Table of Contents
Introduction
Maxims
Paragraphs
Notes
This is a small page dedicated to Balthasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly
Wisdom .
Gracian was a 17th century (1601-1658) Jesuit monk, and
sometimes you can see
religion refleceted in his writings. Gracian wrote
Oraculo manual y arte de prudencia (this book) in 1637, and it soon
became popular throughout Europe. The entire book is a collection of
300
paragraphs on various topics. This work gives advice and guidance on how to live
more fully, advance socially, and be a better person. Some of the material here
may seem disagreeable. I advise that Gracian's writings be taken with lots of
contemplation, it might help to absorb the material slowly and then explore it
further.
This webpage, like the book itself is divided into "Maxims" and
"Paragraphs."
Under "Maxims" you will find 300 one-sentence summaries of his
300 paragraphs,
with links to the "Paragraphs" section on this page, which
contains his entire book.
If you like "The Art Of Worldly Wisdom" and decide you want to buy it, you can do it at: amazon.com and shambhala.com
1 . Everything is at its peak of perfection.
2 .
Character and intellect.
3 .
Keep matters for a time in suspense.
4 .
Knowledge and courage.
5 .
Make people depend on you.
6 .
A person at his peak.
7 .
Avoid outshining your superiors.
8 .
Be without passions.
9 .
Avoid the faults of your nation.
10 . Fortune and Fame.
11 . Cultivate relationships with those who can teach you.
12 . Nature and art, material and workmanship.
13 . Act sometimes on second thoughts, sometimes on first
impulse.
14
. The thing itself and the way it is done.
15 . Keep auxiliary wits around you.
16 . Knowledge and good intentions.
17 . Vary your mode of action.
18 . Application and ability.
19 . Arouse no exaggerated expectations when you start
something.
20 . A man of the times.
21 . The art of being lucky.
22 . Knowledge has a purpose.
23 . Be free of imperfections.
24 . Keep you imagination under control.
25 . Know how to take a hint.
26 . Find out each person's thumbscrew.
27 . Prize intensity more than extent.
28 . Be common in nothing.
29 . Be a person of integrity.
30 . Have nothing to do with disreputable occupations.
31 . Select the lucky and avoid the unlucky.
32 . Have a reputation for being gracious.
33 . Know how to withdraw.
34 . Know your strongest quality.
35 . Think things over, especially those that are important.
36 . Before acting or refraining weigh your luck.
37 . Keep a store of sarcasms and know how to use them.
38 . Leave your luck while still winning.
39 . Recognize when things are ripe, and know how to enjoy
them.
40
. Gain people's goodwill.
41 . Never exaggerate.
42 . Natural leadership.
43 . Think with the few and speak with the many.
44 . Sympathy with great minds.
45 . Use, but do not abuse, cunning.
46 . Master your antipathies.
47 . Avoid incurring obligations.
48 . So much depends on being a person of depth.
49 . Be a person of observation and judgement.
50 . Never lose your self-respect.
51 . Know how to choose well.
52 . Never be upset.
53 . Be diligent and intelligent.
54 . Know how to show your strength.
55 . Know how to wait.
56 . Have presence of mind.
57 . Be slow and sure.
58 . Adapt yourself to those around you.
59 . Finish off well.
60 . Have sound judgement.
61 . Excel in what is excellent.
62 . Use good instruments.
63 . To be the first of the kind is excellent.
64 . Avoid worry.
65 . Cultivate taste.
66 . See to it that things end well.
67 . Choose an occupation that wins distinction.
68 . It is better to help with intelligence than with memory.
69 . Do not give way to every common impulse.
70 . Know how to say "no".
71 . Do not vacillate.
72 . Be resolute.
73 . Know how to use evasion.
74 . Do not be unapproachable.
75 . Chose a heroic ideal.
76 . Do not always be joking.
77 . Be all things to all people.
78 . The art of undertaking things.
79 . A jovial disposition.
80 . Take care when you get information.
81 . Renew your brilliance.
82 . Drain nothing to the dregs, neither good nor bad.
83 . Allow yourself some forgivable sin.
84 . Make use of your enemies.
85 . Do not be a wild card, a jack-of-all-trades.
86 . Prevent scandal.
87 . Culture and elegance.
88 . Let your behavior be fine and noble.
89 . Know yourself.
90 . The secret of long life.
91 . Never set to work at anything if you have any doubts about its
prudence.
92
. Transcendent wisdom.
93 . Versatility.
94 . Keep the extent of your abilities unknown.
95 . Keep expectation alive.
96 . The highest discretion.
97 . Obtain and preserve a reputation.
98 . Write your intentions in cypher.
99 . Reality and appearance.
100 . Be a person without illusions, one who is wise and righteous, a
philosophical courtier.
101 . One half of the world laughs at the other, and fools are they
all.
102
. Be able to stomach big slices of luck.
103 . Let each keep up his dignity.
104 . Get to know what is needed in different occupations.
105 . Do not be a bore.
106 . Do not parade your position.
107 . Show no self-satisfaction.
108 . The shortest path to greatness is along with others.
109 . Do not be censorious.
110 . Do not wait till you are a setting sun.
111 . Have friends.
112 . Gain goodwill.
113 . In times of prosperity prepare for adversity.
114 . Never compete.
115 . Get used to the failings of those around you.
116 . Only act with honorable people.
117 . Never talk about yourself.
118 . Acquire the reputation for courtesy.
119 . Avoid becoming disliked.
120 . Live practically.
121 . Do not make much ado about nothing.
122 . Distinction in speech and action.
123 . Avoid affectation.
124 . Make yourself sought after.
125 . Do not be a blacklister of other people's faults.
126 . Folly consists not in committing folly, but in not hiding it when
committed..
127 . Grace in everything.
128 . High -mindedness.
129 . Never complain.
130 . Do and be seen doing.
131 . Nobility of feeling.
132 . Revise your judgements.
133 . Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
134 . Double your resources.
135 . Do not nourish the spirit of contradiction.
136 . Post yourself in the center of things.
137 . The sage should be self-sufficient.
138 . The art of letting things alone.
139 . Recognize unlucky days.
140 . Find the good in a thing at once.
141 . Do not listen to yourself.
142 . Never from obstinacy take the wrong side because your opponent
has anticipated you by taking the right one.
143 . Never become paradoxical in order to avoid being trite.
144 . Begin with another's to end with your own.
145 . Do not show your wounded finger, for everything will knock up
against it.
146 . Look into the interior of things.
147 . Do not be inaccessible.
148 . Have the art of conversation.
149 . Know how to put off ills on others.
150 . Know how to get your price for things.
151 . Think beforehand.
152 . Never have a companion who outshines you.
153 . Beware of entering where there is a great gap to be
filled.
154
. Do not believe, or like, lightly.
155 . The art of mastering your passions.
156 . Select your friends.
157 . Do not make mistakes about character.
158 . Make use of your friends.
159 . Put up with fools.
160 . Be careful in speaking.
161 . Know your pet faults.
162 . How to triumph over your rivals and detractors.
163 . Never - out of sympathy with the unfortunate - involve yourself
in their fate.
164 . Throw straws in the air to test the wind.
165 . Wage war honorably.
166 . Distinguish people of words from people of deeds.
167 . Know how to rely on yourself.
168 . Do not indulge in the eccentricities of folly.
169 . Be more careful not to miss once than to hit a hundred
times.
170
. In all things keep something in reserve.
171 . Do not waste influence.
172 . Never contend with someone who has nothing to lose.
173 . Do not be made of glass in your relations with others, still less
in friendship.
174 . Do not live in a hurry.
175 . A solid person.
176 . Have knowledge, or know those who do.
177 . Avoid being to familiar with others.
178 . Trust your heart.
179 . Reticence is the seal of capacity.
180 . Never guide the enemy to what he has to do.
181 . The truth, but not the whole truth.
