:29:07
  in a becoming tone of authority, born of superior talent combined with true merit
• 2:29:15
  one hundred twenty three Avoid affectation. The more merit, the less affectation,
• 2:29:22
  which gives a vulgar flavor to all. It is wearisome to others and troublesome
• 2:29:28
  to the one affected, for he becomes a martyr to care and tortures himself
• 2:29:31
  with attention. The most eminent merits lose most by it, for they appear
• 2:29:37
  proud and artificial instead of being the product of nature. And the natural is
• 2:29:43
  always more pleasing than the artificial one always feels sure that the man who affects
• 2:29:48
  a virtue has it not. The more pains you take with a thing,
• 2:29:54
  the more should you conceal them, so that it may appear to arise spontaneously
• 2:29:58
  from your own nature utural character. Do not, however, in avoiding affectation,
• 2:30:05
  fall into it by affecting to be unaffected. The sage never seems to
• 2:30:09
  know his own merits, for only by not noticing them can you call others
• 2:30:13
  attention to them. He is twice great, who has all the perfections in
• 2:30:18
  the opinions of all, except of himself. He attains applause by two opposite
• 2:30:24
  paths one hundred twenty four. Get yourself missed. Few reach such favor with
• 2:30:33
  the many. If with the wise, tis the height of happiness. When
• 2:30:37
  one has finished one's work. Coldness is the general rule. But there are
• 2:30:41
  ways of earning this reward of good will. The sure way is to excel
• 2:30:46
  in your office and talents. Add to this agreeable manner, and you reach
• 2:30:52
  the point where you become necessary to your office, not your office to you.
• 2:30:58
  Some do honor to their post with others. Tis the other way.
• 2:31:01
  It is no great gain if a poor successor makes the predecessor seem good.
• 2:31:07
  For this does not imply that the one is missed, but that the other
• 2:31:11
  is wished away. One hundred twenty five. Do not be a blacklist.
• 2:31:18
  It is a sign of having a tarnished name to concern oneself with the ill
• 2:31:22
  fame of others. Some wish to hide their own stains with those of others,
• 2:31:28
  or at least wash them away, or they seek consolation. Therein tis
• 2:31:33
  the consolation of fools. They must have bad breath, who form the sewers
• 2:31:37
  of scandal for the whole town. The more one grubs about in such matters,
• 2:31:43
  the more one befouls oneself. There are few without stain somewhere or other.
• 2:31:48
  But it is of little known people that the failings are little known.
• 2:31:54
  Be careful, then, to avoid being a registrar of faults, that is,
• 2:31:58
  to be an abominable thing, a man that lives without a heart.
• 2:32:03
  One hundred twenty six. Folly consists not in committing folly, but in not
• 2:32:11
  hiding it. When committed, you should keep your desires sealed up. Still
• 2:32:16
  more, your defects all go wrong sometimes, but the wise try to hide
• 2:32:22
  the errors, but fools boast of them. Reputation depends more on what is
• 2:32:28
  hidden than on what is done. If a man does not live chastely,
• 2:32:33
  he must live cautiously. The errors of great men are like the eclipses of
• 2:32:39
  the greater lights. Even in friendship, it is rare to expose one's failings
• 2:32:45
  to one's friend. Nay, one should conceal them from one's self if one
• 2:32:48
  can. But here one can help with that other great rule of life,
• 2:32:54
  learn to forget. One hundred twenty seven. Grace in everything tis the life
• 2:33:03
  of talents, the breath of speech, the soul of action, and the
• 2:33:07
  ornament of ornament. Perfections are the adornment of our nature. But this is
• 2:33:13
  the adornment of perfection itself. It shows itself even in the thoughts. Tis
• 2:33:18
  most a gift of nature, and owes least to education. It even triumphs
• 2:33:22
  over training. It is more than ease, approaches the free and easy,
• 2:33:28
  gets over embarrassment, and adds the finishing touch to perfection. Without it,
• 2:33:33
  beauty is lifeless, graciousness ungraceful. It surpasses valor, discretion, prudence,
• 2:33:41
  Even majesty itself tis a short way to dispatch and an easy escape from embarrassment.
• 2:33:48
  One hundred twenty eight. High mindedness one of the principal qualifications for a
• 2:33:56
  gentleman, for it spurs on to all kinds of nobility. It improves the
• 2:34:00
  taste, ennobles the heart, elevates the mind, refines the feelings, and
• 2:34:05
  intensifies dignity. It raises him in whom it is found, and at times
• 2:34:11
  remedies the bad turns of fortune, which only raises by striking. It can
• 2:34:18
  find full scope in the will when it cannot be exercised in act. Magnanimity,
• 2:34:24
  generosity, and all heroic qualities recognize in it their source. One hundred
• 2:34:31
  twenty nine. Never complain. To complain always brings discredit. Better be a
• 2:34:39
  model of self reliance opposed to the passion of others than an object of their
• 2:34:43
  compassion, for it opens the way for the hearer to what we are complaining
• 2:34:48
  of, and to disclose one insult forms an excuse for another. By complaining
• 2:34:54
  of past offenses, we give occasion for future ones, and in seeking aid
• 2:35:00
  counsel, we only obtain indifference or contempt. It is much more politic to
• 2:35:05
  praise one man's favors so that others may feel obliged to follow suit. To
• 2:35:11
  recount the favors we owe the absent is to demand similar ones from the present,
• 2:35:16
  and thus we sell our credit with the one to the other. The
• 2:35:20
  shrewd will therefore never publish to the world his failures or his defects, but
• 2:35:24
  only those marks of consideration which serve to keep friendship alive and enmity silent.
• 2:35:33
  One hundred and thirty do and be seen doing. Things do not pass for
• 2:35:39
  what they are, but for what they seem to be of use, And
• 2:35:43
  to know how to show yourself of use is to be twice as useful.
• 2:35:48
  What is not seen is as if it was not even. The right does
• 2:35:54
  not receive proper consideration if it does not seem right. The observant are far
• 2:35:58
  fewer in number than those who are deceived by appearances. De seit rules the
• 2:36:05
  roast, and things are judged by their jackets, and many things are other
• 2:36:09
  than they seen. A good exterior is the best recommendation of the inner perfection.
• 2:36:18
  End of Section fifteen. Nobility of feeling. There is a certain distinction
• 2:36:26
  of the soul, a high mindedness prompting to gallant acts that gives an air
• 2:36:31
  of grace to the whole character. It is not found often for it presupposes
• 2:36:37
  great magnanimity. Its chief characteristic is to speak well of an enemy and to
• 2:36:45
  act even better towards him. It shines brightest when a chance comes of revenge.
• 2:36:50
  Not alone does it let the occasion pass, but it improves it by
• 2:36:56
  using a complete victory in order to display the unexpected generosity. Tis a fine
• 2:37:03
  stroke of policy, nay the very acme of state craft. It makes no
• 2:37:09
  pretense to victory, for it pretends to nothing, and while obtaining its deserts,
• 2:37:16
  it conceals its merits. One hundred and thirty two. Revise your judgments
• 2:37:24
  to appeal to an inner court of revision makes things safe, especially when the
• 2:37:31
  course of action is not clear. You gain time either to confirm or improve
• 2:37:37
  your decision. It affords new grounds for strengthening or corroborating your judgment. And
• 2:37:46
  if it is a matter of giving, the gift, is the more valued
• 2:37:50
  from its being evidently well considered than for being promptly bestowed. Long expected is
• 2:37:56
  highest prized, And if you have to deny, you gain time to decide
• 2:38:03
  how and when to mature than know that it may be made palatable. Besides,
• 2:38:09
  after the first heat of desire is past, the repulse of refusal is
• 2:38:15
  felt less keenly in cold blood. But especially when men press for a reply,
• 2:38:22
  is it best to defer it, For as often as not, that
• 2:38:26
  is only a feint to disarm a tension. One hundred and thirty three.
• 2:38:35
  Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone, so say politicians.
• 2:38:41
  If all are so, one is no worse off than the rest.
• 2:38:46
  Whereas solitary wisdom passes for folly, So important is it to sail with the
• 2:38:54
  stream. The greatest wisdom often consists in ignorance, or the pretense of it.
• 2:39:01
  One has to live with others, and others are mostly ignorant. To
• 2:39:07
  live entirely alone, one must be very like a god, or quite like
• 2:39:11
  a wild beast. But I would turn the aphorism by saying, better be
• 2:39:18
  wise with the many than a fool all alone. There may be some two
• 2:39:24
  who seek to be original by seeking chimeras one hundred and thirty four. Double
• 2:39:33
  your resources, you thereby double your life. One must not depend on one
• 2:39:39
  thing, or trust to only one resource. However pre eminent, everything should
• 2:39:45
  be kept double, especially the causes of success, of favor, or of
• 2:39:50
  esteem. The Moon's mutability transcends everything and gives a limit to all existence,
• 2:39:58
  especially of things dependent on human will, the most brittle of all things.
• 2:40:05
  To guard against this inconstancy should be the sage's care, And for this the
• 2:40:13
  chief rule of life is to keep a double store of good and useful qualities.
• 2:40:20
  Thus, as nature gives us in a duplicate the most important of our
• 2:40:24
  limbs and those most exposed to risk, so art should deal with the qualities
• 2:40:31
  on which we depend for success. One hundred and thirty five. Do not
• 2:40:39
  nourish the spirit of contradiction. It only proves you foolish or peevish, and
• 2:40:46
  prudence should guard against this strenuously. To find difficulties in everything may prove you
• 2:40:54
  clever, but such wrangling writes you down a fool. Such folk make a
• 2:41:00
  mimic war out of the most pleasant conversation, and in this way act as
• 2:41:05
  enemies towards their associates, rather than towards those with whom they do not consort.
• 2:41:13
  Grit grates most in delicacies, and so does contradiction in amusement. They
• 2:41:20
  are both foolish and cruel who yoke together the wild beast and the tame one
• 2:41:28
  hundred and thirty six post yourself in the center of things, so you feel
• 2:41:35
  the pulse of affairs. Many lose their way either in the ramifications of useless
• 2:41:43
  discussion or in the brushwood of wearisome verbosity, without ever realizing the real matter
• 2:41:50
  at issue. They go over a single point a hundred times, wearing themselves
• 2:41:56
  and others, and yet never tough which the all important center or affairs.
• 2:42:03
  This comes from a confusion of mind from which they cannot extricate themselves. They
• 2:42:09
  waste time and patience on matters they should leave alone, and cannot spare them
• 2:42:16
  afterwards for what they have left alone. One hundred thirty seven. The sage
• 2:42:24
  should be self sufficing. He that was all in all to himself carried all
• 2:42:31
  with him when he carried himself. If a universal friend can represent to us
• 2:42:39
  Rome and the rest of the world, let a man be his own universal
• 2:42:45
  friend, and then he is in a position to live alone. Whom could
• 2:42:50
  such a man want? If there is no clearer intellect or finer taste than
• 2:42:56
  his own. He would then depend on himself alone, which is the highest
• 2:43:01
  happiness. And like the supreme being, he that can live alone resembles the
• 2:43:07
  brute beast in nothing. The Sage in much and God in everything one hundred
• 2:43:16
  thirty eight. The art of letting things alone, the more so the wilder
• 2:43:24
  the waves of public or of private life. There are hurricanes in human affairs,
• 2:43:31
  tempests of passion, when it is wise to retire to a harbour and
• 2:43:35
  ride at anchor. Remedies often make diseases worse. In such cases, one
• 2:43:43
  has to leave them to their natural course and the moral suasion of time.
• 2:43:48
  It takes a wise doctor to know when not to prescribe, and at times
• 2:43:54
  the greater skill consists in not applying remedy. The proper way to still the
• 2:44:01
  storms of the vulgar is to hold your hand and let them calm down of
• 2:44:07
  themselves. To give way now is to conquer by and buy. A fountain
• 2:44:16
  gets muddy with but little stirring up, and does not get clear by our
• 2:44:20
  meddling with it, but by our leaving it alone. The best remedy for
• 2:44:26
  disturbances is to let them run their course, for so they quiet down.
• 2:44:33
  One hundred and thirty nine. Recognize unlucky days they exist. Nothing goes well
• 2:44:41
  on them. Even though the game may be changed, the ill luck remains.
• 2:44:48
  Two tries should be enough to tell if one is in luck today or
• 2:44:52
  not. Everything is in process of change, even the mind, and no
• 2:44:58
  one is always wise. Chance has something to say, even how to write
• 2:45:05
  a good letter. All perfection turns on the time, Even beauty has its
• 2:45:11
  hours. Even wisdom fails at times by doing too much or too little to
• 2:45:20
  turn out well. A thing must be done on its own day. This
• 2:45:24
  is why with some everything turns out ill. With others all goes well,
• 2:45:31
  even with less trouble. They find everything ready, their wit prompt, their
• 2:45:37
  presiding genius favorable, their lucky star in the ascendant. At such times one
• 2:45:45
  must seize the occasion and not throw away the slightest chance. But a shrewd
• 2:45:52
  person will not decide on the day's luck by a single piece of good or
• 2:45:58
  bad fortune, for the why may be only a lucky chance, and the
• 2:46:03
  other only a slight annoyance. One hundred and forty Find the good in a
• 2:46:11
  thing at once tis the advantage of good taste. The bee goes to the
• 2:46:18
  honey for her comb, the serpent to the gall for its venom. So
• 2:46:22
  with taste, some seek the good, others the ill. There is nothing
• 2:46:30
  that has no good in it, especially in books as giving food for thought.
• 2:46:35
  But many have such a scent that, amid a thousand excellences, they
• 2:46:41
  fix upon a single defect and single it out for blame, as if they
• 2:46:46
  were the scavengers of men's minds and hearts. So they draw up a balance
• 2:46:54
  sheet of defects, which does more credit to their bad taste than to their
• 2:46:58
  inen intelligence. They lead a sad life, nourishing themselves on bitters and battening
• 2:47:07
  on garbage. They have the luckier taste, who midst a thousand defects seese
• 2:47:13
  upon a single beauty they may have hit upon the by chance. End of
• 2:47:20
  section sixteen. Do not listen to yourself. It is no use pleasing yourself
• 2:47:28
  if you do not please others. And as a rule general contempt is the
• 2:47:33
  punishment for self satisfaction. The attention you pay to yourself you probably owe to
• 2:47:39
  others to speak, and at the same time listen to yourself. Cannot turn
• 2:47:43
  out well. If to talk to oneself when alone is folly, it must
• 2:47:48
  be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others. It is
• 2:47:54
  a weakness of the great to talk with the recurrent. As I was saying,
• 2:47:58
  and he which bewilders their hearers. At every sentence they look for applause
• 2:48:05
  or flattery, taxing the patient of the wys. So too the pompous speak
• 2:48:11
  with an echo, and as their talk can only totter on with the aid
• 2:48:15
  of stilts at every word, they need the support of a stupid bravo number
• 2:48:20
  one forty two. Never from obstinacy take the wrong side because your opponent has
• 2:48:26
  anticipated you in taking the right one. You begin the fight already beaten,
• 2:48:33
  and must soon take to flight and disgrace. With bad weapons, one can
• 2:48:37
  never win. It was a stute in the opponent to seize the better side
• 2:48:41
  first. It would be folly to come lagging after with the worst. Such
• 2:48:48
  obstinacy is more dangerous in actions than in words, for action encounters more risk
• 2:48:52
  than talk.'tis the common feeling of the obstinate that they lose the true
• 2:48:58
  by contra addicting it, and the useful by quarreling with it. The sage
• 2:49:05
  never places himself on the side of passion, but espouses the cause of right,
• 2:49:11
  either discovering it first or improving it later. If the enemy is a
• 2:49:16
  fool, he will, in such a case turn round to follow the opposite
• 2:49:20
  and worse way. Thus the only way to drive him from the better course
• 2:49:24
  is to take it yourself, for his folly will cause him to desert it,
• 2:49:28
  and his obstinacy be punished for so doing. Number one hundred forty three.
• 2:49:35
  Never become paradoxical in order to avoid the trite. Both extremes damage our
• 2:49:43
  reputation. Every undertaking which differs from the reasonable approaches foolishness. The paradox is
• 2:49:50
  a cheat. It wins applause at first by its novelty and piquancy, but
• 2:49:56
  afterwards it becomes discredited when the deceit is forced and its emptiness becomes apparent.