182 . A grain of boldness in everything.
183 . Do not hold your views to firmly.
184 . Do not stand on ceremony.
185 . Never stake your credit on a single cast of the dice.
186 . Recognize faults, however highly placed.
187 . Do pleasant things yourself, unpleasant things through
others.
188
. Be the bearer of praise.
189 . Utilize another's wants.
190 . Find consolation in all things.
191 . Do not take payment in politeness.
192 . A peaceful life is a long life.
193 . Watch out for people who begin with another's concerns to end
with their own.
194 . Have reasonable views of yourself and of your affairs.
195 . Know how to appreciate.
196 . Know your ruling star.
197 . Do not carry fools on your back.
198 . Know how to transplant yourself.
199 . Find your proper place by merit, not by presumption.
200 . Leave something to wish for.
201 . They are all fools who seem so, as well as half the
rest.
202
. Words and deeds make the perfect person.
203 . Know the great people of your age.
204 . Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult and difficult as if
they were easy.
205 . Know how to play the card of contempt.
206 . Know that there are vulgar people everywhere.
207 . Be moderate.
208 . Do not die of the fools' disease.
209 . Keep yourself free from common follies.
210 . Know how to play the card of truth.
211 . In heaven all is bliss.
212 . Keep to yourself the final touches of your art.
213 . Know how to contradict.
214 . Do not turn one blunder into two.
215 . Watch out for those who act on second thoughts.
216 . Be expressive.
217 . Neither love nor hate forever.
218 . Never act from obstinacy but from knowledge.
219 . Do not pass for a hypocrite.
220 . If you cannot clothe yourself in lion-skin use foxpelt.
221 . Do not seize occasions to embarrass yourself or others.
222 . Reserve is proof of prudence.
223 . Do not be eccentric, neither from affectation nor
carelessness.
224 . Never take things against the grain, no matter how they
come.
225
. Know your chief fault.
226 . Take care to be obliging.
227 . Do not be the slave of first impressions.
228 . Do not be a scandalmonger.
229 . Plan out your life wisely.
230 . Open your eyes early.
231 . Never let things be seen half finished.
232 . Have a touch of business sense.
233 . Do not let the morsels you offer be distasteful.
234 . Never trust your honor to another, unless you have his in
pledge.
235
. Know how to ask.
236 . Make an obligation beforehand of what would have to be a reward
afterward.
237 . Never share the secrets of your superiors.
238 . Know what is lacking in yourself.
239 . Do not be overly critical.
240 . Make use of folly.
241 . Put up with mockery but do not practice it yourself.
242 . Push advantages.
243 . Do not be too much of a dove.
244 . Create a feeling of obligation.
245 . Have original and out-of-the-way views.
246 . Never offer satisfaction unless it is demanded.
247 . Know a little more, live a little less.
248 . Do not go with the latest speaker.
249 . Never begin life with what should end it.
250 . When to turn conversation around.
251 . Use human means as if there were no divine ones, and divine means
as if there were no human ones.
252 . Neither belong entirely to yourself nor entirely to
others.
253
. Do not explain too much.
254 . Never despise an evil, however small.
255 . Do good a little at a time, but often.
256 . Go prepared.
257 . Never let matters come to a braking point.
258 . Find someone to share your troubles with.
259 . Anticipate injuries and turn them into favors.
260 . We belong to no one and no one to us, entirely.
261 . Do not follow up a folly.
262 . Be able to forget.
263 . Many things of taste one should not possess oneself.
264 . Have no careless days.
265 . Set difficult tasks for those under you.
266 . Do not become bad from sheer goodness.
267 . Silken words, sugared manners.
268 . The wise do at once what the fool does later.
269 . Make use of the novelty of your position.
270 . Do not condemn alone that which pleases all.
271 . In every occupation, if you know little stick to the safe
path.
272
. Sell things with a tariff of courtesy.
273 . Comprehend the disposition of the people you deal with.
274 . Be attractive.
275 . Join in the game as far as decency permits.
276 . Know how to renew your character both with nature and with
art.
277
. Display yourself.
278 . Avoid notoriety in all things.
279 . Do not respond to those who contradict you.
280 . Be trustworthy.
281 . Find favor with people of good sense.
282 . Make use of absence to make yourself more esteemed or
valued.
283
. Have the gift of discovery.
284 . Do not be burdensome.
285 . Never die of another's bad luck.
286 . Do not become responsible for all or for everyone.
287 . Never act out of passion.
288 . Live for the moment.
289 . Nothing depreciates a person more than to show he is just like
anyone else.
290 . It is a piece of good fortune to combine people's love and
respect.
291 . Know how to test people.
292 . Let your personal qualities surpass the requirements of your
office.
293
. Maturity.
294 . Be moderate in your views.
295 . Do not affect what you have not effected.
296 . Noble qualities.
297 . Always act as if others were watching.
298 . Three things go to a prodigy.
299 . Leave of hungry.
300 . In one word, be a saint.
1. Everything is at its peak of perfection. This is especially
true of the art
of making one's way in the world. There is more required
nowadays to make a
single wise person than formerly to make the Seven Sages
of ancient Greece, and
more is needed nowadays to make a single person than
was required with a whole
people in former times
Back to
Maxims
2. Character and intellect. These are the two poles of our
capacity; one
without the other is but halfway to happiness. Intellect is
not enough,
character is also needed. On the other hand, it is the fool's
misfortune to
fail in obtaining the position, employment, neighborhood, and
circle of friends
of his choice.
Back to
Maxims
3. Keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their
novelty heightens
the value of your achievements. It is both useless and
insipid to play with
your cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself
immediately, you arouse
expectation, especially when the importance of your
position makes you the
object of general attention. Mix a little with
everything, and the very mystery
arouses veneration. And when you explain,
do not be too explicit, just as you
do not expose your inmost thoughts in
ordinary conversation. Cautious silence
is the sacred sanctuary of worldly
wisdom. A resolution declared is never
highly thought of - it only leaves
room for criticism. And if it happens to
fail, you are doubly unfortunate.
Besides, you imitate the divine way when you
inspire people to wonder and
watch.
Back to
Maxims
4. Knowledge and courage. These are the elements of greatness.
Because they
are immortal they bestow immortality. Each is as much as he
knows, and the wise
can do anything. A person without knowledge is in a
world without light.
Wisdom and strength are the eyes and hands. Knowledge
without courage is
sterile.
Back to
Maxims
5. Make people depend on you. It is not he that adorns but he
that adores that
makes a divinity. The wise person would rather see others
needing him than
thanking him. To keep them on the threshold of hope is
diplomatic, to trust to
their gratitude is boorish; hope has a good memory,
gratitude a bad one. More
is to be got from dependence than from courtesy.
He that has satisfied his
thirst turns his back on the well, and the orange
once squeezed fall from the
golden platter into the waste basket. When
dependence disappears good behavior
goes with it, as well as respect. Let it
be one of the chief lessons of
experience to keep hope alive without
entirely satisfying it, by preserving it
to make oneself always needed, even
by a patron on the throne. But do not carry
silence to excess or you will go
wrong, nor let another's failing grow incurable
for the sake of your own
advantage.
Back to
Maxims
6. A person at his peak. We are not born perfect. Every day we
develop in our
personality and in our profession until we reach the highest
point of our
completed being, to the full round of our accomplishments and
of our
excellences. This is known by the purity of our taste, the clearness
of our
thought, the maturity of our judgement, and the firmness of our will.
Some
never arrive at being complete - something is always lacking. Others
ripen
late. The complete person - wise in speech, prudent in act - is
admitted to the
familiar intimacy of discreet people and is even sought out
by them.
Back to
Maxims
7. Avoid outshining your superiors. All victories breed hate,
and that over
your superior is foolish or fatal. Preeminence is always
detested, especially
over those who are in high positions. Caution can gloss
over common advantages.