• 2:50:03
  It is a species of jugglery, and it matters political would be the ruin
• 2:50:09
  of states. Those who cannot or dare not reach great deeds on the direct
• 2:50:15
  road of excellence go round by way of paradox, admired by fools and making
• 2:50:20
  wise men true prophets. It argues an unbalanced judgment, and if it is
• 2:50:26
  not altogether based on the false, it is certainly founded on the uncertain and
• 2:50:31
  risks the weightier matters of life. Number one hundred forty four begin another's to
• 2:50:39
  end with your own'tis a politic means to your end, even in heavenly
• 2:50:46
  matters. Christian teachers lay stress on this holy cunning. It is a weightier
• 2:50:50
  piece of dissimulation, for the foreseen advantages serve as a lure to influence the
• 2:50:56
  other's will. His affair seems to be in when it is really only leading
• 2:51:01
  the wave for another's. One should never advance unless undercover, especially where the
• 2:51:07
  ground is dangerous. Likewise, with persons who always say no at first,
• 2:51:13
  it is useful to ward off this blow because the difficulty of conceding much more
• 2:51:18
  does not occur to them when your version is presented to them. This advice
• 2:51:24
  belongs to the rule about second thoughts chapter thirteen, which covers the most subtle
• 2:51:28
  maneuvers of life, Number one hundred forty five. Do not show your wounded
• 2:51:37
  finger, for everything will knock up against it, nor complain about it,
• 2:51:43
  for malice always aims where weakness can be injured. It is no use to
• 2:51:48
  be vexed. Being the butt of the talk will only vex you. The
• 2:51:52
  more ill will searches for wounds to irritate, aims darts to try the temper,
• 2:51:58
  and tries a thousand ways to sting to the quick. The wise never
• 2:52:03
  own to being hit, or disclose any evil, whether personal or hereditary.
• 2:52:07
  For even fate sometimes likes to wound us where we are most tender. It
• 2:52:13
  always mortifies wounded flesh. Never therefore, disclose the source of mortification or of
• 2:52:20
  joy. If you wish the one to cease and the other to endure number
• 2:52:26
  one forty six. Look into the interior of things. Things are generally other
• 2:52:33
  than they seem. An ignorance that never looks beneath the rind becomes disabused when
• 2:52:39
  you show the kernel. Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their
• 2:52:46
  irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of time.
• 2:52:54
  The wise therefore reserve for it the other half of that power which the
• 2:52:58
  common Mother has widely given in duplicate Deceit is very superficial, and the superficial
• 2:53:07
  therefore easily fall into it. Prudence lives retired within its recesses, visited only
• 2:53:13
  by sages and wise men number one hundred forty seven do not be inaccessible.
• 2:53:24
  None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others.
• 2:53:31
  He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to anyone. Even the
• 2:53:35
  most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn
• 2:53:43
  to lean. There are some that are incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible.
• 2:53:48
  They fall to ruin because none dares to extricate them. The highest should have
• 2:53:54
  the door open for friendship. It may prove the gait of help. A
• 2:54:00
  friend must be free to advise and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.
• 2:54:05
  Our satisfaction in him, and our trust in his steadfast faith give him that
• 2:54:11
  power. One need not pay respect or give credit to every one, but
• 2:54:16
  in the innermost of his precaution man has a true mirror of a confidant,
• 2:54:22
  to whom he owes the correction of his errors and has to thank for it.
• 2:54:28
  Number one hundred forty eight. Have the art of conversation, that is
• 2:54:35
  where the real personality shows itself. No act in life requires more attention.
• 2:54:41
  Though it be the commonest thing in life. You must either lose or gain
• 2:54:48
  by it. If it needs care to write a letter, which is but
• 2:54:52
  a deliberate and written conversation, how much more the ordinary kind, in which
• 2:54:56
  there is occasion for pompt display of intelligence. Experts feel the pulse of the
• 2:55:03
  soul is the tongue. Wherefore the sage said, speak that I may know
• 2:55:09
  thee Some hold that the art of conversation is to be without art, that
• 2:55:13
  it should be neat, not gaudy, like the garments. This holds good
• 2:55:18
  for talk between friends, but when held with a person to whom one would
• 2:55:24
  show respect, it should be more dignified to answer to the dignity of the
• 2:55:28
  person addressed. To be appropriate, it should adapt itself to the mind and
• 2:55:33
  tone of the interlocutor. And do not be a critic of words, or
• 2:55:39
  you will be taken for pedant, nor a tax gatherer of ideas, or
• 2:55:43
  men will avoid you, or at least sell their thoughts. Dear. In
• 2:55:48
  conversation, discretion is more important than eloquence number one hundred forty nine. Know
• 2:55:56
  how to put off ills on others. To have a shield against ill will
• 2:56:01
  is a great piece of skill in a ruler. It is not the resort
• 2:56:05
  of incapacity, as ill wishers imagine, but is due to the higher policy
• 2:56:11
  of having someone to receive the censure of the disaffected and the punishment of universal
• 2:56:16
  detestation. Everything cannot turn out well, nor can everyone be satisfied. It
• 2:56:24
  is well, therefore, even at the cost of our pride to have such
• 2:56:28
  escapegoat such a target for unlucky undertakings number one hundred fifty. Know to get
• 2:56:37
  your price for things their intrinsic value is not sufficient. For all do not
• 2:56:45
  bite at the kernel or look into the interior. Most go with the crowd
• 2:56:50
  and go because they see others go. It is a great stroke of art
• 2:56:54
  to bring things into repute at times by praising them. For praise arouses desires,
• 2:57:00
  at times by giving them a striking name, which is very useful for
• 2:57:03
  putting things at a premium, provided it is done without affectation. Again,
• 2:57:09
  it is generally an inducement to profess to supply only connoisseurs. For all think
• 2:57:13
  themselves such, and if not, the sense of want arouses the desire.
• 2:57:20
  Never call things easy or common. That makes them depreciated rather than made accessible.
• 2:57:26
  All rush after the unusual, which is more appetizing, both for the
• 2:57:31
  taste and for the intelligence. End of Section seventeen. Think beforehand today,
• 2:57:41
  for tomorrow, and even for many days. Hence, the greatest foresight consists
• 2:57:46
  in determining beforehand the time of trouble. For the provident there are no mischances,
• 2:57:54
  and for the careful no narrow escapes. We must not put off thought
• 2:57:58
  till win up to the tin and mire. Mature reflection can get over the
• 2:58:03
  most formidable difficulty. The pillow is a silent sibyl, and it is better
• 2:58:09
  to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards. Many act first
• 2:58:16
  and then think afterwards. That is, they think less of consequences than of
• 2:58:20
  excuses. Others think neither before nor after. The whole of life should be
• 2:58:28
  one course of thought, how not to miss the right path. Rumination and
• 2:58:33
  foresight enable one to determine the line of life. One two. Never have
• 2:58:39
  a companion who casts you in the shade. The more he does so,
• 2:58:46
  the last desirable a companion he is. The more he excels in quality,
• 2:58:50
  the more in repute. He will always play first fiddle and you second.
• 2:58:56
  If you get any consideration, it is only his leavings. The moon shines
• 2:59:03
  bright alone among the stars. When the sun rises, she becomes either invisible
• 2:59:09
  or imperceptible. Never join one that eclipses you, but rather one who sets
• 2:59:16
  you in a brighter light. By this means the cunning Fabula in Marshall was
• 2:59:22
  able to appear beautiful and brilliant owing to the ugliness and disorder of her companions.
• 2:59:30
  But one should as little imperil oneself by an evil companion as pay honor
• 2:59:35
  to another at the cost of one's own credit. When you are on the
• 2:59:39
  way to fortune, associate with the eminent, when arrived with the mediocre.
• 2:59:46
  One fifty three. Beware of entering where there is a great gap to be
• 2:59:52
  filled. But if you do it, be sure to surpass your predecessor.
• 2:59:58
  Merely to equal him requires twice his worth. As it is a fine stroke
• 3:00:03
  to arrange that our successor shall cause us to be wished back. So it
• 3:00:09
  is policy to see that our predecessor does not eclipse us. To fill a
• 3:00:16
  great gap is difficult, for the past always seems best. And to equal
• 3:00:22
  the predecessor is not enough, since he has the right of first possession.
• 3:00:28
  You must therefore possess additional claims to oust the other from his hold on public
• 3:00:35
  opinion. One fifty four. Do not believe or like lightly. Maturity of
• 3:00:43
  mind is best shown in slow belief. Lying is the usual thing, then
• 3:00:50
  let believe be unusual. He that is lightly led away soon falls into contempt.
• 3:00:58
  At the same time time, there is no necessity to betray your doubts
• 3:01:03
  in the good faith of others, for this adds insult to discourtesy, since
• 3:01:09
  you make out your informant to be either deceiver or deceived. Nor is this
• 3:01:15
  the only evil. Want of belief is the mark of the liar who suffers
• 3:01:20
  from two failings. He neither believes nor is believed. Suspension of judgment is
• 3:01:28
  prudent in a hero, the speaker can appeal to his original source of information.
• 3:01:35
  There is a similar kind of imprudence in liking too easily, for lies
• 3:01:41
  may be told by deeds as well as in words, and this deceit is
• 3:01:46
  more dangerous for practical life. One fifty five The art of getting into a
• 3:01:54
  passion. If possible, oppose vulgar importunity with proof in reflection, it will
• 3:02:01
  not be difficult for really prudent men. The first step towards getting into a
• 3:02:07
  passion is to announce that you are in a passion. By this means you
• 3:02:13
  begin the conflict with command over your temper, For one has to regulate one's
• 3:02:18
  passion to the exact point that is necessary, and no further This is the
• 3:02:26
  art of arts. In falling into and getting out of a rage, you
• 3:02:31
  should know how and when best to come to a stop. It is most
• 3:02:35
  difficult to halt while running at a double It is a great proof of wisdom
• 3:02:43
  to remain clear sighted during paroxysms of rage. Every excess of passion is a
• 3:02:50
  digression from rational conduct. But by this masterly policy, reason will never be
• 3:02:56
  transgressed, nor pass the zounds of its own centressis to keep control of passion,
• 3:03:05
  one must hold firm the reigns of attention. He who can do so
• 3:03:11
  will be the first man wise on horseback, and probably the last one.
• 3:03:16
  Fifty six. Select your friends. Only after passing the matriculation of experience and
• 3:03:24
  the examination of fortune will they be graduates. Not alone in a faction,
• 3:03:31
  but in discernment. Though this is the most important thing in life, it
• 3:03:37
  is the one least cared for. Intelligence brings friends to some chance to most.
• 3:03:45
  Yet a man is judged by his friends, for there was never agreement
• 3:03:50
  between wise men and fools. At the same time, to find pleasure in
• 3:03:54
  a man's society is no proof of near Friendship may come from the pleasantness of
• 3:04:01
  his company more than from trust in his capacity. There are some friendships legitimate
• 3:04:07
  others elicit the latter for pleasure, the former for their fecundity of ideas and
• 3:04:15
  motives. Few are the friends of a man's self, most those of his
• 3:04:22
  circumstances. The insight of a true friend is more useful than the good will
• 3:04:28
  of others. Therefore, gain them by choice, not by tens. A
• 3:04:33
  wise friend words off worries. A foolish one brings them about. But do
• 3:04:41
  not wish them too much luck, or you may lose them. One fifty
• 3:04:46
  seven. Do not make mistakes about character. That is the worst and yet
• 3:04:52
  easiest error, better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods.
• 3:04:58
  In dealing with men, more than with other things, it is necessary
• 3:05:03
  to look within. To know men is different from knowing things. It is
• 3:05:09
  profound philosophy. To sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character.
• 3:05:16
  Men must be studied as deeply as books. One fifty eight. Make use
• 3:05:24
  of your friends. This requires all the art of discretion. Some are good
• 3:05:31
  far off, some when near. Many are no good at conversation, but
• 3:05:35
  excellent as correspondents. For distance removes some failings which are unbearable in close proximity
• 3:05:43
  to them. Friends are for use even more than for pleasure, for they
• 3:05:50
  have the three qualities of the good, or as some say, of being
• 3:05:56
  in general, unity, goodness, and truth. For a friend is all
• 3:06:01
  in all. Few are worthy to be good friends, and even these become
• 3:06:07
  fewer because men do not know how to pick them out. To keep is
• 3:06:11
  more important than to make friends. Select those that will wear well. If
• 3:06:18
  they are new at first, it is some consolation they will become old.
• 3:06:22
  Absolutely the best are those well salted, though they may require soaking in the
• 3:06:28
  testing. There is no desert like living without friends. Friendship multiplies the good
• 3:06:35
  of life and devises the evil. Tis the soul remedy against misfortune, the
• 3:06:43
  very ventilation of the soul one fifty nine. Put up with fools. The
• 3:06:50
  wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increase in patience of folly.
• 3:07:00
  Knowledge is difficult to satisfy. The first great rule of life, according
• 3:07:05
  to Epictetis, is to put up with things. He makes that the moity
• 3:07:11
  of wisdom. To put up with all the varieties of folly, we need
• 3:07:16
  much patience. We often have to put up with most from those on whom
• 3:07:20
  we most depend a useful lesson in self control. Out of patience comes forth
• 3:07:28
  peace, the priceless boon, which is the happiness of the world. But
• 3:07:35
  let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there
• 3:07:43
  he will have to put up with himself one point sixty. Be careful in
• 3:07:48
  speaking with your rivals, from prudence with others. For the sake of appearance.
• 3:07:54
  There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
• 3:08:01
  Talk as if you were making your will. The fewer words the last litigation.
• 3:08:07
  In trivial matters, exercise yourself. For the more weighty matters of speech.
• 3:08:11
  Profound secrecy has some of the luster of the divine. He who speaks
• 3:08:18
  lightly soon falls or fails. End of Section eighteen. Know your pet faults.
• 3:08:28
  The most perfect of men has them, and is either wedded to them
• 3:08:31
  or has illicit relations with them. They are often faults of intellect, and
• 3:08:37
  the greater this is, the greater they are, or at least the more
• 3:08:41
  conspicuous. It is not so much that their possessor does not know them,
• 3:08:48
  he loves them, which is a double evil irrational affection. For avoidable faults.
• 3:08:54
  They are spots on perfection. They displease the onlooker as much as they
• 3:09:01
  please the possessor. Tis a gallant thing to get clear of them, and
• 3:09:05
  so give play to one's other qualities. For all men hit upon such a
• 3:09:11
  failing, and on going over your qualifications, they make a long stay at
• 3:09:16
  this blot and blacken it as deeply as possible, in order to cast your
• 3:09:24
  other talents into the shade. One six two. How to triumph over rivals
• 3:09:31
  and detractors. It is not enough to despise them, though this is often
• 3:09:37
  wise. A gallant bearing is the thing. One cannot praise a man too
• 3:09:43
  much who speaks well of them who speak ill of him. There is no
• 3:09:48
  more heroic vengeance than that of talents and services, which at once conquer and
• 3:09:54
  torment the envious. Every success is a further to of the cord round the
• 3:10:01
  neck of the ill affected, And an enemy's glory is the rival's hell.
• 3:10:07
  The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied wins applause.
• 3:10:15
  The immortality of his fame is the measure of the other's torture. The one
• 3:10:20
  lives in endless honor, the other in endless pain. The clearion of fame
• 3:10:28
  announces immortality to the one and death to the other, the slow death of
• 3:10:35
  envy long drawn out. One sixty three. Never, from sympathy with the
• 3:10:41
  unfortunate, involve yourself in his fate. One man's misfortune is another man's luck,
• 3:10:50
  for one cannot be lucky without many being unlucky. It is a peculiarity
• 3:10:56
  of the unfortunate to arouse people's good wins, who desire to compensate them for
• 3:11:03
  the blows of fortune with their useless favor. And it happens that one who
• 3:11:07
  is abhorred by all in prosperity is adored by all inadversity. Vengeance on the
• 3:11:16
  wing is exchanged for compassion of foot. Yet tis to be noticed how fate
• 3:11:22
  shuffles the cards. There are men who always consort with the unlucky, and
• 3:11:28
  he that yesterday flew high and happy, stands today miserable at their side.
• 3:11:35
  That argues nobility of soul, but not worldly wisdom. One sixty four.
• 3:11:43
  Throw straws in the air to find how things will be received, especially those
• 3:11:48
  whose reception or success is doubtful. One can thus be assured if its turning
• 3:11:54
  out well, and an opportunity is afforded for going on in earth earnest or
• 3:12:01
  withdrawing entirely. By trying men's intentions. In this way, the wise man
• 3:12:07
  knows on what ground he stands. This is the great rule of foresight.
• 3:12:11
  In asking, in desiring, and in ruling one sixty five wage war honorably.
• 3:12:22
  You may be obliged to wage war, but not to use poisoned arrows.
• 3:12:28
  Everyone must needs act as he is, not as others would make him
• 3:12:33
  to be. Gallantry in the battle of life wins all men's praise. One
• 3:12:39
  should fight so as to conquer, not alone by force, but by the
• 3:12:43
  way it is used. A mean victory brings no glory, but rather disgrace.
• 3:12:52
  Honor always has the upper hand. An honorable man never uses forbidden weapons,
• 3:12:58
  such as using a friendship that's ended for the purpose of a hatred just
• 3:13:03
  begun. A confidence must never be used for a vengeance. The slightest taint
• 3:13:11
  of treason tarnishes the good name in men of honor, the smallest traits of
• 3:13:18
  meanness repels the noble, and the ignoble should be miles apart. Be able
• 3:13:26
  to boast that if gallantry, generosity, and fidelity were lost in the world,
• 3:13:33
  men would be able to find them again in your own breast one sixty
• 3:13:37
  six. Distinguish the men of words from the men of deeds. Discrimination here
• 3:13:46
  is as important as in the case of friends, persons, and employments,
• 3:13:50
  which have all many varieties. Bad words, even without bad deeds, are
• 3:13:56
  bad enough good words. Bad deeds are words. One cannot dine off words
• 3:14:03
  which are wind nor of politeness, which is but polite deceit. To catch
• 3:14:11
  birds with a mirror is the ideal snare. It is the vein alone who
• 3:14:16
  take their wages in windy words. Words should be the pledges of work,
• 3:14:24
  and like pawn tickets have their market price. Trees that bear leaves but not
• 3:14:31
  fruit have usually no pith. Know them for what they are of no use
• 3:14:37
  except for shade one sixty seven. Know how to take your own part in
• 3:14:45
  great crises. There is no better companion than a bold heart, and if
• 3:14:50
  it becomes weak, it must be strengthened from the neighboring parts. Worries die
• 3:14:56
  away before a man who asserts himself. One must not surrendered to misfortune,
• 3:15:01
  or else it would become intolerable. Many men do not help themselves in their
• 3:15:07
  troubles, and double their weight by not knowing how to bear them. He
• 3:15:11
  that knows himself knows how to strengthen his weakness. And the wise man conquers
• 3:15:18
  everything, even the stars. In their courses one sixty eight. Do not
• 3:15:24
  indulge in the eccentricities of folly like vain, presumptuous, egotistical, untrustworthy,
• 3:15:33
  capricious, obstinate, fanciful, theatrical, whimsical, inquisitive, paradoxical, sectarian
• 3:15:43
  people, and all kinds of one sided persons. They are all monstrosities of
• 3:15:48
  impertinence. All deformity of mind is more obnoxious than that of the body,
• 3:15:54
  because it contravenes a higher beauty. Yet who can assist such a complete confusion
• 3:16:01
  of mind? Where self control is wanting, there is no room for others
• 3:16:07
  guidance. Instead of paying attention to other people's real derision, men of this
• 3:16:13
  kind blind themselves with the unfounded assumption of their imaginary applause one sixty nine.
• 3:16:24
  Be more careful not to miss once than to hit a hundred times. No
• 3:16:28
  one looks at the blazing sun all gaze when he is eclipsed. The common
• 3:16:35
  talk does not reckon what goes right, but what goes wrong. Evil report
• 3:16:41
  carries farther than any applause. Many men are not known to the world till
• 3:16:46
  they have left it. All the exploits of men taken together are not enough
• 3:16:52
  to wipe out a single small blemish, avoid therefore falling into air, seing
• 3:17:00
  that ill will notices every error and no success one seventy. In all things,
• 3:17:09
  keep something in reserve'tis a sure means of keeping up your importance.
• 3:17:15
  A man should not employ all his capacity and power at once and on every
• 3:17:20
  occasion. Even in knowledge. There should be a rear guard, so that
• 3:17:26
  your resources are doubled. One must always have something to resort to when there
• 3:17:31
  is fear of a defeat. The reserve is of more importance than the attacking
• 3:17:37
  force, for it is distinguished for valor and reputation. Prudence always sets the
• 3:17:45
  work with assurance of safety. In this matter, the pick and paradox holds
• 3:17:50
  good that the half is more than the whole. End of Section nineteen.
• 3:17:58
  Waste not influence the great. As friends are for great occasions. One should
• 3:18:05
  not make use of great confidence for little things, for that is to waste
• 3:18:11
  a favor. The sheet anchor should be reserved for the last extremity. If
• 3:18:16
  you use up the great, for little ends what remains afterwards. Nothing is
• 3:18:22
  more valuable than a protector, and nothing costs more nowadays than a favor.
• 3:18:28
  It can make or unmake a whole world. It can even give sense and
• 3:18:35
  take it away. As nature and fame are favorable to the wise, so
• 3:18:41
  luck is generally envious of them. It is therefore more important to keep the
• 3:18:48
  favor of the mighty than goods and chattels. One hundred and seventy two.
• 3:18:56
  Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose, for thereby you enter
• 3:19:03
  into an unequal conflict. The other enters without anxiety. Having lost everything,
• 3:19:11
  including shame, he has no further lost to fear. He therefore resorts to
• 3:19:16
  all kinds of insolence. One should never expose a valuable reputation to so terrible
• 3:19:24
  a risk, lest what has cost years to gain may be lost in a
• 3:19:30
  moment, since a single slight may wipe out much sweat. A man of
• 3:19:35
  honor and responsibility has a reputation because he has much to lose. He balances
• 3:19:43
  his own and the other's reputation. He only enters into the contest with the
• 3:19:50
  greatest caution, and then goes to work with such circumspection, that he gives
• 3:19:56
  time to prudence to retire in time and bring his reputation under cover, For
• 3:20:03
  even by victory, he cannot gain what he has lost by exposing himself to
• 3:20:09
  the chances of loss. One hundred seventy three. Do not be glass in
• 3:20:16
  intercourse, still less in friendship. Some break very easily, and thereby show
• 3:20:24
  their want of consistency. They attribute to themselves imaginary offenses and to others oppressive
• 3:20:33
  intentions. Their feelings are even more sensitive than the eye itself, and must
• 3:20:41
  not be touched in jest or in earnest motes offend them. They need not
• 3:20:46
  wait for beams. Those who consort with them must treat them with the greatest
• 3:20:52
  delicacy. Have regard to their sensitiveness, and watch their demeanor, since the
• 3:21:00
  slightest slight arouses their annoyance. They are mostly very egoistic slaves of their moods,
• 3:21:09
  for the sake of which they cast everything aside. They are the worshipers
• 3:21:13
  of punctilio. On the other hand, the disposition of the true lover is
• 3:21:20
  firm and enduring, so that it may be said that the amant is half
• 3:21:26
  adamant one hundred and seventy four. Do not live in a hurry. To
• 3:21:35
  know how to separate things is to know how to enjoy them. Many finish
• 3:21:39
  their fortune sooner than their life. They run through pleasures without enjoying them,
• 3:21:46
  and would like to go back when they find they have overleaped the mark postilions
• 3:21:54
  of life. They increase the ordinary pace of life by the hurry of their
• 3:21:58
  own. They devour more in one day than they can digest in a whole
• 3:22:05
  lifetime. They live in advance of pleasures, eat up the years beforehand,
• 3:22:11
  and by their hurry, get through everything too soon. Even in the search
• 3:22:18
  for knowledge, there should be moderation, lest we learn things better left unknown.
• 3:22:26
  We have more days to live through than pleasures. Be slow in enjoyment,
• 3:22:31
  quick at work. For men see work ended with pleasure, pleasure ended
• 3:22:39
  with regret one hundred and seventy five. A solid man, one who is,
• 3:22:48
  finds no satisfaction in those that are not. Tis a pitiable eminence that
• 3:22:56
  is not well founded. Not all our men that seem to be so.
• 3:23:01
  Some are sources of deceit, impregnated by chimeras, they give birth to impositions.
• 3:23:09
  Others are like them so far that they take more pleasure in a lie
• 3:23:16
  because it promises much than in the truth because it performs little. But in
• 3:23:22
  the end these caprices come to a bad end, for they have no solid
• 3:23:28
  foundation. Only truth can give true reputation. Only reality can be of real
• 3:23:35
  profit. One deceit needs many others, and so the whole house is built
• 3:23:43
  in the air and must soon come to the ground. Unfounded things never reach
• 3:23:50
  old age. They promise too much to be much trusted, just as that
• 3:23:56
  cannot be true, which proves too much. One hundred and seventy six have
• 3:24:05
  knowledge or know those that have knowledge. Without intelligence, either one's own or
• 3:24:13
  another's, true life is impossible. But many do not know that they do
• 3:24:18
  not know, and many think they know when they know nothing. Failings of
• 3:24:24
  the intelligence are encouragible, since those who do not know do not know themselves
• 3:24:33
  and cannot therefore seek what they lack. Many would be wise if they did
• 3:24:39
  not think themselves wise. Thus it happens that though the oracles of wisdom are
• 3:24:46
  rare, they are rarely used to seek. Advice does not lessen greatness or
• 3:24:54
  argue incapacity. On the contrary, to ask, advice proves you are well
• 3:25:01
  advised. Take counsel with reason if you do not wish to court defeat one
• 3:25:11
  hundred and seventy seven. Avoid familiarities in intercourse. Neither use them nor permit
• 3:25:20
  them. He that is familiar loses any superiority his influence gives him, and
• 3:25:26
  so loses respect. The stars keep their brilliance by not making themselves common.
• 3:25:35
  The divine demands decorum. Every familiarity breeds contempt in human affairs, the more
• 3:25:46
  a man shows, the less he has. For in open communication, you
• 3:25:50
  communicate the failings that reserve might keep under cover. Familiarity is never desiredable with
• 3:26:01
  superiors because it is dangerous with inferiors, because it is unbecoming. Least of
• 3:26:09
  all with the common herd, who become insolent from sheer folly. They mistake
• 3:26:16
  favor shown them for need felt of them. Familiarity trenches on vulgarity one hundred
• 3:26:26
  and seventy eight. Trust your heart, especially when it has been proved.
• 3:26:33
  Never deny it a hearing. It is a kind of house oracle that often
• 3:26:39
  foretells the most important. Many have perished because they feared their own heart.
• 3:26:46
  But of what use is it to fear it without finding a better remedy.
• 3:26:52
  Many are endowed by nature with a heart so true that it always warns them
• 3:26:58
  of a minas fortune and wards off its effects. It is unwise to seek
• 3:27:05
  evils unless you seek to conquer them. One hundred and seventy nine. Reticence
• 3:27:15
  is the seal of capacity. A breast without a secret is an open letter.
• 3:27:22
  Where there is a solid foundation, secrets can be kept profound. There
• 3:27:28
  are spacious sellars where things of moment may be hid. Reticence springs from self
• 3:27:35
  control, and to control oneself in this is a true triumph. You must
• 3:27:43
  pay ransom to each you tell. The security of wisdom consists in temperance in
• 3:27:50
  the inner man. The risk that reticence runs lies in the cross questioning of
• 3:27:56
  others, in the use of contradiction to worm out secrets, in the darts
• 3:28:03
  of irony. To avoid these, the prudent becomes more reticent than before.
• 3:28:11
  What must be done need not be said, and what must be said need
• 3:28:18
  not be done. One hundred and eighty. Never guide the enemy to what
• 3:28:26
  he has to do. The fool never does what the wise judge wise,
• 3:28:33
  because he does not follow up the suitable means. He that is discreet follows
• 3:28:41
  still less a plan laid out or even carried out by another. One has
• 3:28:48
  to discuss matters from both points of view, turn it over on both sides.
• 3:28:56
  Judgments vary. Let him that has not decided attend rather to what is
• 3:29:03
  possible than what is probable. End of Section twenty. The truth, but
• 3:29:11
  not the whole truth. Nothing demands more caution than the truth tis the lancet
• 3:29:18
  of the heart. It requires as much to tell the truth as to conceal
• 3:29:24
  it. A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity. The deceit is
• 3:29:31
  regarded as treason, and the deceiver as a traitor, which is worse.
• 3:29:35
  Yet, not all truths can be spoken, some for our own sake,
• 3:29:41
  others for the sake of others one hundred and eighty two. A grain of
• 3:29:46
  boldness in everything'tis an important piece of prudence. You must moderate your opinion of
• 3:29:54
  others so that you may not think so high of them as to fear them.
• 3:29:58
  The imagination should never yield to the heart. Many appear great till you
• 3:30:05
  know them personally, and then dealing with them does more to disillusionize than to
• 3:30:09
  raise esteem. No one o'er steps the narrow bounds of humanity. All have
• 3:30:15
  their weaknesses, either in heart or head. Dignity gives apparent authority, which
• 3:30:20
  is rarely accompanied by personal power, for fortune often redresses the height of office
• 3:30:28
  by the inferiority of the holder. The imagination always jumps too soon and paints
• 3:30:33
  things in brighter colors than the real. It thinks things not as they are,
• 3:30:39
  but as it wishes them to be. Attentive experience, disillusioned in the
• 3:30:43
  past, soon corrects all that. Yet, if wisdom should not be timorous,
• 3:30:48
  neither should folly be rash. And if self reliance helps the ignorant,
• 3:30:56
  how much more the brave and wise one hundred and eighty three. Do not
• 3:31:03
  hold your views too firmly. Every fool is fully convinced, and every one
• 3:31:09
  fully persuaded is a fool. The more erroneous his judgment, the more firmly
• 3:31:15
  he holds it, even in cases of obvious certainty. It is fine to
• 3:31:20
  yield. Our reasons for holding the view cannot escape notice. Our courtesy in
• 3:31:26
  yielding must be the more recognized. Our obstinacy loses more than our victory yields.
• 3:31:33
  That is not to champion truth, but rather rudeness. There be some
• 3:31:39
  heads of iron most difficult to turn. Add caprice to obstinacy, and the
• 3:31:43
  sum is a wearisome fool. Steadfastness should be for the will, not for
• 3:31:50
  the mind. Yet there are exceptions where one would fail twice, owning oneself
• 3:31:56
  wrong both in judgment and in the execution of it. One hundred and eighty
• 3:32:01
  four. Do not be ceremonious, even in a king affectation in this was
• 3:32:09
  renowned for its eccentricity. To be punctilious is to be a bore. Yet
• 3:32:15
  whole nations have this peculiarity. The garb of folly is woven out of such
• 3:32:20
  things. Such folk are worshipers of their own dignity, yet show how little
• 3:32:26
  it is justified, since they fear that the least thing can destroy it.
• 3:32:31
  It is right to demand respect, but not to be considered a master of
• 3:32:37
  ceremonies. Yet it is true that a man to do without ceremonies must possess
• 3:32:43
  supreme qualities neither affect nor despise etiquette. He cannot be great who is great
• 3:32:50
  at such little things. One hundred and eighty five. Never stake your credit
• 3:32:58
  on a single caste, for if it miscarries the damage is irreparable. It
• 3:33:03
  may easy happen that a man should fail once, especially at first. Circumstances
• 3:33:09
  are not always favorable. Hence they say every dog has his day. Always
• 3:33:16
  connect your second attempt with your first. Whether it succeed or fail, the
• 3:33:20
  first will redeem the second. Always have resort to better means, and appeal
• 3:33:26
  to more resources. Things depend on all sorts of chances. That is why
• 3:33:31
  the satisfaction of success is so rare. One hundred and eighty six recognize faults,
• 3:33:41
  However, high placed integrity cannot mistake vice, even when clothed in brocade,
• 3:33:48
  or perchance crowned with gold, but will not be able to hide its
• 3:33:52
  character. For all that slavery does not lose its vileness, however it vaunt
• 3:33:58
  the nobility of its laws. Lord and master. Vices may stand in high
• 3:34:03
  place, but are low. For all that men can see that many a
• 3:34:07
  great man has great faults, yet they do not see that he is not
• 3:34:11
  great because of them. The example of the great is so specious that it
• 3:34:16
  even glosses over viciousness, till it may so affect those who flatter it that
• 3:34:22
  they do not notice that what they gloss over in the great they abominate in
• 3:34:26
  the lower classes. One hundred eighty seven. Do pleasant things yourself, unpleasant
• 3:34:35
  things through others. By the one course, you gain good will. By
• 3:34:41
  the other you avoid hatred. A great man takes more pleasure in doing a
• 3:34:45
  favor than in receiving one. It is the privilege of his generous nature.