For example, good looks may be cloaked by careless
attire. There are some that
will grant you superiority in good luck or in
good temper, but none in good
sense, least of all a prince - for good sense
is a royal prerogative and any
claim of superiority in that is a crime
against majesty. They are princes, and
wish to be so in that most princely
of qualities. They will allow someone to
help them but not to surpass them.
So make any advice given to them appear
like a recollection of something
they have only forgotten rather than as a guide
to something they cannot
find. The stars teach us this finesse with happy tact:
though they are his
children and brilliant like him, they never rival the
brilliance of the
sun.
Back to
Maxims
8. Be without passions. This is the highest quality of the
mind. Its very
eminence redeems us from being affected by transient and low
impulses. There is
no higher rule than that over oneself, over one's
impulses; there is the triumph
of free will. When passion rules your
character do not let it threaten your
position, especially if it is a high
one. It is the only refined way of
avoiding trouble and the shortest way
back to a good reputation.
Back to
Maxims
9. Avoid the faults of your nation. Water shares the good or
bad qualities of
the channels through which it flows and people share those
of the climate in
which they are born. Some owe more than others to their
native land, because
there is a more favorable sky in the zenith. There is
not a nation among even
the most civilized that has not some fault peculiar
to itself that other nations
blame by way of boast or as a warning. It is a
triumph of cleverness to correct
in oneself such failings, or even to hide
them. You get great credit for being
unique among your fellows because what
is less expected is esteemed all the
more. There are also family failings as
well as faults of position, of office,
or of age. If these all meet in one
person and are not carefully guarded
against, they make an intolerable
monster.
Back to
Maxims
10. Fortune and Fame. Where the one is fickle the other is
enduring. The first
is for this life, this second for the next; fortune
against envy, fame against
oblivion. Fortune is desired and sometimes
nurtured, but fame is earned. The
desire for fame springs from virtue. Fame
was and is the sister of the giants;
it always goes to extremes - either
horrible monsters or brilliant prodigies.
Back to
Maxims
11. Cultivate relationships with those who can teach you. Let
friendly
intercourse be a school of knowledge, and let culture be taught
through
conversation. Thus you make your friends your teachers and mingle
the pleasures
of conversation with the advantages of instruction. Sensible
people enjoy
alternating pleasures: you are rewarded with applause for what
you say and you
gain instruction from what you hear. We are always attracted
to others by our
own interest, but in this case it is of a higher kind. Wise
people frequent the
houses of great nobility as theaters of heroism not
temples of vanity. They are
renowned for their worldly wisdom, not only for
being oracles of all nobleness
by their example and their behavior, but
because those who surround them form a
courtly academy of worldly wisdom of
the best and noblest kind.
Back to
Maxims
12. Nature and art, material and workmanship. There is no
beauty unadorned and
no excellence that would not become barbaric if it were
not supported by
artifice. This remedies the bad and improves the good.
Nature scarcely ever
give us the very best - for that we must have recourse
to art. Without this the
best of natural dispositions remains uncultured,
lacking half its excellence if
training is absent. Everyone has something
unrefined that needs training, and
every kind of excellence needs some
polish.
Back to
Maxims
13. Act sometimes on second thoughts, sometimes on first
impulse. Life is a
warfare against the malice of others. Sagacity fights
with strategic changes of
intention - never doing what it threatens, aiming
only to escape notice. It
aims in the air with dexterity and strikes home in
an unexpected direction,
always seeking to conceal its game. It lets a
purpose appear in order to
attract the opponent's attention, but then turns
round and conquers by the
unexpected. But a penetrating intelligence
anticipates this by watchfulness and
lurks in ambush. It always understands
the opposite of what the opponent wishes
it to understand, and recognizes
every feint of guile. It lets the first
impulse pass by and waits for the
second. , or even the third. Sagacity now
rises to higher flights on seeing
its artifice foreseen: It tries to deceive by
truth itself, changing its
game in order to change its deceit, cheats by not
cheating, and bases its
deception on the greatest candor. But the opposing
intelligence is on guard
with increased watchfulness and discovers the darkness
concealed by the
light and deciphers every move, the more subtle because more
simple. In this
way the guile of the Python combats the far darting rays of
Apollo.
Back to
Maxims
14. The thing itself and the way it is done. Substance
is not enough,
attention to circumstance is also required. A bad
manner spoils
everything - even reason and justice - a good one supplies
everything, gilds,
even sweetens truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old
age itself. The
how plays a large part in affairs, a good manners
steal people's hearts.
Fine behavior is a joy in life, and a pleasant
expression can help you out of a
difficult situation in a remarkable
way.
Back to
Maxims
15. Keep auxiliary wits around you. It is a privilege of the
powerful to
surround themselves with the champions of intellect who protect
them from the
dangers of every ignorance, who untangle them from the snarls
of every
difficulty. It is a rare greatness to know how to make use of the
wise; it far
exceeds the barbarous taste of Tigranes, who delighted in
enslaving kings as his
servants. It is a novel kind of supremacy - the best
that life can offer - to
use skill to make as servants of those who by
nature are our masters. It is a
great thing to know, little to live; there
is no real life without knowledge.
There is remarkable cleverness in
studying without effort, in getting much by
means of many, and through them
all to become wise. Afterwards, you speak in
the council of chambers on
behalf of many, and since as many sages speak through
your mouth as were
consulted beforehand you thus obtain the fame of an oracle by
others'
efforts. Such auxiliary wits distil the best books and serve up the
quintessence of wisdom. He that cannot have sages for service should have
them
as his friends.
Back to
Maxims
16. Knowledge and good intentions. Together they ensure
continued success. A
fine intellect wedded to a wicked will is always an
unnatural monster. A wicked
will poisons all perfections; helped by
knowledge it only ruins with greater
subtlety. It is a miserable superiority
that only results in ruin. Knowledge
without sense is doubly
folly.
Back to
Maxims
17. Vary your mode of action. So as to distract attention, do
not always do
things the same way, especially if you have a rival. Do not
always act on first
impulse; people will soon recognize the uniformity and,
by anticipating,
frustrate your designs. It is easy to kill a bird on the
wing that flies
straight, not so one that twists and turns. Nor should you
always act on second
thoughts; people will discern the plan the second time.
The enemy is on the
watch, great skill is required to outwit him. The
gamester never plays the card
the opponent expects, still less the one he
wants.
Back to
Maxims
18. Application and ability. There is no attaining eminence
without both, and
where they unite there is the greatest fame. Mediocre
people obtain more with
application than superior people without it. Work is
the price that is paid for
reputation. What costs little is of little worth.
Even for the highest posts
it is only in some cases application that is
wanting, rarely the talent. To
prefer moderate success in great things over
eminence in a humble post may be
excused by a generous mind, but there is no
excuse for being content with humble
mediocrity when you could shine among
the highest. Thus nature and art are both
needed, and application makes them
complete.
Back to
Maxims
19. Arouse no exaggerated expectations when you start
something. It is the
misfortune of all celebrated people not to fulfill
afterwards the expectations
beforehand formed of them. The real can never
equal the imagined, for it is
easy to form ideals but very difficult to
realize them. Imagination weds hope
and gives birth to much more than things
are in themselves. However excellent
something is, it never suffices to
fulfill expectations. And as people find
themselves disappointed with their
exorbitant expectations they are more readily
disillusioned than impressed.
Hope is a great falsifier of truth; let skill
guard against this by ensuring
that fruition exceeds desire. A few creditable
attempts at the beginning are
sufficient to arouse curiosity without pledging
one to the final object. It
is better that reality should surpass the design
and it turns out better
than was thought. This rule does not apply to wicked
things, for the same
exaggeration is a great aid with them and draws general
applause; what
seemed at first extreme ruin comes to be thought of as quite
bearable.
Back to
Maxims
20. A man of the times. The rarest individuals depend on their
times. It is
not everyone that finds the times he deserves, and even when he
finds it he does
not always know how to utilize it. Some people have been
worthy of a better
century, for every species of good does not always
triumph. Things have their
period - even excellent qualities are subject to
fashion. Wisdom has one
advantage: she is immortal. If this is not her
century many others will be.
Back to
Maxims
21. The art of being lucky. There are rules of luck and the
wise do not leave
it all to chance. Luck can be assisted by care. Some
content themselves with
placing themselves confidently at the gate of
fortune, waiting till she opens
it. Others do better, and
press forward and profit by their clever boldness,
reaching the goddess and
winning her favor on the wings of their virtue and
valor. But a true
philosophy has no other umpire than virtue and insight - for
there is no
good or bad luck except wisdom and foolishness.
Back to
Maxims
22. Knowledge has a purpose. Wise people arm themselves with
tasteful and
elegant erudition - a practical and expert knowledge of what is
going on, not
common gossip. They possess a copious store of wise and witty
sayings, and of
noble deeds, and know how to employ them at the right
moment. Often, more is
taught by a jest than by the most serious teaching.
Knowledge gained in
conversation can be of more help than the seven arts,
however liberal.
Back to
Maxims
23. Be free of imperfections. Few live without some weak
point, either physical
or moral, which they pamper even though they could
easily cure it. The keenness
of others often regrets to see a slight defect
attaching itself to a whole
assembly of elevated qualities, and yet a single
cloud can hide the whole of the
sun. There are likewise
blemishes on our reputation, which those with ill will
soon discover and
continually point out. The highest skill is to transform them
into ornament.
So Caesar hid his natural defect (baldness) with the laurel.
Back
to Maxims
24. Keep you imagination under control. You must sometimes
correct it,
sometimes assist it. For it is all important for out happiness
and balances
reason. The imagination can tyrannize, not being content with
looking on, but
influences and even often dominates our life. It can make us
happy or burden
us, depending on the folly that it leads us to. It can make
us either content
or discontent with ourselves. Before some people it
continually holds up the
penalties of action and becomes the mortifying lash
of fools. To others the
imagination promises happiness and adventure with
blissful delusion. It can do
all this unless you lord over it with the most
prudent self-control.
Back to
Maxims
25. Know how to take a hint. It was once the art of arts to be
able to
discourse, now it is no longer sufficient. We must know how to take
a hint,
especially in disabusing ourselves. You cannot make yourself
understood if you
do not easily understand others. There are some who act
like diviners of the
heart and lynxes of intentions. The very truths that
concern us most are only
half spoken, but with attention we can grasp the
whole meaning. When you hear
anything favorable keep a tight rein on your
credulity; if unfavorable, give it
the spur.
Back to
Maxims
26. Find out each person's thumbscrew. This is the art of
setting their wills
in action. It needs more skill than resolution. You must
know where to get at
any one. Every volition has a special motive that
varies according to taste.
All people idolize something; for some it is
fame, for others self-interest, for
most it is pleasure. Skill consists in
knowing these idols in order to bring
them into play. Know a person's
mainspring of motive and you have as it were
the key to his will. Have
resort to primary motives, which are not always the
highest but more often
the lowest part of his nature because there are more
dispositions badly
organized than well. First guess a person's ruling passion,
appeal to it
with words, set it in motion by temptation, and you will always
checkmate
his freedom of will.
Back to
Maxims
27. Prize intensity more than extent. Excellence resides in
quality not in
quantity. The best is always few and rare - abundance lowers
value. Even among
men, the giants are usually really dwarfs. Some reckon
books by the thickness,
as if they were written to exercise the brawn more
than the brain. Extent alone
never rises above mediocrity; it is the
misfortune of universal geniuses that in
attempting to be at home everywhere
are so nowhere. Intensity give eminence and
rises to the heroic in matters
sublime.
Back to
Maxims
28. Be common in nothing. Especially not in taste. It is great
and wise to be
ill at ease when your deeds please the mob! The excesses of
popular applause
never satisfy the sensible. There are chameleons of
popularity who find
enjoyment not in the sweet savors of Apollo but in the
breath of the mob.
Secondly, do not be common in intelligence; take no
pleasure in the wonder of
the mob, for ignorance never gets beyond wonder.
While vulgar folly wonders,
wisdom watches for the deception.
Back
to Maxims
29. Be a person of integrity. Cling to righteousness with such
tenacity of
purpose that neither the passions of the mob nor the violence of
the tyrant can
ever cause you to transgress the bounds of right. But who can
be such a phoenix
of equity? What a scanty following rectitude has! Many
praise it indeed, but
few devote themselves. Others follow it until danger
threatens; then the false
deny it and the political conceal it. For
righteousness cares not if it
conflicts with friendship, power, or even
self-interest; then comes the danger
of desertion. Astute people make
plausible distinctions so as not to stand in
the way of their superiors or
of reason of state. But straightforward and
constant people regard deception
as a kind of treason and set more store in
tenacity than on sagacity. Such
people are always to be found on the side of
truth, and if they desert a
group they do not change due to fickleness but
because the others have first
deserted truth.
Back to
Maxims
30. Have nothing to do with disreputable occupations. And have
still less to do
with fads that bring more notoriety than good reputation.
There are many
fanciful sects, and the prudent person flees from them all.
There are people
with bizarre tastes that always take to heart everything
that wise people
repudiate. They live in love with eccentricity, and this
may make them well
known indeed but more as an object of ridicule than of
good reputation. A
cautious person does not make public his pursuit of
wisdom, still less those
matters that make him or his followers seem
ridiculous. These need not be
specified - common contempt has sufficiently
singled them out.
Back to
Maxims
31. Select the lucky and avoid the unlucky. Bad luck is
generally the penalty
of folly and for the unfortunate there is no disease
so contagious. Never open
the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater
ones will invariably slink in
after it. The greatest skill at cards is to
know when to discard; the smallest
of current tramps is worth more than the
ace of trumps of the last game. When
in doubt, follow the suit of the wise
and the prudent - sooner or later they
will win the odd trick.
Back
to Maxims
32. Have a reputation for being gracious. It is the chief
glory of the high and
the mighty to be gracious, a prerogative of kings to
conquer with universal
goodwill. That is the great advantage of a commanding
position - to be able to
do more good than others. Those make friends who do
friendly acts. On the
other hand, there are some who fix themselves on not
being gracious, not on
account of difficulty but due to a bad disposition.
In all things they are the
opposite of divine grace.
Back to
Maxims
33. Know how to withdraw. If it is a great lesson in life to
know how to deny,
it is still greater to know how to deny oneself as regards
both affairs and
persons. There are extraneous occupations that eat away
precious time. To be
occupied in what does not concern you is worse than
doing nothing. It is not
enough for a careful person not to interfere with
others, he must see that they
do not interfere with him. One is not obliged
to belong so much to others as
not to belong at all to oneself. So with
friends, their help should not be
abused or more demanded from them than
they themselves will grant. All excess
is a failing, but above all in
personal relationships. A wise moderation in
this best preserves the
goodwill and esteem for all, for by this means that
precious boon of
courtesy is not gradually worn away. Thus you preserve your
genius and
freedom to select the best and never sin against the unwritten laws
of good
taste.
Back to
Maxims
34. Know your strongest quality. Know your preeminent gift -
cultivate it and
it will assist the rest. Everyone would have excelled in
something if he had
known his strong point. Notice in what quality you
surpass and take charge of
that. In some people judgement excels, in others
valor. Most do violence to
their natural aptitude and thus attain
superiority in nothing. Time enlightens
us too late of what was first only a
flattering of the passions.