• 3:34:50
  One cannot easily cause pain to another without suffering pain, either from sympathy or
• 3:34:56
  from remorse. In high place, one can only work by means of rewards
• 3:35:01
  and punishment. So grant the first yourself, inflict the other through others.
• 3:35:09
  Have some one against whom the weapons of discontent, hatred, and slander may
• 3:35:13
  be directed. For the rage of the mob is like that of a dog.
• 3:35:18
  Missing the cause of its pain, it turns to bite the whip itself,
• 3:35:22
  and though this is not the real culprit, it has to pay the
• 3:35:26
  penalty. One eighty eight. Be the bearer of praise. This increases our
• 3:35:35
  credit for good taste, since it shows that we have learnt elsewhere to know
• 3:35:39
  what is excellent, and hence how to prize it. In the present company.
• 3:35:45
  It gives material for conversation and for imitation, and encourages praiseworthy exertions.
• 3:35:50
  We do homage, besides, in a very delicate way to the excellences before
• 3:35:56
  us. Others do the opposite. They accompany their talk with a sneer and
• 3:36:01
  fancy. They flatter those present by belittling the absent. This may serve them
• 3:36:05
  with superficial people who do not notice how cunning it is to speak ill of
• 3:36:11
  every one to every one else. Many pursue the plan of valuing more highly
• 3:36:16
  than mediocrities of the day than the most distinguished exploits of the past. Let
• 3:36:22
  the cautius penetrate through these subtleties, and let him not be dismayed by the
• 3:36:28
  exaggerations of the one, or made over confident by the flatteries of the other,
• 3:36:35
  knowing that both act in the same way, by different methods, adapting
• 3:36:39
  their talk to the company they are in one hundred and eighty nine. Utilize
• 3:36:46
  another's wants. The greater his wants, the greater the turn of the screw.
• 3:36:52
  Philosophers say privation is nonexistent. Statesmen say it is all embracing, and
• 3:36:58
  they are right. Many make ladders to attain their ends out of wants of
• 3:37:03
  others. They make use of the opportunity and tantalize the appetite by pointing out
• 3:37:07
  the difficulty of satisfaction. The energy of desire promises more than the inertia of
• 3:37:15
  possession. The passion of desire increases with every increase of opposition. It is
• 3:37:20
  a subtle point to satisfy the desire and yet preserve the dependence one hundred ninety.
• 3:37:30
  Find consolation in all things. Even the useless may find it in being
• 3:37:35
  immortal, no trouble without compensation. Fools are held to be lucky, and
• 3:37:41
  the good luck of the ugly is proverbial. Be worth little, and you
• 3:37:46
  will live long. It is the cracked glass that never gets broken, but
• 3:37:50
  worries one with its durability. It seems that fortune envies the great, so
• 3:37:56
  it equalizes things by giving long life to the useless, a short one to
• 3:38:01
  the important. Those who bear the burden comes soon to grief, while those
• 3:38:05
  who of no importance live on and on. In one case it appears so,
• 3:38:11
  in the other it is so. The unlucky thinks he has been forgotten
• 3:38:16
  by both death and fortune. End of Section twenty one. Do not take
• 3:38:24
  payment in politeness, for it is a kind of fraud. Some do not
• 3:38:30
  need the herbs of Thessaly for their magic, for they can enchant fools by
• 3:38:33
  the grace of their salute. Theirs is the bank of elegance, and they
• 3:38:39
  pay with the wind of fine words. To promise everything is to promise nothing.
• 3:38:45
  Promises are the pitfalls of fools. The true courtesy is performance of duty.
• 3:38:52
  Thus, furious, and especially the useless, is deceit. It is
• 3:38:56
  not respect, but rather a means to power. Obaissance is paid not to
• 3:39:01
  the man, but to his means, and compliments are offered not to the
• 3:39:07
  qualities that are recognized, but to the advantages that are desired. One hundred
• 3:39:13
  and ninety two Peaceful life, a long life to live. Let live.
• 3:39:20
  Peacemakers not only live, they rule life. Hear, see and be silent.
• 3:39:26
  A day without dispute brings sleep without dreams, long life, and a
• 3:39:33
  pleasant one. Is life enough for two. That is the fruit of peace.
• 3:39:39
  He has all that makes nothing of what is nothing to him. There
• 3:39:43
  is no greater perversity than to take everything to heart. There is equal folly
• 3:39:50
  in troubling our heart about what does not concern us, and in not taking
• 3:39:54
  to heart what does one hundred and ninety three Watch him that begins with another's
• 3:40:01
  to end with his own. Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning be intent
• 3:40:07
  on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and
• 3:40:13
  unless you possess the key to their motives, you may, at any moment
• 3:40:16
  be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire, to the damage of
• 3:40:20
  your own fingers. One hundred and ninety four. Have reasonable views of yourself
• 3:40:28
  and of your affairs. Especially in the beginning of life. Everyone has a
• 3:40:33
  high opinion of himself, especially those who have least ground for it. Everyone
• 3:40:39
  dreams of his good luck and thinks himself a wonder. Hope gives rise to
• 3:40:45
  extravagant promises which experience does not fulfill. Such idle imaginations merely serve as a
• 3:40:52
  wellspring of annoyance when disillusion comes with the true reality. The wise man and
• 3:40:58
  his pains such errors. He may always hope for the best, but he
• 3:41:03
  always expects the worst, so as to receive what comes with equanimity. True,
• 3:41:09
  it is wise to aim high so as to hit your mark, but
• 3:41:13
  not so high that you miss your mission. At the very beginning of life.
• 3:41:18
  This correction of the ideas is necessary, because before experience comes expectation is
• 3:41:24
  sure to soar too high. The best panacea against folly is prudence. If
• 3:41:31
  a man knows the true sphere of his activity and position, he can reconcile
• 3:41:35
  his ideas with reality. One hundred and ninety five. Know how to appreciate.
• 3:41:45
  There is none who cannot teach somebody something, And there is none so
• 3:41:48
  excellent. But he is excelled to know how to make use of everyone is
• 3:41:54
  useful. Knowledge Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good and
• 3:41:58
  ease each, and know how hard it is to make anything good. Fools
• 3:42:03
  depreciate all men, not recognizing the good and selecting the bad. One hundred
• 3:42:11
  and ninety six. Know your ruling star. None so helpless as not to
• 3:42:16
  have one. If he is unlucky, that is because he does not know
• 3:42:20
  it. Some stand high in the favor of princes and potentates, without knowing
• 3:42:26
  why or wherefore, except that good luck itself has granted them favor on easy
• 3:42:31
  terms, merely requiring them to aid it with a little exertion. Others find
• 3:42:37
  favor with the wise. One man is better received by one nation than by
• 3:42:41
  another, or is more welcome in one city than in another. He finds
• 3:42:46
  more luck in one office or position than another. And all this, though
• 3:42:50
  his qualifications are equal or even identical. Luck shuffles the cards. How and
• 3:42:56
  when she will let each man know his life luck as well as his talents,
• 3:43:01
  For on this depends whether he loses or wins. Follow your guiding star
• 3:43:07
  and help it without mistaking any other for it, for that would be to
• 3:43:11
  miss the North, though its neighbor, the poll star calls us to it
• 3:43:16
  with a voice of thunder one hundred and ninety seven. Do not carry fools
• 3:43:22
  on your back. He that does not know a fool when he sees him
• 3:43:26
  is one himself. Still more he that knows him but will not keep clear
• 3:43:31
  of him. They are dangerous company and ruinous confidants. Even though their own
• 3:43:37
  caution and others care keeps them in bounds for a time, Still at length
• 3:43:43
  they are sure to do or to say some foolishness, which is all the
• 3:43:46
  greater for being kept so long in stock. They cannot help another's credit,
• 3:43:52
  who have none of their own. They are most unlucky, which is the
• 3:43:56
  nemesis of fools, and they have to pay for one thing or the other.
• 3:44:01
  There is only one thing which is not so bad about them, And
• 3:44:03
  this is that though they can be of no use to the wise, they
• 3:44:07
  can be of much use to them as sign posts or as warnings. One
• 3:44:13
  hundred and ninety eight Know how to transplant yourself. There are nations with whom
• 3:44:20
  one must cross their borders to make one's value felt, especially in great posts.
• 3:44:26
  Their native land is always a stepmother to great talents. Envy flourishes there
• 3:44:31
  on its native soil, and they remember one's small beginnings rather than the greatness
• 3:44:35
  one has reached. A needle is appreciated that comes from one end of the
• 3:44:41
  world to the other, and a piece of painted glass might outviy the diamond
• 3:44:46
  in value if it comes from Afar. Everything foreign is respected, partly because
• 3:44:52
  it comes from Afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect. We
• 3:44:56
  have seen persons once the laughing stock of their village, and now the wonder
• 3:45:01
  of the whole world, honored by their fellow countrymen and by the foreigners among
• 3:45:05
  whom they dwell, by the latter because they come from Afar, and by
• 3:45:09
  the former because they are seen from Afar. The statue on the altar is
• 3:45:15
  never reverenced by him who knew it as a trunk in the garden one hundred
• 3:45:20
  ninety nine. To find a proper place by merit, not by presumption.
• 3:45:26
  The true road to respect is through merit, and if industry accompany merit,
• 3:45:31
  the path becomes shorter. Integrity alone is not sufficient. Push and insistence is
• 3:45:37
  degrading. For things arrive by That means so be sprinkled with dust that the
• 3:45:43
  discredit destroys reputation. The true way is the middle, one half way between
• 3:45:48
  deserving a place and pushing oneself into it two hundred. Leave something to wish
• 3:45:56
  for so as not to be miserable from very happiness. The body must respire
• 3:46:03
  and the soul aspire. If one possessed all, all would be disillusion and
• 3:46:07
  discontent. Even in knowledge, there should always be something left to know in
• 3:46:13
  order to arouse curiosity and excite hope. Surfeits of happiness are fatal in giving
• 3:46:20
  assistance. It is a piece of policy not to satisfy entirely. If there
• 3:46:26
  is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear. An unhappy state
• 3:46:30
  of happiness. When desire dies, fear is born. End of section twenty
• 3:46:39
  two. They are all fools who seem so. Besides half the rest folly
• 3:46:45
  arose with the world, and if there be any wisdom, it is folly
• 3:46:48
  compared with the divine. But the greatest fool is he who thinks he is
• 3:46:54
  not one, and all others are to be wise. It is not enough
• 3:46:58
  to seem wise, least of all to one's self. He knows who does
• 3:47:03
  not think that he knows? And he does not see who does not see
• 3:47:07
  that others see. Though all the world is full of fools, there is
• 3:47:11
  none that thinks himself one, or even suspects the fact. Two hundred and
• 3:47:16
  two. Words and deeds make the perfect man. One should speak well and
• 3:47:24
  act honorably. The one is an excellence of the head, the other of
• 3:47:28
  the heart, and both arise from nobility of soul. Words are the shadows
• 3:47:33
  of deeds. The former are feminine, the latter masculine. It is more
• 3:47:39
  important to be renowned than to convey renown. Speech is easy action. Hard
• 3:47:46
  actions are the stuff of life. Words its frippery. Eminent deeds endure striking
• 3:47:52
  words. Pass away actions are the fruit of thought. If this is wise,
• 3:47:58
  they are effective. Two hundred and three. Know the great men of
• 3:48:03
  your age. They are not many. There is one phoenix in the whole
• 3:48:09
  world, one great general, one perfect orator, one true philosopher in a
• 3:48:15
  century, a really illustrious king in several mediocrates are as numerous as they are
• 3:48:22
  worthless. Eminent greatness is rare in every respect, since it needs complete perfection,
• 3:48:28
  and the higher the species, the more difficult is the highest rank in
• 3:48:31
  it. Many have claimed the title great, like Caesar and Alexander, but
• 3:48:37
  in vain, for without great deeds the title is a mere breath of air.
• 3:48:41
  There have been few senecas and fame records, but one Apellies two hundred
• 3:48:50
  and four. Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as
• 3:48:56
  if they were easy. In the one case, that confidence may not fall
• 3:49:01
  asleep, in the other, that it may not be dismayed. For a
• 3:49:05
  thing to remain undone, nothing more is needed than to think it done.
• 3:49:11
  On the other hand, patient industry overcomes impossibilities. Great undertakings are not to
• 3:49:18
  be brooded over, lest their difficulty, when seen, causes despair. Two
• 3:49:24
  hundred and five know how to play the card of contempt. It is a
• 3:49:31
  shrewd way of getting things you want by affecting to depreciate them. Generally,
• 3:49:35
  they are not to be had when sought for, but fall into one's hands
• 3:49:39
  when one is not looking for them. As all mundane things are but shadows
• 3:49:46
  of the things eternal, they share with shadows this quality that they flee from
• 3:49:50
  him who follows them, and follow him that flees from them. Contempt is
• 3:49:56
  besides the most subtle form of revenge. It is a fixed rule with the
• 3:50:03
  wise never to defend themselves with the pen, for such defense always leaves a
• 3:50:07
  stain, and does more to glorify one's opponent than to punish his offense.
• 3:50:13
  It is a trick of the worthless to stand forth as opponents of great men,
• 3:50:18
  so as to win notoriety by a roundabout way, which they would never
• 3:50:22
  do by the straight road of merit. There are many we would not have
• 3:50:26
  heard of if their eminent opponents had not taken notice of them. There is
• 3:50:31
  no revenge like oblivion, through which they are buried in the dust of their
• 3:50:37
  unworthiness. Audacious persons hope to make themselves eternally famous by setting fire to one
• 3:50:43
  of the wonders of the world and of the ages. The art of reproving
• 3:50:48
  scandal is to take no notice of it. To combat it damages our own
• 3:50:54
  case even if credited, it causes discredit and is a source of satisfaction to
• 3:50:58
  opponent. For this shadow of a stain dulls the luster of our fame,
• 3:51:05
  even if it cannot altogether deaden it. Two hundred and six. Know that
• 3:51:11
  there are vulgar natures everywhere, even in Corinth itself, even in the highest
• 3:51:16
  families. Everyone may try the experiment within his own gaits. But there is
• 3:51:22
  also such a thing as vulgar opposition to vulgarity, which is worse. This
• 3:51:28
  special kind shares all the qualities of the common kind, just as bits of
• 3:51:31
  a broken glass. But this kind is still more pernicious. It speaks folly,
• 3:51:37
  blames impertinently, is a disciple of ignorance, a patron of folly,
• 3:51:41
  and past master of scandal. You need not notice what it says, still
• 3:51:46
  less what it thinks. It is important to know vulgarity in order to avoid
• 3:51:52
  it, whether it is subjective or objective. For all folly is vulgarity,
• 3:51:58
  and the vulgar consists of fools two hundred and seven. Be moderate, one
• 3:52:07
  has to consider the chance of a mischance. The impulses of the passions cause
• 3:52:11
  prudence to slip and there is the risk of ruin. A moment of wrath
• 3:52:16
  or of pleasure carries you on farther than many hours of calm, and often
• 3:52:22
  a short diversion may put a whole life to shame. The cunning of others
• 3:52:28
  uses such moments of temptation to search the recesses of the mind. They use
• 3:52:33
  thumbscrews as are wont to test the best caution. Moderation serves as a counterplot,
• 3:52:41
  especially in sudden emergencies. Much thought is needed to prevent a passion taking
• 3:52:46
  the bit in the teeth, And he is doubly wise? Who is wise
• 3:52:50
  on horseback? He who knows the danger may with care pursue his journey.
• 3:52:56
  Light as a word may appear to him who throws it up out it may
• 3:53:01
  import much to him that hears it and ponders on it. Two hundred and
• 3:53:05
  eight. Do not die of the fool's disease. The wise generally die after
• 3:53:13
  they have lost their reason, fools before they have found it. To die
• 3:53:18
  of the fool's disease is to die of too much thought. Some die because
• 3:53:24
  they think and feel too much. Others live because they do not think and
• 3:53:28
  feel. These are fools because they do not die of sorrow the others because
• 3:53:35
  they do. A fool is he that dies of too much knowledge. Thus
• 3:53:41
  some die because they are too knowing, others because they are not knowing enough.