Back to
Maxims
35. Think things over, especially those that are important.
All fools come to
grief from lack of thought. They never see even half the
things and, as they
do not observe their own loss or gain, still less do
they apply any diligence to
them. Some make much of what matters little and
little of much, always weighing
on the wrong scale. Many never lose their
common sense, because they have non
to lose. There are matters that should
be observed with the closest attention,
and thereafter always kept well in
mind. The wise person thinks over
everything, but with a difference, most
profoundly where there is more in it
than he first thought. Thus his
comprehension extends as far as his
apprehension.
Back to
Maxims
36. Before acting or refraining weigh your luck. More depends
on that than on
noticing your temperament. If he is a fool who at forty
applies first to
Hippocrates for health, still more is he one who only first
applies to Seneca
for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to
guide your luck while
waiting for it. For something is accomplished by just
waiting to use it at the
proper moment, since it has periods and offers
opportunities - though one cannot
calculate its path because its steps are
irregular. When you find fortune
favorable, stride boldly forward, for she
favors the bold and, being a woman,
the young. But if you have bad luck,
withdraw so as not to redouble the
influence of your unlucky
star.
Back to
Maxims
37. Keep a store of sarcasms and know how to use them. This is
the point of
greatest tact in human intercourse. Such sarcasms are often
thrown out to test
people's moods, and by their means one often obtains the
most subtle and
penetrating touchstone of the heart. Other sarcasms are
malicious, insolent,
poisoned by envy or envenomed by passion, unexpected
flashes that destroy at
once all favor and esteem. Struck by the slightest
word of this kind, many fall
away from the closest intimacy with superiors
or inferiors that would not have
been the slightest shaken by a whole
conspiracy of popular insinuation or
private malevolence. Other sarcasms
work favorably, confirming and assisting
one's reputation. But the greater
the skill with which they are launched, the
greater the caution with which
they should be anticipated and received. For
here a knowledge of malice is
in itself a means of defense, and a shot foreseen
always misses its
mark.
Back to
Maxims
38. Leave your luck while still winning. All the best players
do it. A fine
retreat is as good as a gallant attack. Bring your exploits
under cover when
there are enough, or even when there are many of them. Luck
too long lasting is
always suspicious; alternating luck seems safer, and is
even sweeter to the
taste for a little infusion of bitter sweet. The higher
the heap of luck, the
greater the risk of a slip, and down comes all.
Fortune pays you sometimes for
the intensity of her favors by the shortness
of their duration. She soon tires
of carrying anyone long on her
shoulders.
Back to
Maxims
39. Recognize when things are ripe, and know how to enjoy
them. The works of
nature all reach a certain point of maturity - up to then
they improve, then
they degenerate. Few works of art reach such a point that
they cannot be
improved. It is a special privilege of good taste to enjoy
everything at its
ripest. Not everyone can do this, nor do all who can know
how. There is a
ripening point too for fruits of intellect, but it is
important to know how to
recognize it in order to both value it and use
it.
Back to
Maxims
40. Gain people's goodwill. It is a great thing to gain
universal admiration,
but greater to gain universal affection. It depends on
natural disposition but
more so on practice; the first is the foundation,
the second then builds on
that. Great gifts are not enough, though they are
thought to be essential - win
good opinion and it is easy to win goodwill.
Kindly acts are required to
produce kindly feelings - do good with both
hands, good words and better deeds,
love so as to be loved. Courtesy is the
politic magic of great people. First,
lay the hand on deeds and then on the
pen - words follow swords and the goodwill
to be won among writers is
eternal.
Back to
Maxims
41. Never exaggerate. It is an important object of attention
not to talk in
superlatives, so as neither to offend truth nor cast doubt on
your
understanding. Exaggeration wastes distinctions and shows the
narrowness of
one's knowledge or taste. Praise arises lively curiosity,
begets desire and if
afterwards the value does not correspond to the price -
as generally happens -
expectation revolts against the deception and
revenges itself by cheapening both
the thing praised and the praiser. A
prudent person goes more cautiously to
works and prefers to err by
understatement than by overstatement. Extraordinary
things are rare,
therefore temper your evaluation. Exaggeration is akin to
lying, and you
jeopardize your reputation for good taste and - much worse - good
sense.
Back to
Maxims
42. Natural leadership. It is a secret force of superiority
not to have to get
by artful trickery but by an inborn power of rule. All
submit to it without
knowing why, recognizing the secret vigor of natural
authority. Such
magisterial spirits are kings by merit and lions by innate
privilege. By the
esteem that they inspire, they hold the hearts and minds
of those around them.
If their other qualities permit, such people are born
to be the prime movers of
the state. They perform more by a gesture than
others by a long harangue.
Back to
Maxims
43. Think with the few and speak with the many. Swimming
against the stream
makes it impossible to remove error and easy to fall into
danger - only a
Socrates can undertake it. To dissent from others' views is
regarded as an
insult, because it is a condemnation of their judgement. The
offense is doubled
on account of the judgement condemned and of the person
who championed it.
Truth is for the few, error is both common and vulgar.
The wise person is not
known by what he says on the public square, for there
he speaks not with his own
voice but with that of common folly, however much
his inmost thoughts may deny
it. The prudent person avoids
being contradicted as much as he avoids
contradicting others - though they
have their judgement ready they are not ready
to publish it. Thought is
free, force cannot and should not be used on it. The
wise person therefore
retires into silence and if he allows himself to come out
of it, he does so
in the shade and before few and fit persons.
Back to
Maxims
44. Sympathy with great minds. It is a heroic quality to agree
with heroes. It
is like a miracle of nature both because of its mystery and
for its usefulness.
There is a natural kinship of hearts and minds; its
effects are such that vulgar
ignorance attributes it to magic potions.
Esteem and goodwill follow and at
times reach affection. It persuades
without words and obtains without earning.
This sympathy is sometimes
active, sometimes passive; both bring great happiness
- the more so, the
more sublime. It is a great art to recognize, to
distinguish, and to utilize
this gift. No amount of energy suffices without
that favor of
nature.
Back to
Maxims
45. Use, but do not abuse, cunning. One ought not to delight
in it, still less
boast of it. Everything artificial should be concealed,
most of all cunning,
which is hated. Deceit is common, so our caution has to
be redoubled, but not
so as to show itself, for caution arouses distrust,
causes annoyance, awakens
revenge, and gives rise to more ills than you
would imagine. To go to work with
caution is of great advantage in action,
and there is no greater proof of
wisdom. The greatest skill in any deed
consists in the sure mastery with which
it is executed.
Back
to Maxims
46. Master your antipathies. We often allow ourselves to form
dislikes of
people, even before we know anything about them. At times this
innate yet
vulgar aversion attaches itself to eminent people. Good sense
masters this
feeling, for there is nothing better than ourselves. As
sympathy with great
people ennobles us, so dislike of them degrades
us.
Back to
Maxims
47. Avoid incurring obligations. This is one of the chief aims
of prudence.
People of great ability keep extremes far apart, so that there
is a long
distance between them. They always keep in the middle of their
caution, so they
take time to act. It is easier to avoid committing yourself
to something than
it is to come out of it well. Such affairs test our
judgement - it is better to
avoid them than to conquer in them. One
obligation leads to another and may
lead to an affair of dishonor. There are
people so constituted by nature or by
nation that they easily enter upon
such obligations. But for those who walk by
the light of reason, such
matters require long thinking over. There is more
valor needed not to take
up the affair than in conquering in it. When there is
one fool ready for the
occasion, one may excuse oneself from being the second.
Back to
Maxims
48. So much depends on being a person of depth. The interior
must be at least
as impressive as the exterior. Some people's character is
all façade, like
houses that, due to lack of means, have the portico of a
palace leading to the
rooms of a cottage. It is no use boring into such
people - although they will
bore you - because conversation flags after the
first salutation. They prance
through the first compliments like Sicilian
stallions, but silence quickly
follows, for the flow of words soon ceases
where there is no spring of thoughts.
Others may be taken in by them because
they themselves have superficial views,
but not the prudent, who look within
them and find nothing there except material
for scorn.
Back
to Maxims
49. Be a person of observation and judgement. Such a person
rules things, not
they him. He quickly plumbs the most profound depths. He
knows how to get at
the anatomy of character. On seeing a person he
understands him and judges his
inmost nature. From a few observations he
deciphers what is most hidden. Keen
observation, subtle insight, judicious
inference - with these he discovers,
notices grasps, and comprehends
everything.
Back to
Maxims
50. Never lose your self-respect. And do not be too
self-conscious. Let your
own integrity be the true standard of your
rectitude, and let your own self-
judgement be more strict than all external
laws. Avoid anything unseemly more
from regard for your own self-respect
than from fear of external authority. Pay
regard to that and there is no
need of Seneca's imaginary monitor.
Back
to Maxims
51. Know how to choose well. Most of life depends on this. You
need good taste
and correct judgement, for which neither intellect nor study
suffices. To be
choice, you must choose well, and for this two things are
needed: to be able to
choose at all, and then to choose the best. There are
many people with fertile
and subtle minds, of keen judgement, of much
learning, and of great observation
who still are at a loss when they come to
choosing. They always take the worst
as if they were determined to go wrong.
Thus, knowing how to choose well is one
of the greatest gifts.
Back
to Maxims
52. Never be upset. It is a great aim of prudence never to be
embarrassed.
This is the sign of a real person, of a noble heart, for
magnanimity is not
easily put off balance. The passions are the humors of
the soul, and every
excess in them weakens prudence. If they overflow
through the mouth, the
reputation will be in danger. Let us therefore be so
great a master over
ourselves that neither in the most fortunate nor in the
most adverse
circumstances can anything cause our reputation injury by
disturbing our self-
possession but rather enhance it by showing
superiority.
Back to
Maxims
53. Be diligent and intelligent. Diligence promptly executes
what intelligence
carefully thought through. Haste is the failing of fools -
they know not the
obstacles and set to work without preparation. On the
other hand, the wise more
often fail from procrastination - foresight begets
deliberation, and delay often
nullifies prompt judgement. Promptness is the
mother of good fortune. He has
done much who leaves nothing until tomorrow.
"Make haste slowly" is a
magnificent motto.
Back to
Maxims
54. Know how to show your strength. Even hares can pull the
mane of a dead
lion. Courage is no joking matter. Give way to the first and
you must yield to
the second, and so on till the last, and to gain your
point in the end costs as
much trouble as it would have a first. Moral
courage exceeds physical courage;
it should be like a sword kept ready for
use in the scabbard of caution. It is
your shield. Moral cowardice degrades
one more than physical weakness. Many
have had eminent qualities yet, for
want of a stout heart, they passed inanimate
lives and found a tomb in their
own sloth. Wise nature has thoughtfully
combined in the bee the sweetness of
its honey with the sharpness of its sting.
Back to
Maxims
55. Know how to wait. It is a sign of a noble heart to be
endowed with
patience, never to be in a hurry, never to be given over to
passion. First be
master over yourself if you would be master over others.
You must pass through
the circumference of time before arriving at the
center of opportunity. A wise
reserve seasons the aims and matures the
means. Time's crutch effects more than
the iron club of Hercules. God
himself chastens not with a rod but with time.
"Time and I against any two,"
is a great saying. Fortune rewards the first
prize to those who
wait.
Back to
Maxims
56. Have presence of mind. This is the child of a happy
readiness of spirit.
Owing to this vivacity and alertness there is no fear
of danger of accident.
Many reflect much only to go wrong in the end and
others attain their aim
without thinking about it beforehand. There are
paradoxical characters who work
best in an emergency. They are like monster
who succeed in all they do offhand,
but fail in everything they think over.
Something occurs to them at once or
never - for them there is no court of
appeal. Promptness wins applause because
it proves remarkable capacity:
subtlety of judgement, prudence in action.
Back to
Maxims
57. Be slow and sure. Things are done quickly enough if done
well If just
quickly done they can be quickly undone. To last an eternity
requires an
eternity of preparation. Only excellence counts, only
achievement endures.
Profound intelligence is the only foundation for
immortality. What is worth
much costs much. The precious metals are the
heaviest.
Back to
Maxims
58. Adapt yourself to those around you. There is no need to
show your ability
before everyone. Employ no more force than is necessary.
Let there be no
unnecessary expenditure either of knowledge or of power. The
skillful falconer
only flies enough birds to serve for the chase. If there
is too much display
today there will be nothing to show tomorrow. Always
have some novelty with
which to dazzle. To show something fresh each day
keeps expectations alive and
conceals the limits of capacity.
Back
to Maxims
59. Finish off well. In the house of fortune if you enter by
the gate of
pleasure you must leave by that of sorrow, and vice versa. You
ought therefore
to think of the finish, and attach more importance to a
happy exit than to
applause on entrance. It is the common lot of the unlucky
to have a very
fortunate beginning and a very tragic end. The important
point is not the
vulgar applause on entrance - that comes to nearly all -
but the general feeling
at exit. Few in life are felt to deserve an encore.
Fortune rarely accompanies
anyone to the door, and as warmly as she may
welcome the coming, she is cold to
the parting guest.
Back
to Maxims
60. Have sound judgement. Some are born wise and with this
natural advantage
enter upon their studies with half their journey to
success already mastered.
With age and experience their reason ripens, and
thus they attain a sound
judgement. They abhor everything whimsical as
leading prudence astray,
especially in matters of state, where certainty is
so necessary, owing to the
importance of the affairs involved. Such people
deserve to stand at the helm of
government either as navigators or as
helmsmen.
Back to
Maxims
61. Excel in what is excellent. It is a great rarity among
excellences. You
cannot have a great person without something preeminent.
Mediocrity never wins
applause. Eminence is some distinguished post
distinguishes one from the vulgar
mob and ranks us with the exceptional. To
be distinguished in a small post is
to be great in little - the more comfort
the less glory. To be excellent at
great things is a royal characteristic -
it excites admiration and wins
goodwill.
Back to
Maxims
62. Use good instruments. Some would have the subtlety of
their wits proven by
the poorness of their instruments. This is a dangerous
satisfaction and
deserves a fatal punishment. The excellence of a minister
never diminished the
greatness of his lord. All the glory of exploits
reverts to the principal
actor, also all the blame. Fame only does business
with principals. She does
not say. "This had good, that had bad servants,"
but, "This was a good artist,
that a bad one." Therefore, let your
assistants be selected and tested, for you
have to trust them an immortality
of fame.
Back to
Maxims
63. To be the first of the kind is excellent. And to be
eminent in it as well
is twice as good. To have the first move is a great
advantage when the players
are equal. Many a person would have been as
unique as a phoenix if he had been
the first of the sort. Those who come
first are the heirs of fame. The others
get only a younger brother's
allowance; whatever they do, they cannot persuade
the world they are
anything more than parrots. Extraordinary people find a new
path to
eminence, and prudence accompanies them all the way. Because of the
novelty
of their enterprises, sages write their names in the golden books of
heroes.
Some prefer to be first in things of minor importance than second in
greater
exploits.
Back to
Maxims
64. Avoid worry. Such prudence brings its own reward. It
escapes much, and is
thus the midwife of comfort and so of happiness.
Neither give nor take bad news
unless it can help. Some people's ears are
stuffed with the sweets of flattery,
others with the bitters of scandal,
while some cannot live without a daily
annoyance no more than Mithridates
(Mithridates VI, 132-63 BCE, King of Pontus,
is said to have taken small
doses of poison to immunize himself from it in an
event that it might be
used in an assassination attempt) without poison. It is
no rule of life to
prepare for yourself lifelong trouble in order to give a
temporary enjoyment
to another, however near and dear. You should never spoil
your own chances
in order to please another who advises but keeps out of the
affair.