• 3:53:46
  Yet, though many die like fools, few die fools. Two hundred
• 3:53:52
  and nine. Keep yourself free from common follies. This is a special stroke
• 3:54:01
  of policy. They are of special power because they are general, so that
• 3:54:05
  many who would not be led away by any individual folly cannot escape the universal
• 3:54:11
  failing. Among these are to be counted the common prejudice that anyone is satisfied
• 3:54:16
  with his fortune, however great, or unsatisfied with his intellect, however poor
• 3:54:22
  it is, or again that each being discontented with his own lot envies that
• 3:54:28
  of others. Or further that persons of today praise the things of yesterday,
• 3:54:33
  and those here the things there. Everything past seems best, and everything distant
• 3:54:39
  is more valued. He is as great a fool that laughs at all as
• 3:54:43
  he that weeps at all two hundred and ten. Know how to play the
• 3:54:50
  card of truth tis dangerous, Yet a good man cannot avoid speaking it.
• 3:54:58
  But great skill is needed here. The most expert doctors of the soul pay
• 3:55:03
  great attention to the means of sweetening the pill of truth, for when it
• 3:55:09
  deals with the destroying of illusion, it is the quintessence of bitterness. A
• 3:55:16
  pleasant manner has here an opportunity for a display of skill. With the same
• 3:55:20
  truth, it can flatter one and fell another to the ground. Matters of
• 3:55:26
  today should be treated as if they were long past. For those who can
• 3:55:31
  understand, A word is sufficient, and if it does not suffice, it
• 3:55:35
  is a case for silence. Princes must not be cured with bitter drafts.
• 3:55:43
  It is therefore desirable in their case to gild the pill of disillusion. End
• 3:55:50
  of Section twenty three. In heaven, all is bliss in hell, all
• 3:55:56
  misery on earth. Between the two both won one thing and the other.
• 3:56:01
  We stand between the two extremes, and therefore share both. Fate varies.
• 3:56:07
  All is not good luck, nor all mischance. This world is merely zero
• 3:56:11
  by itself, it is of no value, But with Heaven in front of
• 3:56:16
  it, it means much. Indifference at its ups and downs is prudent.
• 3:56:20
  Nor is there any novelty for the wise. Our life gets as complicated as
• 3:56:26
  a comedy as it goes on, but the complications get gradually resolved, see
• 3:56:31
  that the curtain comes down on a good denouement. Two hundred and twelve.
• 3:56:37
  Keep to yourself the final touches of your art. This is a maxim of
• 3:56:43
  the great masters who pride themselves on this subtlety in teaching their pupils. One
• 3:56:48
  must always remain superior, remain master. One must teach an art artfully.
• 3:56:56
  The source of knowledge need not be pointed out, no more than that of
• 3:57:00
  By this means, a man preserves the respect and the dependence of others.
• 3:57:05
  In amusing and teaching, you must keep to the rule, keep up expectation,
• 3:57:09
  and advance in perfection. To keep a reserve is a great rule for
• 3:57:13
  life and for success, especially for those in high place two hundred and thirteen.
• 3:57:22
  Know how to contradict a chief means of finding things out to embarrass others
• 3:57:28
  without being embarrassed. The true thumb screw. It brings the passions into play.
• 3:57:33
  Tepid incredulity acts as an emetic on secrets. It is the key to
• 3:57:39
  a locked up breast, and with great subtlety, makes a double trial of
• 3:57:43
  both mind and will. A slight appreciation of another's mysterious word sends out the
• 3:57:48
  profoundest secrets. Some sweet bait brings them into the mouth till they fall from
• 3:57:56
  the tongue and are caught in the net of astute deceit. By reserving your
• 3:58:01
  attention, the other becomes less attentive and lets his thoughts appear, while otherwise
• 3:58:07
  his heart were inscrutable. An affected doubt is the subtlest picklock that curiosity can
• 3:58:13
  use to find out what it wants to know. Also, in learning,
• 3:58:18
  it is a subtle plan of the pupil to contradict the master, who thereupon
• 3:58:22
  takes pains to explain the truth more thoroughly and with more force, so that
• 3:58:26
  a moderate contradiction produces complete instruction two hundred and fourteen. Do not turn one
• 3:58:35
  blunder into two. It is quite usual to commit four others in order to
• 3:58:41
  remedy one, or to excuse one piece of impertinence by still another. Folly
• 3:58:46
  is either related to or identical with the family of lies, for in both
• 3:58:50
  cases it needs many to support one. The worst of a bad case is
• 3:58:54
  having to fight it, and worse than the ill itself is not being able
• 3:58:58
  to conceal it. The annuity of one failing serves to support many others.
• 3:59:05
  A wise man may make one slip, but never two, and that only
• 3:59:09
  in running, not while standing still. Two hundred and fifteen. Watch him
• 3:59:16
  that acts on second thoughts. It is a device of business men to put
• 3:59:22
  the opponent off his guard before attacking him, and thus to conquer by being
• 3:59:26
  defeated. They dissemble their desire so as to attain it. They put themselves
• 3:59:31
  second, so as to come out first in the final spurt. This method
• 3:59:35
  rarely fails if it is not noticed. Let therefore the attention never sleep when
• 3:59:41
  the intention is so wide awake. And if the other puts himself second so
• 3:59:48
  to hide his plan, put yourself first to discover it. Prudence can discern
• 3:59:52
  the artifices which such a man uses, and notices the pretext he puts forward
• 3:59:58
  to gain his ends. He aims at one thing to get another. Then
• 4:00:03
  he turns around smartly and fires straight at his target. It is well to
• 4:00:07
  know what you grant him, and at times it is desirable to give him
• 4:00:11
  to understand that you understand two hundred sixteen. Be expressive. This depends not
• 4:00:20
  only on the clearness but also the vivacity of your thoughts. Some have an
• 4:00:26
  easy conception, but a hard labor, for without clearness, the children of
• 4:00:31
  the mind, thoughts and judgments cannot be brought into the world. Many have
• 4:00:35
  a capacity like that of vessels with a large mouth and a small vent.
• 4:00:39
  Others, again say more than they think. Resolution for the will, expression
• 4:00:46
  for the thought two great gifts. Plausible minds are applauded, Yet confused ones
• 4:00:52
  are often venerated just because they are not understood. And at times obscurity is
• 4:00:58
  convenient if you wish to avoid vulgarity. Yet how shall the audience understand one
• 4:01:05
  that connects no definite idea with what he says two hundred and seventeen. Neither
• 4:01:11
  love nor hate forever? Trust the friends of today as if they will be
• 4:01:18
  enemies tomorrow, and that of the worst kind. As this happens in reality,
• 4:01:24
  let it happen in your precaution. Do not put weapons in the hand
• 4:01:28
  for deserters from friendship to wage warwith. On the other hand, leave the
• 4:01:31
  door of reconciliation open for enemies, And if it is also the gait of
• 4:01:35
  generosity, so much the more safe. The vengeance of long ago is at
• 4:01:41
  times the torment of today, and the joy over the ill we have done
• 4:01:46
  is turned to grief two hundred and eighteen. Never act from obstinacy, but
• 4:01:54
  from knowledge. All obstinacy is an excrescence of the mind, a grand child
• 4:02:01
  of passion, which never did anything right. There are persons who make a
• 4:02:07
  war out of everything real banditti of intercourse. All that they undertake must end
• 4:02:11
  in victory. They do not know how to get on in peace. Such
• 4:02:16
  men are fatal when they rule and govern, for they make government, rebellion,
• 4:02:20
  and enemies out of those whom they ought to regard as children. They
• 4:02:24
  try to effect everything with strategy, and treat it as the fruit of their
• 4:02:28
  skill. But when others have recognized their perverse humor, all revolt against them
• 4:02:33
  and learn to overturn their chimerical plans. And they succeed in nothing but only
• 4:02:37
  heap up a mass of troubles. Since everything serves to increase their disappointment.
• 4:02:43
  They have a head turned and a heart spoilt. Nothing can be done with
• 4:02:48
  such monsters except to flee from them, even to the antipodes, where the
• 4:02:52
  savagery is easier to bear than their Loathsome nature two hundred nineteen do not pass
• 4:03:01
  for a hypocrite, Though such men are indispensable nowadays be considered rather prudent than
• 4:03:07
  astute. Sincerity in behavior pleases all, though not all can show it in
• 4:03:13
  their own affairs. Sincerity should not degenerate into simplicity, nor sagacity into cunning.
• 4:03:20
  Be rather respected as wise than feared as sly. The open hearted are
• 4:03:26
  loved but deceived. The great art consists in disclosing what is thought to be
• 4:03:31
  deceit. In the Golden age, simplicity flourished in these days of iron cunning.
• 4:03:37
  The reputation of being a man who knows what he has to do is
• 4:03:41
  honorable and inspires confidence. But to be considered a hypocrite is deceptive and arouses
• 4:03:48
  mistrust two hundred and twenty. If you cannot clothe yourself in lion skin,
• 4:03:56
  use fox felt. To follow the times is to lead them. He that
• 4:04:01
  gets what he wants never loses his reputation cleverness. When force will not do
• 4:04:07
  one way or another, the king's highway of valor or the by path of
• 4:04:13
  cunning, skill has affected more than force, and as stuteness has conquered courage
• 4:04:18
  more often than the other way. When you cannot get a thing, then
• 4:04:22
  is the time to despise it end of section twenty four. Do not seize
• 4:04:31
  occasions to embarrass yourself or others. There are some men stumbling blocks of good
• 4:04:37
  manners, either for themselves or for others. They are always on the point
• 4:04:41
  of some stupidity. You meet with them easily and part from them uneasily.
• 4:04:46
  A hundred annoyances a day is nothing to them. Their humor always strokes the
• 4:04:52
  wrong way. Since they contradict all and every they put on the judgment cap
• 4:04:56
  wrong side foremost, and thus condemn all. Yet the greatest test of others
• 4:05:01
  patience and prudence are just those who do no good and speak ill of all.
• 4:05:07
  There are many monsters in the wide realm of indecorum two hundred twenty two.
• 4:05:15
  Reserve is proof of prudence. The tongue is a wild beast. Once
• 4:05:20
  let loose, it is difficult to chain. It is the pulse of the
• 4:05:24
  soul, by which wise men judge of its health. By this pulse,
• 4:05:28
  a careful observer feels every movement of the heart. The worst is that he
• 4:05:33
  who should be most reserved is the least. The sage saves himself from worries
• 4:05:39
  and embarrassments, and shows his mastery over himself. He goes his way carefully,
• 4:05:46
  a janus for impartiality, an argus for watchfulness. Truly, Momus had
• 4:05:52
  better placed the eyes in the hand than the window in the breast two hundred
• 4:05:58
  twenty three. Be not eccentric, neither from affectation nor carelessness. Many have
• 4:06:07
  some remarkable and individual quality leading to eccentric actions. These are more defects than
• 4:06:13
  excellent differences. And just as some are known for some special ugliness, so
• 4:06:20
  these for something repellent in their outward behavior. Such eccentricities simply serve as trade
• 4:06:26
  marks. Through their atrocious singularity, they cause either derision or ill will two
• 4:06:33
  hundred and twenty four. Never take things against the grain, no matter how
• 4:06:41
  they come. Everything has a smooth and a seamy side, and the best
• 4:06:46
  weapon wounds if taken by the blade, while the enemy's spear may be our
• 4:06:50
  best protection if taken by the staff. Many things cause pain, which would
• 4:06:56
  cause pleasure if you regarded their advantages. There is a favorable and an unfavorable
• 4:07:03
  side to everything. The cleverness consists in finding out the favorable. The same
• 4:07:09
  thing looks quite different in another light. Look at it therefore on its best
• 4:07:13
  side, and do not exchange good for evil. Thus it HAPs that many
• 4:07:18
  find joy many grief in everything. This remark is a great protection against the
• 4:07:24
  frowns of fortune, and a weighty rule of life for all times and all
• 4:07:30
  conditions. Two hundred and twenty five. Know your chief fault. There lives
• 4:07:37
  none that has not in himself a counterbalance to his most conspicuous merit. If
• 4:07:43
  this be nourished by desire, it may grow to be a tyrant. Commence
• 4:07:48
  war against it, summoning prudence as your ally. And the first thing to
• 4:07:52
  do is the public manifesto. For an evil, once known, is soon
• 4:07:56
  conquered, especially when the one unafflicted regards it in the same light as the
• 4:08:03
  onlookers. To be master of one's self, one should know oneself. If
• 4:08:07
  the chief imperfections surrender, the rest will come to an end two hundred and
• 4:08:13
  twenty six. Take care to be obliging. Most talk and act not as
• 4:08:22
  they are, but as they are obliged. To persuade people of ill is
• 4:08:26
  easy for any since the ill is easily credited, even when at times it
• 4:08:31
  is incredible. The best we have depends on the opinion of others. Some
• 4:08:37
  are satisfied if they have right on their side, But that is not enough,
• 4:08:41
  for it must be assisted by energy. To oblige persons often costs little
• 4:08:46
  and helps much. With words, you may purchase deeds in this great house
• 4:08:52
  of the world. There is no chamber so hid that it may not be
• 4:08:56
  wanted one day in the year, and then you would miss it. However,
• 4:09:00
  little is its worth. Every one speaks of a subject according to his
• 4:09:05
  feelings two hundred and twenty seven. Do not be the slave of first impressions.
• 4:09:13
  Some marry the very first account they hear. All others must live with
• 4:09:18
  them as concubines. But as a lie has swift legs, the truth with
• 4:09:22
  them can find no lodging. We should neither satisfy our will with the first
• 4:09:28
  object, nor our mind with the first proposition, For that were superficial.
• 4:09:33
  Many are like new casks, who keep the scent of the first liquor they
• 4:09:37
  hold, be it good or bad. If this superficiality becomes known, it
• 4:09:43
  becomes fatal, For then it gives opportunity for cunning mischief. The ill minded
• 4:09:48
  hasten to color the mind of the credulous. Always therefore leave room for a
• 4:09:54
  second hearing. Alexander always kept one ear for the other side, wait for
• 4:10:00
  the second or even third edition of news. To be the slave of your
• 4:10:05
  impressions, argues want of capacity, and is not far from being the slave
• 4:10:11
  of your passions. Two hundred and twenty eight. Do not be a scandalmonger,
• 4:10:20
  still less past for one, for that means to be considered a slanderer.
• 4:10:24
  Do not be witty at the cost of others. It is easy but
• 4:10:28
  hateful. All men have their revenge on such an one by speaking ill of
• 4:10:33
  him, And as they are many and he but one, he is more
• 4:10:37
  likely to be overcome than they convinced. Evil should never be our pleasure,
• 4:10:43
  and therefore never our theme. The backbiter is always hated, and if now
• 4:10:48
  and then one of the great consorts with him, it is less from pleasure
• 4:10:52
  in his sneers than from esteem for his insight. He that speaks ill will
• 4:10:58
  always worse two hundred and twenty nine. Plan out your life wisely. Not
• 4:11:09
  a chance will have it, but with prudence and foresight. Without amusements,
• 4:11:13
  it is worrisome. Like a long journey where there are no inns. Manifold
• 4:11:18
  knowledge gives manifold pleasure. The first day's journey of a noble life should be
• 4:11:24
  passed in conversing with the dead. We live to know and to know ourselves.
• 4:11:31
  Hence true books make us truly men. The second day should be spent
• 4:11:35
  with the living, seeing and noticing all the good in the world. Everything
• 4:11:41
  is not to be found in a single country. The universal Father has divided
• 4:11:45
  his gifts, and at times has given the richest dower to the ugliest.
• 4:11:50
  The third day is entirely for oneself. The last felicity is to be a
• 4:11:56
  philosopher two hundred and thirds open your eyes betimes. Not all that see have
• 4:12:05
  their eyes open, nor do all those see that look. To come up
• 4:12:11
  to things too late is more worry than help. Some just begin to see
• 4:12:16
  when there is nothing more to see. They pull their houses about their ears
• 4:12:20
  before they come to themselves. It is difficult to give sense to those who
• 4:12:24
  have no power of will, still more difficult to give energy to those who
• 4:12:28
  have no sense. Those who surround them play with them a game of blind
• 4:12:33
  man's buff making them the butts of others, And because they are hard of
• 4:12:39
  hearing, they do not open their eyes to see. There are often those
• 4:12:43
  who encourage such insensibility on which their very existence depends. Unhappy steed whose rider
• 4:12:50
  is blind, it will never grow sleek. End of Section twenty five.
• 4:12:58
  Never let things be seen half finished. They can only be enjoyed when complete.