Back to
Maxims
65. Cultivate taste. You can train it like the intellect. Full
knowledge whets
desire and increases enjoyment. You may know a noble spirit
by the elevation of
his taste. Only a great thing can satisfy a great mind.
Big bites for big
mouths, lofty things for lofty spirits. Before their
judgement the bravest
tremble, the most perfect lose confidence. Few things
are of the first
importance, so let appreciation be rare. Taste can be
imparted by personal
intercourse; it is great good luck to associate with
the highest taste. But do
not profess to be dissatisfied with everything;
this is the extreme of folly,
and more odious if from affectation than if
from unreachable ideals. Some would
have God create another world and other
ideals to satisfy their fantastic
imagination.
Back to
Maxims
66. See to it that things end well. Some regard more the rigor
of the game than
the winning of it, but to the world the discredit of the
final failure does away
with any recognition of previous diligence. The
victor need not explain. The
world does not notice the details of the
measures employed, but only the good or
bad result. You lose nothing if you
gain your end. A good end gilds
everything, however unsatisfactory the
means. Thus at times it is part of the
art of life to transgress the rules
of the art, if you cannot end well
otherwise.
Back to
Maxims
67. Choose an occupation that wins distinction. Most things
depend on the
satisfaction of others. Esteem is to excellence what the west
wind is to
flowers: the breath of life. There are some occupations that gain
universal
esteem, while others more important are without credit. The
former, pursued
before the eyes of all, obtain the universal favor; the
others, though they are
rarer and more valuable, remain obscure and
unperceived, honored but not
applauded. Among princes, conquerors are the
most celebrated, and therefore the
kings of Aragon earned such applause as
warriors, conquerors, and great people.
An able person will prefer
occupations of distinction, which all know of and
utilize - he thus becomes
immortalized by universal suffrage.
Back to
Maxims
68. It is better to help with intelligence than with memory.
The latter needs
only recollection, the former requires thought. Many people
fail to do what is
appropriate to the moment because it does not occur to
them. A friend's advice
on such occasions may enable them to see the
advantages. It is one of the
greatest gifts of mind to be able to offer what
is needed at the right moment;
for want of that many things fail to be
performed. Share the light of your
intelligence, when you have any, and ask
for it when you have it not - the first
cautiously, the last anxiously. Give
no more than a hint. The finesse is
especially necessary when it touches the
interests of him whose attention you
awaken. You should give but a taste at
first, and then pass on more when that
is not sufficient. If he thinks of
no, go cleverly in search of
yes. Most things
are not simply because they are not attempted.
Back to
Maxims
69. Do not give way to every common impulse. He is great who
never allows
himself to be influenced by the impressions of others.
Self-reflection is the
school of wisdom; to know one's current disposition
and to allow for it, even
going to the other extreme so as to find a balance
between nature and art.
Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.
There are some whose
humors are so monstrous that they are always under the
influence of one or other
of them in place of their real inclinations. They
are torn asunder by such
disharmony and get involved in contradictory
obligations. Such excesses not
only destroy firmness of will, all power of
judgement gets lost and desire and
knowledge pull in opposite
directions.
Back to
Maxims
70. Know how to say "no." One ought not to give way in
everything nor to
everybody. To know how to refuse is therefore as important
as to know how to
consent. This is especially the case with people of power.
Everything depends
on how you do it. Some people's no is thought more
of than the
yes of others; for a gilded no is more
satisfactory than a dry
yes. There are some who always have no
on their lips, whereby
they make everything distasteful. No always
comes first with them, and
when sometimes they give way after all, it does
them no good on account of the
unpleasant beginning. Your refusal need not
be point-blank; let the
disappointment come by degrees. Nor let the refusal
be final - that would
destroy dependence, so let some spice of hope remain
to soften the rejection.
Let politeness compensate and fine words supply the
place of deeds. Yes
and no are soon said, but give much to
think over.
Back to
Maxims
71. Do not vacillate. Do not let your actions be abnormal
either from
disposition or affectation. A wise person is always consistent
in his best
qualities, and because of this he gets the credit of
trustworthiness. If he
changes, he does so for good reason and after good
consideration. In matters of
conduct change is hateful. There are some who
are different every day - their
intelligence varies, still more their will,
and with this their fortune.
Yesterday's white is today's black; today's
no was yesterday's
yes. They always give the lie to their own
credit and destroy their
credit with others.
Back to
Maxims
72. Be resolute. Bad execution of your designs does less harm
than irresolution
in forming them. Streams do less harm flowing than when
dammed up. There are
some people so infirm of purpose that they always
require direction from others,
and this not on account of any perplexity,
for they judge clearly, but for their
sheer incapacity for action. It takes
some skill to find out difficulties but
more to find a way out of them.
There are others who never get bogged down;
their clear judgement and
determined character fit them for the highest
callings, their intelligence
tells them where to insert the thin end of the
wedge, their resolution how
to drive it home. They soon get through anything,
and when they have done
with one sphere of action, they are ready for another.
Wedded to fortune,
they make themselves sure of success.
Back to
Maxims
73. Know how to use evasion. That is how smart people get out
of difficulties.
They extricate themselves from the most intricate labyrinth
by some witty
application of a bright remark. They get out of a serious
contention by an airy
nothing or by raising a smile. Most of the great
leaders are well grounded in
this art. When you have to refuse something,
often the most courteous way is to
just change the subject. And sometimes it
proves the highest understanding to
act like you do not
understand.
Back to
Maxims
74. Do not be unapproachable. The most wild beasts live in the
most populous
places. To be inaccessible is the fault of those who distrust
themselves, whose
honors change their manners. It is no way to earn people's
goodwill by being
ill-tempered with them. What a sight it is to see one of
those unsociable
monsters who make a point of being proudly impertinent.
Their servants, who
have the misfortune to be obliged to speak with them,
enter as if prepared for a
fight with a tiger: armed with patience and with
fear. To obtain their high
position these unapproachable people must have
ingratiated themselves with
everyone, but having arrived there they seek to
compensate themselves by
irritating all. It is a condition of their position
that they should be
accessible to all, yet from pride or spite they are so
to none. A civil way to
punish such people is to let them alone, depriving
them of the chance of
improvement by granting them no opportunity for
intercourse.
Back to
Maxims
75. Chose a heroic ideal. Emulate rather than imitate. There
are exemplars of
greatness, living texts of honor. Let everyone have before
his mind the best in
his profession, not so much to follow him as to spur
himself on. Alexander wept
not on account of Achilles being dead and buried,
but over himself because his
fame had not yet spread throughout the world.
Nothing arouses ambition so much
in the heart as the trumpet call of
another's fame. The same thing that
sharpens envy nourishes a generous
spirit.
Back to
Maxims
76. Do not always be joking. Wisdom is shown in serious
matters, and is more
appreciated than mere wit. He that is always ready for
jests is never ready for
serious things. Jokers resemble liars in that
people never believe either,
always expecting a lie in one, a joke in the
other. One never knows when you
speak with judgement, which is the same as
if you had none. A continual jest
soon loses all zest. Many get their
reputation for being witty but thereby lose
the credit for being sensible.
Jest has its little hour, seriousness should
have all the rest.
Back
to Maxims
77. Be all things to all people. Be a discreet Proteus,
learned with the
learned, saintly with the sainted. It is the great are to
gain everyone's
support; general agreement gains goodwill. Notice people's
moods and adapt
yourself to each, genial or serious as the case may be.
Follow their lead,
glossing over the changes as cunningly as possible. This
is an especially
indispensable art for people who are dependant on others.
But this skill in the
art of living calls for great cleverness. He only will
find no difficulty who
has a universal genius in his knowledge and universal
ingenuity in his wit.