• 4:13:05
  All beginnings are misshapen, and this deformity sticks in the imagination. The
• 4:13:11
  recollection of having seen a thing imperfect disturbs our enjoyment of it when completed.
• 4:13:18
  To swallow something great at one gulp may disturb the judgment of the separate parts,
• 4:13:22
  but satisfies the taste. Till a thing is everything, it is nothing,
• 4:13:26
  and while it is in process of being, it is still nothing.
• 4:13:31
  To see the tastiest dishes prepared arouses rather disgusted than appetite. Let each great
• 4:13:37
  master take care not to let his work be seen in its embryonic stages.
• 4:13:41
  They might take this lesson from Dame Nature, who never brings the child to
• 4:13:46
  the light till it is fit to be seen. Two hundred and thirty two.
• 4:13:52
  Have a touch of the traitor. Life should not be all thought,
• 4:13:58
  There should be action as well. Very wise folk are generally easily deceived,
• 4:14:03
  for while they know out of the way things, they do not know the
• 4:14:05
  ordinary things of life, which are much more needful. The observation of higher
• 4:14:11
  things, leaves them no time for things close at hand, since they know
• 4:14:15
  not the very first thing they should know, and what everybody knows so well,
• 4:14:18
  they are either considered or thought ignorant by the superficial multitude. Let therefore
• 4:14:24
  the prudent take care to have something of the traitor about him, enough to
• 4:14:28
  prevent him being deceived and so laughed at. Be a man adapted to the
• 4:14:33
  daily round, which, if not the highest, is the most necessary thing
• 4:14:37
  in life. Of What use is knowledge if it is not practical? And
• 4:14:41
  to know how to live is nowadays the true knowledge two hundred and thirty three.
• 4:14:50
  Let not the proffered morsel be distasteful, otherwise it gives more discomfort than
• 4:14:54
  pleasure. Some displease when attempting to oblige, because they take no account of
• 4:15:01
  varieties of taste. What is flattery to one is an offense to another,
• 4:15:05
  And in attempting to be useful, one may become insulting. It often costs
• 4:15:11
  more to displease a man than it would have cost to please him. You
• 4:15:15
  thereby lose both gift and thanks, because you have lost the compass which steers
• 4:15:20
  for pleasure. He who knows not another's taste knows not how to please him.
• 4:15:24
  Thus it HAPs that many insult where they mean to praise, and get
• 4:15:28
  soundly punished, and rightly so. Others desire to charm by their conversation,
• 4:15:35
  and only succeed in boring by their loquacity two hundred and thirty four. Never
• 4:15:41
  trust your honor to another unless you have his in pledge. Arrange that silence
• 4:15:48
  is a mutual advantage. Disclosure a danger to both. Where honor is at
• 4:15:54
  stake, you must act with a partner so that each must be careful of
• 4:15:56
  the other's honor for the sake of his own. Never entrust your honor to
• 4:16:00
  another. But if you have, let caution surpass prudence. Let the danger
• 4:16:07
  be in common and the risk mutual, so that your partner cannot turn King's
• 4:16:11
  evidence. Two hundred and thirty five. Know how to ask with some nothing
• 4:16:19
  easier, With others, nothing so difficult, For there are men who cannot
• 4:16:23
  refuse. With them, no skill is required. But with others their first
• 4:16:29
  word at all times is no. With them, great art is required,
• 4:16:33
  and with all the propitious moment, surprise them when in a pleasant mood,
• 4:16:37
  when a repast of body or soul has just left them refreshed, if only
• 4:16:41
  their shrewdness has not anticipated the cunning of the applicant. The days of joy
• 4:16:47
  are the days of favor, for joy overflows from the inner man into the
• 4:16:52
  outward creation. It is no use applying when another has been refused, since
• 4:16:56
  the objection to a no has just been overcome, Nor is it a good
• 4:17:00
  time after sorrow. To oblige a person beforehand is a sure way unless he
• 4:17:06
  is mean two hundred and thirty six. Make an obligation beforehand of what would
• 4:17:14
  have to be a reward afterwards. This is a stroke of subtle policy.
• 4:17:19
  To grant favors before they are deserved is a proof of being obliging. Favors
• 4:17:26
  thus granted beforehand have two great advantages. The promptness of the gift obliges the
• 4:17:32
  recipient the more strongly, and the same gift, which would afterwards be merely
• 4:17:37
  a reward, is beforehand an obligation. This is a subtle means of transforming
• 4:17:42
  obligations, since that which would have forced the superior to reward is changed into
• 4:17:48
  one that obliges the one obliged to satisfy the obligation. But this is only
• 4:17:53
  suitable for men who have the feeling of obligation, since with men of lower
• 4:17:57
  stamp, the honorarium paid beforehand acts rather as a bit than as a spur
• 4:18:04
  two hundred and thirty seven. Never share the secrets of your superiors. You
• 4:18:11
  may think you will share pears, but you will only share pairings. Many
• 4:18:15
  have been ruined by being confidants. They are like SOPs of bread used as
• 4:18:21
  forks. They run the same risk of being eaten up afterwards. It is
• 4:18:26
  no favor in a prince to share a secret. It is only a relief.
• 4:18:30
  Many break the mirror that reminds them of their ugliness. We do not
• 4:18:34
  like seeing those who have seen us as we are, Nor is he seen
• 4:18:37
  in a favorable light who has seen us in an unfavorable one. None ought
• 4:18:44
  to be too much beholden to us, least of all one of the great,
• 4:18:47
  unless it be for benefits done him, rather than for such favors received
• 4:18:52
  from him. Especially dangerous are secrets entrusted to friends. He that communicates his
• 4:18:59
  secret to another makes himself that other's slave. With a prince, this is
• 4:19:03
  an intolerable position which cannot last. He will desire to recover his lost liberty,
• 4:19:10
  and to gain it will overturn everything, including right and reason. Accordingly,
• 4:19:15
  neither tell secrets nor listen to them. Thirty eight. Know what is
• 4:19:22
  wanting in yourself. Many would have been great personages if they had not had
• 4:19:27
  something wanting, without which they could not rise to the height of perfection.
• 4:19:33
  It is remarkable with some that they could be much better if they could be
• 4:19:37
  better in something they do not. Perhaps take themselves seriously enough to do justice
• 4:19:41
  to their great abilities. Some are wanting in geniality of disposition, a quality
• 4:19:48
  which their entourage soon find the want of, especially if they are in high
• 4:19:52
  office. Some are without organizing the ability. Others lack moderation. In all
• 4:19:59
  such cases, careful man may make of a habit a second nature two hundred
• 4:20:04
  and thirty nine. Do not be captious. It is much more important to
• 4:20:11
  be sensible. To know more than is necessary blunts your weapons for fine points
• 4:20:15
  generally bend or break common sense. Truth is the surest It is well to
• 4:20:22
  know, but not to niggle. Lengthy comments lead to disputes. It is
• 4:20:26
  much better to have sound sense, which does not wander from the matter in
• 4:20:30
  hand. Two hundred and forty. Make use of folly. The wisest play
• 4:20:38
  this card at times, and there are times when the greatest wisdom lies in
• 4:20:44
  seeming not to be wise. You need not be unwise, but merely affect
• 4:20:48
  unwisdom. To be wise with fools and foolish with the wise were of little
• 4:20:53
  use. Speak to each in his own language. He is no fool who
• 4:20:59
  affects folly, but he is who suffers from it. Ingenuous folly, rather
• 4:21:04
  than the pretended, is the true foolishness, since cleverness has arrived at such
• 4:21:10
  a pitch. To be well liked, one must dress in the skin of
• 4:21:15
  the simplest of animals. End of Section twenty six. Put up with raillery,
• 4:21:23
  but do not practice it. The first is a form of courtesy.
• 4:21:27
  The second may lead to embarrassment. To snarl at play has something of the
• 4:21:33
  beast, and seems to have more audacious raillery is delightful. To stand it
• 4:21:38
  proves power to show oneself annoyed causes the other to be annoyed. Best leave
• 4:21:45
  it alone. The surest way not to put on the cap that might fit.
• 4:21:49
  The most serious matters have arisen out of jests. Nothing requires more tact
• 4:21:56
  and attention. Before you begin to joke, Know how far are the subject
• 4:22:00
  of your joke is able to bear it two hundred and forty two. Push
• 4:22:07
  advantages. Some put all their strength in the commencement and never carry a thing
• 4:22:12
  to a conclusion. They invent but never execute. These be paltering spirits.
• 4:22:18
  They obtain no fame, for they sustain no game to the end. Everything
• 4:22:23
  stops at a single stop. This arises in sum from impatience, which is
• 4:22:29
  the failing of the Spaniard, as patience is the virtue of the Belgian.
• 4:22:33
  The latter bring things to an end. The former come to an end with
• 4:22:37
  things. They sweat away till the obstacle is surmounted, but content themselves with
• 4:22:44
  surmounting it. They do not know how to push the victory home. They
• 4:22:48
  prove that they can, but will not. But this proves always that they
• 4:22:52
  cannot or have no stability. If the undertaking is good, why not finish
• 4:22:57
  it? If it is bad, why undertake it? Strike down your quarry,
• 4:23:02
  if you are wise, be not content to flush it two hundred forty
• 4:23:07
  three. Do not be too much of a dove. Alternate the cunning of
• 4:23:12
  the serpent with the candor of the dove. Nothing is easier than to deceive
• 4:23:18
  an honest man. He believes in much who lies in naught, who does
• 4:23:23
  no deceit has much confidence. To be deceived is not always due to stupidity.
• 4:23:29
  It may arise from sheer goodness. There are two sets of men who
• 4:23:33
  can guard themselves from injury, those who have experienced it at their own cost,
• 4:23:38
  and those who have observed it at the cost of others. Prudence should
• 4:23:42
  use as much suspicion as subtlety uses snares, and none need be so good
• 4:23:49
  as to enable others to do him. Ill combine in yourself the dove and
• 4:23:55
  the serpent, not as a monster, but as a prodigy two hundred forty
• 4:24:00
  four. Create a feeling of obligation. Some transform favors received into favors bestowed,
• 4:24:11
  and seem or let it be thought, that they are doing a favor
• 4:24:14
  when receiving one. There are some so astute that they get honor by asking
• 4:24:19
  and by their own advantage with applause from others. They manage matters so cleverly
• 4:24:26
  that they seem to be doing others a service when receiving one from them.
• 4:24:30
  They transpose the order of obligation with extraordinary skill, or at least render it
• 4:24:34
  doubtful. Who has obliged whom they buy the best by praising it, and
• 4:24:40
  make a flattering honor out of the pleasure they express. They oblige by their
• 4:24:45
  courtesy, and thus make men beholden for what they themselves should be beholden.
• 4:24:51
  In this way they conjugate, to oblige in the active instead of in the
• 4:24:55
  passive voice, thereby proving themselves better politicians than Grammarians. This is a subtle
• 4:25:03
  piece of finesse. A still greater is to perceive it, and to retaliate
• 4:25:07
  on such fool's bargains by paying in their own coin, and so coming by
• 4:25:11
  your own again two hundred and forty five. Original and out of the way
• 4:25:18
  views are signs of superior ability. We do not think much of a man
• 4:25:25
  who never contradicts us. That is no sign he loves us, but rather
• 4:25:30
  that he loves himself. Do not be deceived by flattery, and thereby have
• 4:25:33
  to pay for it, rather condemn it. Besides, you may take credit
• 4:25:37
  for being censured by some, especially if they are those of whom the good
• 4:25:42
  speak ill. On the contrary, it should disturb us if our affairs please
• 4:25:48
  everyone, for that is a sign that they are of little worth. Perfection
• 4:25:52
  is for the few two hundred and forty six never offer satisfaction unless it is
• 4:26:00
  demanded, and if they do demand it, it is a kind of crime
• 4:26:03
  to give more than necessary. To excuse one's self before there is occasion is
• 4:26:10
  to accuse one's self. To draw blood in full health gives the hint to
• 4:26:15
  ill will. An excuse unexpected arouses suspicion from its slumpers. Nor need a
• 4:26:22
  shrewd person show himself aware of another's suspicion, which is equivalent to seeking out
• 4:26:27
  offense he had best disarmed distrust by the integrity of his conduct two hundred forty
• 4:26:37
  seven. Know a little more, live a little less. Some say the
• 4:26:42
  opposite. To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing
• 4:26:48
  really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.
• 4:26:52
  It is equally unfortunate to waste your precious life in mechanical tasks or in
• 4:26:57
  a profusion of importance and work. Do not heap up occupation and thereby envy.
• 4:27:03
  Otherwise you complicate life and exhaust your mind. Some wish to apply the
• 4:27:08
  same principle to knowledge. But unless one knows, one does not truly live
• 4:27:15
  two hundred and forty eight. Do not go with the last speaker. There
• 4:27:22
  are persons who go by the latest edition, and thereby go two irrational extremes.
• 4:27:26
  Their feelings and desires are of wax. The last comer stamps them with
• 4:27:32
  his seal and obliterates all previous impressions. These never gain anything, for they
• 4:27:37
  lose everything, so soon every one dies them with his own color. They
• 4:27:41
  are of no use as confidants. They remain children their whole life. Owing
• 4:27:47
  to this instability of feeling and volition, they halt along, cripples in will
• 4:27:52
  and thought, and totter from one side of the road to the other two
• 4:27:56
  hundred forty nine. Never begin life with what should end it. Many take
• 4:28:03
  their amusement at the beginning, putting off anxiety to the end. But the
• 4:28:08
  essential should come first, and accessories afterwards. If there is room. Others
• 4:28:14
  wish to triumph before they have fought others again, begin with learning things of
• 4:28:18
  little consequence, and leave studies that would bring them fame and gain to the
• 4:28:22
  end of life. Another is just about to make his fortune when he disappears
• 4:28:27
  from the scene. Method is essential for knowledge and for life two hundred and
• 4:28:34
  fifty. When to change the conversation when they talk scandal. When some all
• 4:28:41
  goes contrariwise, there no is yes and their yes no. If they speak
• 4:28:47
  ill of a thing, it is the highest praise for what they want for
• 4:28:51
  themselves they depreciate to others. To praise a thing is not always to speak
• 4:28:56
  well of it. For some, to avoid praising what's good, praise what's
• 4:29:00
  bad. And nothing is good for him for whom nothing is bad. End
• 4:29:07
  of Section twenty seven. Use human means as if there were no divine ones,
• 4:29:12
  and divine as if there were no human ones. A masterly rule.
• 4:29:18
  It needs no comment two hundred fifty two. Neither belong entirely to yourself nor
• 4:29:27
  entirely to others. Both are mean forms of tyranny. To desire to be
• 4:29:33
  all for oneself is the same as desiring to have all for oneself. Such
• 4:29:40
  persons will not yield a jot or lose a tittle of their comfort. They
• 4:29:45
  are rarely beholden, lean on their own luck, and their crutch generally breaks.
• 4:29:51
  It is convenient at times to belong to others that others may belong to
• 4:29:56
  us. And he that holds public office is no more nor less than a
• 4:30:00
  public slave. Or let a man give up both birth and burthen, as
• 4:30:06
  the old woman said to Hadrian. On the other hand, others are all
• 4:30:10
  for others, which is folly that always flies to extremes, in this case,
• 4:30:15
  in a most unfortunate manner. No day, no hour is their own.
• 4:30:19
  But they have so much, too much of others, that they may
• 4:30:22
  be called the slaves of all. This applies even to knowledge, where a
• 4:30:27
  man may know everything for others and nothing for himself. A shrewd man knows
• 4:30:33
  that others, when they seek him, do not seek him, but their
• 4:30:37
  advantage in him and by him two hundred fifty three. Do not explain over
• 4:30:44
  much. Most men do not esteem what they understand, and venerate what they
• 4:30:49
  do not see to be valued. Things should cost dear. What is not
• 4:30:56
  understood becomes overrated. You have to app a wiser and more prudent than he
• 4:31:02
  requires with whom you deal, if you desire to give him a high opinion
• 4:31:06
  of you. Yet in this there should be moderation and no excess. And
• 4:31:11
  though with sensible people common sense holds its own, with most men, a
• 4:31:15
  little elaboration is necessary. Give them no time for blame. Occupy them with
• 4:31:22
  understanding your drift. Many praise a thing without being able to tell why if
• 4:31:27
  asked. The reason is that they venerate the unknown as a mystery and praise
• 4:31:33
  it because they hear it praised. Two hundred and fifty four. Never despise
• 4:31:40
  an evil, however small, for they never come alone. They are linked
• 4:31:45
  together like pieces of good fortune. Fortune and misfortune generally go to find their
• 4:31:52
  fellows. Hence, all avoid the unlucky and associate with the fortunate. Even
• 4:31:59
  the doves, with all their innocence, resort to the whitest walls. Everything
• 4:32:04
  fails with the unfortunate himself. His words and his luck do not wake misfortune
• 4:32:11
  when she sleeps. One slip is a little thing, yet some fatal loss
• 4:32:15
  may follow it till you do not know where it will end. For just
• 4:32:19
  as no happiness is perfect, so no ill luck is complete. Patience serves
• 4:32:26
  with what comes from above, prudence with that from below. Two hundred fifty
• 4:32:33
  five. Do good a little at a time, but often one should never
• 4:32:41
  give beyond the possibility of return. Who gives much does not give but sells,
• 4:32:47
  nor drain gratitude to the dregs. For when the recipient sees all return
• 4:32:52
  is impossible, he breaks off correspondence. With many persons, it is not
• 4:32:57
  necessary to do more than over them with favors to lose them altogether. They
• 4:33:03
  cannot repay you, and so they retire, preferring rather to be enemies than
• 4:33:07
  perpetual debtors. The idol never wishes to see before him the sculptor who shaped
• 4:33:14
  him, nor does the benefited wish to see his benefactor always before his eyes.
• 4:33:19
  There is a great subtlety in giving what costs little, yet is much
• 4:33:23
  desired, so that it is esteemed the more. Two hundred and fifty six
• 4:33:30
  go armed against discourtesy and against perfidy, presumption, and all other kinds of
• 4:33:38
  folly. There is much of it in the world, and prudence lies in
• 4:33:42
  avoiding a meeting with it. Arm yourself each day before the mirror of attention
• 4:33:48
  with the weapons of defense. Thus you will beat down the attacks of folly.
• 4:33:53
  Be prepared for the occasion, and do not expose your reputation to vulgar
• 4:33:57
  contingencies. Armed with prudence, a man cannot be disarmed by impertinence. The
• 4:34:04
  road of human intercourse is difficult, for it is full of ruts which may
• 4:34:10
  jolt our credit. Best to take a byway, taking ulysses as a model
• 4:34:15
  of shrewdness. Feigned misunderstanding is of great value in such matters. Aided by
• 4:34:22
  politeness, it helps us over all and is often the only way out of
• 4:34:26
  difficulties two hundred and fifty seven. Never let matters come to a rupture,
• 4:34:34
  for our reputation always comes injured out of the encounter. Every One may be
• 4:34:40
  of importance as an enemy, if not as a friend. Few can do
• 4:34:45
  us good. Almost any can do us harm. In Jove's bosom itself,
• 4:34:51
  even his eagle never nestles securely from the day he has quarreled with a beetle.
• 4:34:56
  Hidden foes use the paw of the declared enemy to stir up the fire,
• 4:35:02
  and meanwhile they lie in ambush. For such an occasion, friends provoked
• 4:35:07
  become the bitterest of enemies. They cover their own failings with the faults of
• 4:35:11
  others. Every One speaks as things seem to him, and things seem as
• 4:35:17
  he wishes them to appear. All blame us at the beginning for want of
• 4:35:22
  foresight, at the end, for lack of patience. At all times for
• 4:35:26
  imprudence. If, however, a breach is inevitable, let it rather be
• 4:35:32
  excused as a slackening of friendship than by an outburst of wrath. Here is
• 4:35:37
  a good application of the saying about a good retreat two hundred and fifty eight.
• 4:35:45
  Find out someone to share your troubles. You will never be all alone,
• 4:35:51
  even in dangers, nor bear all the burden of hate. Some think,
• 4:35:56
  by their high position, to carry off the whole glory of success,
• 4:36:00
  and have to bear the whole humiliation of defeat. In this way they have
• 4:36:04
  none to excuse them, none to share the blame. Neither fate nor the
• 4:36:10
  mob are so bold against two. Hence the wise physician, if he has
• 4:36:15
  failed to cure, looks out for some one who, under the name of
• 4:36:18
  a consultation, may help him carry out the corpse. Share weight and woe,
• 4:36:25
  for misfortune falls with double force on him that stands alone two hundred fifty
• 4:36:32
  nine. Anticipate injuries and turn them into favors. It is wiser to avoid
• 4:36:37
  than to revenge them. It is an uncommon piece of shrewdness to change a
• 4:36:42
  rival into a confidant, or transform into guards of honor those who were aiming
• 4:36:48
  attacks at us. It helps much to know how to oblige, for he
• 4:36:52
  leaves no time for injuries, that fills it up with gratitude. That is
• 4:36:57
  true savoir faire. To turn our anxieties into pleasures. Try and make a
• 4:37:03
  confidential relation out of ill will itself two hundred and sixty. We belong to
• 4:37:11
  none and none to us entirely. Neither relationship, nor friendship, nor the
• 4:37:18
  most intimate connection is sufficient to affect this. To give one's whole confidence is
• 4:37:25
  quite different from giving one's regard. The closest intimacy has its exceptions, without
• 4:37:30
  which the laws of friendship would be broken. The friend always keeps one secret
• 4:37:34
  to himself, and even the son always hides something from his father. Some
• 4:37:41
  things are kept from one that are revealed to another, and vice versa.
• 4:37:45
  In this way, one reveals all and conceals all by making a distinction among
• 4:37:51
  the persons with whom we are connected. End of Section twenty eight. Do
• 4:37:59
  not follow up of folly. Many make an obligation out of a blunder,
• 4:38:03
  and, because they have entered the wrong path, think it proves their strength
• 4:38:07
  of character to go on in it. Within, they regret their error,
• 4:38:11
  while outwardly they excuse it. At the beginning of their mistake, they were
• 4:38:15
  regarded as inattentive, in the end as false. Neither non considered promise nor
• 4:38:21
  a mistaken resolution are really binding. Yet some continue in their folly and prefer
• 4:38:26
  to be constant Fuals two hundred and sixty two. Be able to forget.
• 4:38:33
  It is more a matter of luck than of skill. The things we remember
• 4:38:37
  best are those better forgotten. Memory is not only unruly, leaving us in
• 4:38:41
  the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well, putting its nose into
• 4:38:45
  places where it is not wanted. In painful things, it is active,
• 4:38:49
  but neglectful in recalling the pleasurable. Very often, the only remedy for the
• 4:38:55
  ale is to forget it, and all we forget is the remedy. Never
• 4:38:59
  the less one should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of
• 4:39:03
  making existence a paradise or an inferno. The happy are an exception, who
• 4:39:08
  enjoy innocently their simple happiness two hundred and sixty three. Many things of taste
• 4:39:15
  one should not possess oneself. One enjoys them better if another's than if one's
• 4:39:22
  own. The owner has the good of them the first day, for all
• 4:39:26
  the rest of the time they are for others. You take a double enjoyment
• 4:39:30
  in other men's property, being without fear of spoiling it, and with the
• 4:39:33
  pleasure of novelty. Everything tastes better for having been without it. Even water
• 4:39:40
  from another's well tastes like nectar. Possession not alone hinders enjoyment, it increases
• 4:39:45
  annoyance. Whether you lend or keep, you gain nothing except keeping things for
• 4:39:51
  or from others, and by this means gain more enemies than friends. Two
• 4:39:56
  hundred and sixty four. Have no careless days. Fate loves to play tricks
• 4:40:03
  and will heap up chances to catch us unawares. Our intelligence, burdens,
• 4:40:07
  and courage, even our beauty, must always be ready for trial. For
• 4:40:11
  their day of careless trust will be that of their discredit. Care always fails
• 4:40:17
  just when it is most wanted. It is thoughtlessness that trips us up into
• 4:40:22
  destruction. Accordingly, it is a piece of military strategy to put perfection to
• 4:40:26
  its trial when unprepared. The days of parade are known and are allowed to
• 4:40:32
  pass by, but the day is chosen when least expected, so as to
• 4:40:36
  put valor to the severest test. Two hundred and sixty five. Set those
• 4:40:41
  under you difficult tasks. Many have proved themselves able at once when they had
• 4:40:47
  to deal with a difficulty, just as fear of drowning makes a swimmer of
• 4:40:51
  a man. In this way many have discovered their own courage, knowledge,
• 4:40:56
  or tact, which, but for the opportunity, would have been forever buried
• 4:41:00
  beneath their want of enterprise. Dangers are the occasions to create a name for
• 4:41:04
  oneself. And if a noble mind sees honor at stake, he will do
• 4:41:10
  the work of thousands. Queen Isabella the Catholic knew well this rule of life
• 4:41:15
  as well as all the others, and to a shrewd favor of this kind
• 4:41:18
  from her the great Captain won his fame, and many others earn an undying
• 4:41:23
  name. By this great art she made great men two hundred and sixty six.
• 4:41:30
  Do not become bad from sheer goodness, that is, by never getting
• 4:41:36
  into a temper. Such men without feeling are scarcely to be considered men.
• 4:41:41
  It does not always arise from laziness, but from sheer. Inability to feel
• 4:41:47
  strongly on occasion is something personal. Birds soon mock at the mockin It is
• 4:41:52
  a sign of good taste. To combine bitter and sweet. All sweets is
• 4:41:57
  diet for children and fools. It is very bad to sink into such insensibility
• 4:42:03
  out of very goodness two hundred and sixty seven. Silken words, sugared manners,
• 4:42:10
  arrows pierce the body, insults the soul. Sweet pastry perfumes the breath.
• 4:42:17
  It is a great art in life to know how to sell wind.
• 4:42:21
  Most things are paid for in words, and by them you can remove impossibilities.
• 4:42:27
  Thus we deal in air, and a royal breath can produce courage and
• 4:42:32
  power. Always have your mouth full of sugar to sweeten your words, so
• 4:42:37
  that even your ill wishers enjoy them. To please one must be peaceful two
• 4:42:42
  hundred and sixty eight. The wise do at once what the fool does.
• 4:42:47
  At last, both do the same thing. The only difference lies in the
• 4:42:52
  time they do it, the one at the right time, the other at
• 4:42:56
  the wrong. He catches by the foot, but he ought to knock on
• 4:42:59
  the head. He turns right into left, and in all his acts is
• 4:43:03
  but a child. There is only one way to get him in the right
• 4:43:06
  way, and that is to force him to do what he might have done
• 4:43:10
  of his own accord. The wise man, on the other hand, sees
• 4:43:12
  at once what must be done sooner or later, so he does it willingly
• 4:43:18
  and gains honor thereby. Two hundred and sixty nine. Make use of the
• 4:43:22
  novelty of your position, For men are valued while they are new. Novelty
• 4:43:27
  pleases all because it is uncommon. Taste is refreshed, and a brand new
• 4:43:33
  mediocrity is thought more off than accustomed excellence. Ability wears away by use and
• 4:43:40
  becomes old. However, know that the glory of novelty is short lived.
• 4:43:45
  After four days, respect is gone. Accordingly, learn to utilize the first
• 4:43:51
  fruits of appreciation, and seize during the rapid passage of applause all that can
• 4:43:56
  be put to use. For once the heat of novelty over, the passion
• 4:44:00
  calls, and the appreciation of novelty is exchanged for satiety at the customary.
• 4:44:06
  Believe that all has its season, which soon passes two hundred and seventy.
• 4:44:11
  Do not condemn alone that which pleases all. There must be something good in
• 4:44:17
  a thing that pleases so many, even if it cannot be explained, It
• 4:44:21
  is certainly enjoyed. Singularity is always hated, and when in the wrong leaf
• 4:44:26
  that you simply destroy respect for your taste rather than do harm to the object
• 4:44:32
  of your blame and are left alone you and your bad taste. If you
• 4:44:37
  cannot find the good in a thing, hide your incapacity and do not damn
• 4:44:41
  it straight away. As a general rule, bad taste springs from want of
• 4:44:45
  knowledge. What all say is so or will be so end of Section twenty
• 4:44:52
  nine. In every occupation, if you know little, stick to the safest.
• 4:44:57
  If you are not respected as subtle, you will be regarded as sure.
• 4:45:03
  On the other hand, a man well trained can plunge in and act
• 4:45:07
  as he pleases, to know little and yet seek danger. Is nothing else
• 4:45:11
  than to seek ruin. In such a case, take stand on the right
• 4:45:15
  hand, for what is done cannot be undone. Let little knowledge keep to
• 4:45:21
  the King's highway, And in every case knowing or unknowing, security is shrewder
• 4:45:26
  than singularity two hundred and seventy two. Sell things by the tariff of courtesy,
• 4:45:36
  you oblige people most that way, the bid of an interested buyer will
• 4:45:41
  never equal the return gift of an honorable recipient of a favor. Courtesy does
• 4:45:45
  not really make presence, but really lays men under obligation, and generosity is
• 4:45:52
  the great obligation. To a right minded man, nothing costs more dear than
• 4:45:57
  what is given him. You sell it him twice, and for two prices,
• 4:46:02
  one for the value, one for the politeness. At the same time,
• 4:46:06
  it is true that with vulgar souls, generosity is gibberish, for they
• 4:46:10
  do not understand the language of good breeding two hundred and seventy three. Comprehend
• 4:46:18
  their dispositions with whom you deal, so as to know their intentions, cause,
• 4:46:25
  known effect, known beforehand in the disposition, and after in the motive.
• 4:46:30
  The melancholy man always foresees misfortunes, the backbiter scandals, having no conception
• 4:46:37
  of the good evil offers itself to them. A man moved by passion always
• 4:46:41
  speaks of things differently from what they are. It is his passion speaks,
• 4:46:47
  not his reason. Thus each speaks as his feeling or his humor prompts him,
• 4:46:52
  and all far from the truth. Learn how to decipher faces and spell
• 4:46:56
  out the soul in the features. If a man laughs, always set him
• 4:47:00
  down as foolish, if never as false. Beware of the gossip. He
• 4:47:07
  is either a babbler or a spy. Expect little good from the misshapen they
• 4:47:12
  generally take revenge on nature and do little honor to her, as she has
• 4:47:17
  done little to them. Beauty and folly generally go hand in hand two hundred
• 4:47:23
  seventy four. Be attractive. It is the magic of subtle courtesy. Use
• 4:47:30
  the magnet of your pleasant qualities more to obtain good will than good deeds,
• 4:47:37
  but apply it to all Merit is not enough unless supported by grace, which
• 4:47:41
  is the sole thing that gives general acceptance and the most practical means of rule
• 4:47:47
  over others. To be in vogue as a matter of luck. Yet it
• 4:47:51
  can be encouraged by skill, for art can best take root on a soil
• 4:47:56
  favored by nature. There good will grows and develops into universal favor. Two
• 4:48:03
  hundred seventy five. Join in the game, as far as decency permits,
• 4:48:10
  Do not always pose and be a bore. This is a maxim for gallant
• 4:48:14
  bearing. You may yield a touch of dignity to gain the general good will.
• 4:48:18
  You may now and then go where most go, yet not beyond the
• 4:48:22
  bounds of decorum. He who makes a fool of himself in public will not
• 4:48:27
  be regarded as discreet in private life. One may lose more on a day
• 4:48:33
  of pleasure than has been gained during a whole life of labor. Still you
• 4:48:37
  must not always keep away. To be singular is to condemn all others.
• 4:48:44
  Still less act the prude, leave that to its appropriate sex. Even religious
• 4:48:48
  prudery is ridiculous. Nothing so becomes a man as to be a man.
• 4:48:55
  A woman may affect a manly bearing as an excellence, but not vice versa.
• 4:49:02
  Two hundred and seventy six. Know how to renew your character, with
• 4:49:07
  the help both of nature and of art. Every seven years the disposition changes,
• 4:49:14
  they say, Let it be a change for the better and for the
• 4:49:17
  nobler in your taste. After the first seven comes reason with each succeeding luster,
• 4:49:23
  let a new excellence be added. Observe this change so as to aid
• 4:49:29
  it, and hope also for betterment in others. Hence, it arises that
• 4:49:33
  many change their behavior when they change their position or their occupation. At times,
• 4:49:37
  the change is not noticed till it reaches the height of maturity. At
• 4:49:41
  twenty, man is at peacock at thirty, a lion at forty, a
• 4:49:48
  camel at fifty, a serpent at sixty, a dog at seventy, and
• 4:49:53
  eight at eighty, nothing at all two hundred and seventy seve Display yourself tis
• 4:50:03
  the illumination of talents. For each there comes an appropriate moment use it,
• 4:50:08
  for not every day comes a triumph. There are some dashing men who make
• 4:50:14
  much show with a little. A whole exhibition with much fability to display them
• 4:50:19
  is joined to versatile gifts. They are regarded as miraculous. There are whole
• 4:50:26
  nations given to display. The Spanish people take the highest rank in this light.
• 4:50:30
  Was the first thing to cause creation to shine forth. Display fills up
• 4:50:36
  much, supplies much, and gives a second existence to things, especially when
• 4:50:41
  combined with real excellence. Heaven that Grant's perfection provides also the means of display,
• 4:50:48
  for one without the other were abortive. Skill is, however, needed
• 4:50:52
  for display. Even excellence depends on circumstances and is not always opportune. Ostentation
• 4:50:59
  is out of place when it is out of time. More than any other
• 4:51:03
  quality, it should be free of any affectation. This is its rock of
• 4:51:07
  offense, for it then borders on vanity and so on contempt. It must
• 4:51:12
  be moderate to avoid being vulgar, and any excess is despised by the wise.
• 4:51:18
  At times it consists in a sort of mute eloquence. A careless display
• 4:51:23
  of excellence. For a wise concealment is often the most effective boast, since
• 4:51:29
  the very withdrawal from view piques curiosity to the highest.'tis a fine subtlety,
• 4:51:34
  too, not to display one's excellence all at one time, but to
• 4:51:40
  grant stolen glances at it more and more as time goes on. Each exploit
• 4:51:45
  should be the pledge of a grater, and applause at the first should only
• 4:51:49
  die away in expectation of its sequel two hundred seventy eight. Avoid notoriety in
• 4:51:59
  all things. Even excellences become defects if they become notorious. Notoriety arises from
• 4:52:07
  singularity, which is always blamed. He that is singular is left severely alone.
• 4:52:14
  Even beauty is decredited by coxcombri which offends by the very notice it attracts.
• 4:52:21
  Still more, does this apply to discreditable singularities. Yet among the wicked
• 4:52:26
  there are some that seek to be known for seeking novelties in vice, so
• 4:52:30
  as to attain to the fame of infamy. Even in matters of the intellect,
• 4:52:36
  want of moderation may degenerate into loquacity two hundred seventy nine. Do not
• 4:52:44
  contradict the contradictor you have to distinguish whether the contradiction comes from cunning or from
• 4:52:49
  vulgarity. It is not always obstinacy, but may be artfulness. Notice this,
• 4:52:56
  for in the first case one may get into difficulties, in the other
• 4:53:00
  into danger. Caution is never more needed than against spies. There is no
• 4:53:07
  such counter check to the picklock of the mind as to leave the key of
• 4:53:11
  caution in the lock two hundred eighty be trustworthy, Honorable dealing is at an
• 4:53:22
  end. Trusts are denied. Few keep their word. The greater the service,
• 4:53:29
  the poorer the reward. That is the way with all the world nowadays.
• 4:53:33
  There are whole nations inclined to false dealing with some Treachery has always to
• 4:53:38
  be feared with others, breach of promise with others deceit. Yet this bad
• 4:53:45
  behavior of others should rather be a warning to us than an example. The
• 4:53:49
  fear is that the sight of such unworthy behavior should override our integrity. But
• 4:53:55
  a man of honor should never forget what he is because he sees what others
• 4:54:00
  are. End of Section thirty. Find favor with men of sense. The
• 4:54:08
  tepid yes of a remarkable man is worth more than all the applause of the
• 4:54:14
  vulgar. You cannot make a meal off the smoke of chaff. The why
• 4:54:19
  speak with understanding, and their praise gives permanent satisfaction. The sage Antigonus reduced
• 4:54:26
  the theater of his fame to Zeus alone, and Plato called Aristotle his whole
• 4:54:32
  school. Some strive to fill their stomach, albeit only with the breath of
• 4:54:36
  the mob. Even monarchs have need of authors, and fear their pens more
• 4:54:41
  than ugly women. The Painter's Pencil two hundred eighty two. Make use of
• 4:54:48
  absence to make yourself more esteemed or valued. If the accustomed presence diminishes,
• 4:54:55
  fame, absence augments it. One that is regarded as alone. Lion in
• 4:55:00
  his absence may be laughed at when present as the ridiculous result of the parturition
• 4:55:06
  of the mountains. Talents get soiled by use, for it is easier to
• 4:55:11
  see the exterior rind than the kernel of greatness it encloses. Imagination reaches farther
• 4:55:17
  than sight, and disillusion, which ordinarily comes through the ears, also goes
• 4:55:22
  out through the ears. He keeps his fame that keeps himself in the center
• 4:55:27
  of public opinion. Even the phoenix uses its retirement for new adornment and turns
• 4:55:33
  absence into desire. Two hundred and eighty three. Have the gift of discovery.
• 4:55:41
  It is a proof of the highest genius. Yet when was genius without
• 4:55:47
  a touch of madness. If discovery be a gift of genius, choice of
• 4:55:52
  means is a mark of sound sense. Discovery comes by special grace, and
• 4:55:56
  very seldom. For many can fallow up a thing when found, But to
• 4:56:00
  find it first is the gift of the few, and those the first.
• 4:56:04
  In excellence and in age, novelty flatters, and if successful, gives the
• 4:56:11
  possessor double credit. In matters of judgment. Novelties are dangerous because leading to
• 4:56:15
  paradox in matters of genius, they deserve all praise, yet both equally deserve
• 4:56:22
  applause if successful two hundred and eighty four. Do not be importunate, and
• 4:56:30
  so you will not be slighted. Respect yourself. If you would have others
• 4:56:33
  respect you, be sooner sparing than lavish with your presence. You will thus
• 4:56:40
  become desired and so well received. Never come unasked, and only go when
• 4:56:45
  sent. For if you undertake a thing of your own accord, you get
• 4:56:49
  all the blame if it fails, none of the thanks if it succeeds.
• 4:56:55
  The importunate is always the butt of blame. And because he thrusts himself in
• 4:57:00
  without any shame, he is thrust out with it. Two hundred and eighty
• 4:57:06
  five. Never die of another's ill luck. Notice those who stick in the
• 4:57:12
  mud, and observe how they call others to their aid so as to console
• 4:57:17
  themselves with a companion. In misfortune, they seek someone to help them to
• 4:57:22
  bear misfortune, And often those who turned the cold shoulder on them in prosperity
• 4:57:27
  give them now a helping hand. There is great caution needed in helping the
• 4:57:33
  drowning without danger to one's self. Two hundred and eighty six. Do not
• 4:57:41
  become responsible for all or for every one. Otherwise you become a slave,
• 4:57:45
  and the slave of all. Some are born more fortunate than others. They
• 4:57:49
  are born to do good, as others to receive it. Freedom is more
• 4:57:55
  precious than any gifts for which you may be tempted to give it up.
• 4:58:00
  Less stress on making many dependent on you than on keeping yourself independent of any
• 4:58:06
  The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good. Above all,
• 4:58:11
  do not regard responsibility as a favor, for generally it is another's plan
• 4:58:17
  to make one dependent on him two hundred and eighty seven. Never act in
• 4:58:25
  a passion. If you do, all is lost. You cannot act for
• 4:58:30
  yourself if you are not yourself, and passion always drives out reason. In
• 4:58:34
  such cases, interpose a prudent go between, who can only be prudent if
• 4:58:40
  he keeps cool. That is why lookers on see most of the game,
• 4:58:44
  because they keep cool. As soon as you notice that you are losing your
• 4:58:48
  temper, beat a wise retreat, for no sooner is the blood up than
• 4:58:52
  it is spilt. And in a few moments occasion may be given for many
• 4:58:56
  days repentance for oneself and complaints of the other party. Two hundred and eighty
• 4:59:03
  eight. Live for the moment, Our actions and thoughts, and all must
• 4:59:10
  be determined by circumstances. Will when you may for time and tide wait for
• 4:59:15
  no man. Do not live by certain fixed rules, except those that relate
• 4:59:19
  to the cardinal virtues, nor let your will subscribe fixed conditions. For you
• 4:59:26
  may have to drink the water tomorrow which you cast away. Today, there
• 4:59:30
  may be some so absurdly paradoxical that they expect all the circumstances of an action
• 4:59:37
  should bend to their eccentric whims, and not vice versa. The wise man
• 4:59:42
  knows that the very pole star of prudence lies in steering by the wind two
• 4:59:49
  hundred and eighty nine. Nothing depreciates a man more than to show he is
• 4:59:55
  a man like other men. The day he is seen to be very human,
• 5:00:00
  he ceases to be thought divine. Frivolity is the exact opposite of reputation.
• 5:00:06
  And as the reserved are held to be more than men, so the
• 5:00:10
  frivolous are held to be less. No failing causes such failure of respect,
• 5:00:15
  for frivolity is the exact opposite of solid seriousness. A man of levity cannot
• 5:00:22
  be a man of weight, even when he is old, and age should
• 5:00:26
  oblige him to be prudent. Although this blemish is so common, it is
• 5:00:30
  nonetheless despised two hundred and ninety'tis a piece of good fortune to combine man's
• 5:00:40
  love and respect. Generally, one dare not be liked if one would be
• 5:00:45
  respected. Love is more sensitive than hate. Love and honor do not go
• 5:00:52
  well together, so that one should aim neither to be much feared nor much
• 5:00:56
  loved. Love introduces confidence, and the further this advances, the more respect
• 5:01:03
  recedes. Prefer to be loved with respect rather than with passion, for that
• 5:01:08
  is a love suitable for many. End of Section thirty one. Know how
• 5:01:17
  to test the care of the wise must guard against the snare of the wicked.
• 5:01:23
  Great judgment is needed to test that of another. It is more important
• 5:01:29
  to know the characteristics and properties of persons than those of vegetables and minerals.
• 5:01:34
  It is indeed one of the shrewdest things in life. You can tell meddles
• 5:01:38
  by their ring, and men by their voice. Words are proof of integrity,
• 5:01:45
  deeds still more. Here one requires extraordinary care, deep observation, subtle
• 5:01:52
  discernment, and judicious decision two hundred ninety two. Let your personal qualities surpass
• 5:02:00
  those of your office. Let it not be the other way about. However
• 5:02:06
  high the post, the person should be higher. An extensive capacity expands and
• 5:02:11
  dilates more and more as his office becomes higher. On the other hand,
• 5:02:17
  the narrow minded will easily lose heart and come to grief with diminished responsibilities and
• 5:02:22
  reputation. The great Augustus thought more of being a great man than a great
• 5:02:29
  prince. Here a lofty mind finds fit place, and well grounded confidence finds
• 5:02:36
  its opportunity two hundred ninety three. Maturity, it is shown in the costume,
• 5:02:45
  still more in the customs. Material weight is the sign of a precious
• 5:02:48
  metal, moral of a precious man. Maturity gives finish to his capacity,
• 5:02:55
  and arouses respect a composed bearing in a man formed facade to his soul.
• 5:03:02
  It does not consist in the insensibility of fools, as frivolity would have it,
• 5:03:07
  but in a calm tone of authority. With men of this kind,
• 5:03:11
  sentences are orations, and acts our deeds. Maturity finishes a man off,
• 5:03:18
  for each is so far a complete man, according as he possesses maturity.
• 5:03:23
  On ceasing to be a child, a man begins to gain seriousness and authority
• 5:03:30
  two hundred ninety four. Be moderate in your views. Everyone holds views according
• 5:03:37
  to his interest, and imagency has abundant grounds for them. For with most
• 5:03:41
  men judgment has to give way to inclination. It may occur that two may
• 5:03:47
  meet with exactly opposite views, and yet each thinks to have reason on his
• 5:03:52
  side. Yet reason is always true to itself, and never has two faces.
• 5:03:57
  In such a difficulty, a prudent man will go to work with care
• 5:04:02
  for his decision. Of his opponent's view may cast doubt on his own.
• 5:04:07
  Place yourself in such a case in the other man's place, and then investigate
• 5:04:11
  the reasons for his opinion. You will not then condemn him or justify yourself
• 5:04:18
  in such a confusing way. Two hundred and ninety five. Do not affect
• 5:04:25
  which you have not effected. Many claim exploits without the slightest claim, with
• 5:04:30
  the greatest coolness. They make a mystery of all chameleons of applause. They
• 5:04:36
  afford others a surfeit of laughter. Vanity is always objectionable. Here it is
• 5:04:41
  despicable. These ants of honor go crawling about, filching scraps of exploits.
• 5:04:48
  The greater your exploits, the less you need to affect them. Content yourself
• 5:04:53
  with doing, leave the talking to others. Give away your deeds, but
• 5:04:59
  do not sell the them, and do not hire venal pens to write down
• 5:05:03
  praises in the mud to the derision of the knowing ones. Aspire rather to
• 5:05:08
  be a hero than merely to appear one two hundred ninety six Noble qualities.
• 5:05:18
  Noble qualities make noble men. A single one of them is worth more than
• 5:05:23
  a multitude of mediocre ones. There was once a man who made all his
• 5:05:29
  belongings, even his household utensils, as great as possible. How much more
• 5:05:34
  ought a great man see that the qualities of his soul are as great as
• 5:05:38
  possible. In God, all is eternal and infinite. So in a hero
• 5:05:44
  everything should be great and majestic, so that all his deeds, nay,
• 5:05:48
  all his words, should be pervaded by a transcendent majesty two hundred ninety seven.
• 5:05:57
  Always act as if your acts were seen. He must see all round,
• 5:06:03
  who sees that men see him or will see him. He knows that
• 5:06:07
  walls have ears, and that ill deeds rebound back. Even when alone,
• 5:06:12
  he acts as if the eyes of the whole world were upon him. For
• 5:06:15
  as he knows that sooner or later all will be known, so he considers
• 5:06:21
  those to be present as witnesses who must afterwards hear of the deed. He
• 5:06:26
  that wished the whole world might always see him, did not mind that his
• 5:06:30
  neighbors could see him over their walls two hundred ninety eight. Three things go
• 5:06:38
  to a prodigy. They are the choicest gifts of Heaven's prodigality. A fertile
• 5:06:45
  genius, a profound intellect, a pleasant and refined taste. To think well
• 5:06:52
  is good. To think right is better. Tis the understanding of the good.
• 5:06:57
  It will not do for the judge to reside in the backbone. It
• 5:07:02
  would be of more trouble than use. To think aright is the fruit of
• 5:07:07
  a reasonable nature. At twenty, the will rules at thirty, the intellect
• 5:07:14
  at forty the judgment. There are minds that shine in the dark, like
• 5:07:18
  the eyes of the lynx, and are most clear where there is most darkness.
• 5:07:23
  Others are more adapted for the occasion. They always hit on that which
• 5:07:27
  suits the emergency. Such a quality produces much and good, a sort of
• 5:07:33
  feckoned felicity. In the meantime, good taste seasons the whole of life two
• 5:07:40
  hundred ninety nine. Leave off hungry one ought to remove even the bowl of
• 5:07:48
  nectar from the lips. Demand is the measure of value, even with regard
• 5:07:53
  to bodily thirst. It is a mark of good taste to slake, but
• 5:07:57
  not to quench it little, and good is twice good. The second time
• 5:08:03
  comes a great falling off. Surfeit of pleasure was ever dangerous and brings down
• 5:08:08
  the ill will of the highest powers. The only way to please is to
• 5:08:14
  revive the appetite by the hunger that is left. If you must excite desire,
• 5:08:19
  better do it by the impatience of want than by the repletion of enjoyment.
• 5:08:26
  Happiness earned gives double joy three hundred In one word, be a saint,
• 5:08:37
  so it is all said at once. Virtue is the link of all
• 5:08:42
  perfections, the center of all the felicities. She it is that makes a
• 5:08:48
  man prudent, discreet, sagacious, cautious, wise, courageous, thoughtful,
• 5:08:56
  trustworthy, happy, honored, truthful, and a universal hero. Three hs
• 5:09:03
  make a man happy, health, holiness, and a head piece. Virtue
• 5:09:08
  is the son of the microcosm and has for hemisphere a good conscience. She
• 5:09:15
  is so beautiful that she finds favor with both God and man. Nothing is
• 5:09:19
  lovable but virtue, nothing detestable but vice. Virtue alone is serious. All
• 5:09:26
  else is but just. A man's capacity and greatness are to be measured by
• 5:09:33
  his virtue and not by his fortune. She alone is all sufficient. She
• 5:09:40
  makes men lovable in life, memorable after death. End of Section thirty two