Back to
Maxims
78. The art of undertaking things. Fools rush in through the
door - for folly
is always bold. The same simplicity that robs them of all
attention to caution
deprives them of all sense of shame at failure. But
prudence enters with more
deliberation. Its forerunners are caution and
care; they advance and discover
whether you can also advance without danger.
Every rush forward might have been
freed from danger by caution, but fortune
sometimes helps in such cases. Go
cautiously where you suspect depth.
Sagacity goes cautiously forward while
discretion covers the ground.
Nowadays there are unsuspected depths in human
intercourse, you must
therefore plumb the waters as you go.
Back to
Maxims
79. A jovial disposition. With moderation it is an
accomplishment, not a
defect. A grain of gaiety seasons all. The greatest
people join in the fun at
times and it makes them liked by all. But they
should always on such occasions
preserve their dignity nor go beyond the
bounds of decorum. Others, again, use
a joke to get themselves out of a
difficulty quickly. For there are things you
must take in fun, though others
perhaps mean them in earnest. This shows a
sense of calm, which acts as a
magnet on all hearts.
Back to
Maxims
80. Take care when you get information. We live by
information, not by sight.
We exist by faith in others. The ear is the
sidedoor of truth but the frontdoor
of lies. The truth is generally seen,
rarely heard. She seldom comes in
elemental purity, especially from afar -
there is always some admixture of the
moods of those through whom she has
passed. The passions tinge her, sometimes
favorably, sometimes odiously. She
always brings out people's disposition,
therefore receive her with caution
from him that praises, with more caution from
him that blames. Pay attention
to the intention of the speaker; you should know
beforehand on what footing
he comes. Let reflection test for falsity and
exaggeration.
Back
to Maxims
81. Renew your brilliance. This is the privilege of the
phoenix. Ability grows
old, and with it fame. The staleness of custom
weakens admiration, and a
mediocrity that is new often eclipses the highest
excellence grown old. Try
therefore to be born again in valor, in genius, in
fortune, in everything.
Display startling novelty - rise afresh like the sun
every day. Change too the
scene of your shine, so that your loss may be felt
in the old scenes of your
triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins you
applause in the new.
Back to
Maxims
82. Drain nothing to the dregs, neither good nor bad. A sage
once reduced all
virtue to the golden mean. Push right to the extreme and it
becomes wrong;
press all the juice from an orange and it becomes bitter.
Even in enjoyment
never go to extremes. Thought too subtle is dull. If you
milk a cow too much
you draw blood, not milk.
Back to
Maxims
83. Allow yourself some forgivable sin. Some such carelessness
is often the
greatest recommendation of talent. For envy causes ostracism,
most envenomed
when most polite. Envy counts every perfection as a failing
and that it has no
faults itself. Being perfect in all envy condemns
perfection in all. It
becomes an Argus (mythological, hundred-eyed giant),
all eyes for imperfection,
if only for its own consolation. Blame is like
the lightning - it hits the
highest. Let Homer nod now and then and affect
some negligence in valor or in
intellect - not in prudence - so as to disarm
malevolence, or at least to
prevent its bursting with its own venom. You
thus leave your cape on the horns
of envy (like a matador) in order to save
your immortality.
Back to
Maxims
84. Make use of your enemies. You should learn to seize things
not by the
blade, which cuts, but by the handle, which saves you from harm -
especially
with the doings of your enemies. A wise person gets more use from
his enemies
than a fool from his friends. Their ill will often levels
mountains of
difficulties that one would otherwise not face. Many have had
their greatness
made for them by their enemies. Flattery is more dangerous
than hatred, because
it covers the stains that the other causes to be wiped
out. The wise will turn
ill will into a mirror more faithful than that of
kindness, and remove or
improve the faults referred to. Caution thrives well
when rivalry and ill will
are next-door neighbors.
Back to
Maxims
85. Do not be a wild card, a jack-of-all-trades. It is a fault
of excellence
that being so much in use it is liable to abuse. Because all
covet it, all are
vexed by it. It is great misfortune to be of use to nobody
- scarcely less to
be of use to everybody. People who reach this stage lose
by gaining, and in the
end bore those who desired them before. These wild
cards wear away all kinds of
excellence. Losing the earlier esteem of the
few, they obtain discredit among
the vulgar. The remedy against this extreme
is to moderate your brilliance. Be
extraordinary in your excellence, if you
like, but be ordinary in your display
of it. The more light a torch gives,
the more it burns away and the nearer it
is to burning out. Show yourself
less and you will be rewarded by being
esteemed more.
Back
to Maxims
86. Prevent scandal. Many heads go to make the mob, and in
each of them there
are eyes for malice to use and a tongue for detraction to
wag. If a single ill
report spreads, it casts a blemish on your fair fame,
and if it clings to you
with a nickname, your reputation is in danger.
Generally it is some salient
defect or ridiculous trait that gives rise to
the rumors. At times these are
malicious inflations of private envy to
general distrust. For these are wicked
tongues that ruin a great reputation
more easily by a witty sneer than by a
direct accusation. It is easy to get
a bad reputation because it is easy to
believe evil but hard to eradicate.
The wise therefore avoid such incidents,
guarding against vulgar scandal
with constant vigilance. It is far easier to
prevent than to
rectify.
Back to
Maxims
87. Culture and elegance. We are born barbarians and only
raise ourselves above
the beast by culture. Culture therefore makes the
person; the greater a person
the more culture. Thanks to this, Greece could
call the rest of the world
barbarians. Ignorance is very raw - nothing
contributes so much to culture as
knowledge. But even knowledge is coarse if
without elegance. Not alone must
our intelligence be elegant, but also our
desires, and above all our
conversation. Some people are naturally elegant
in internal and external
qualities, in their thoughts, in their words, in
their dress, which is the rind
of the soul as their talents are its fruit.
There are others, on the other
hand, so gauche that everything about them,
even their most excellent quality,
is tarnished by an intolerable and
barbaric want of neatness.
Back to
Maxims
88. Let your behavior be fine and noble. A great person ought
not to be little
in his actions. He ought never to pry too minutely into
things, least of all in
unpleasant matters. For though it is important to
know all, it is not necessary
to know all about all. One ought to act in
such cases with the generosity of a
gentleman, with conduct worthy of a
gallant person. To pretend to overlook
things is a large part of the work of
ruling. Most things must be left
unnoticed among relatives and friends, and
even among enemies. All superfluity
is annoying, especially in things that
annoy. To keep hovering around the
object of your annoyance is a kind of
mania. Generally speaking, everybody
behaves according to his heart and his
understanding.
Back to
Maxims
89. Know yourself. Know your talents and capacity, in
judgement and
inclination. You cannot master yourself unless you know
yourself. There are
mirrors for the face but none for the mind. Let careful
thought about yourself
serve as a substitute. When the outer image is
forgotten, keep the inner one to
improve and perfect. Learn the force of
your intellect and capacity for
affairs, test the force of your courage in
order to apply it, and keep your
foundations secure and your head clear for
everything.
Back to
Maxims
90. The secret of long life. Lead a good life. Two things
bring life speedily
to an end: folly and immorality. Some lose their life
because they have not the
intelligence to keep it, others because they have
not the will. Just as virtue
is its own reward, so is vice its own
punishment. He who lives a fast life runs
through life to its end doubly
quick. A virtuous life never dies. The firmness
of the soul is communicated
to the body, and a good life is not only long but
also full.
Back
to Maxims
91. Never set to work at anything if you have any doubts about
its prudence. A
suspicion of failure in the mind of the doer is proof
positive of it in that of
the onlooker, especially if he is a rival. If in
the heat of action your
judgement wavers, it will afterwards in cool
reflection be condemned as folly.
Action is dangerous where prudence is in
doubt - better leave such things alone.
Wisdom does not trust to
probabilities, it always marches in the midday light of
reason. How can an
enterprise succeed which the judgement condemns as soon as
it was conceived?
If resolutions passed unanimously by an inner court often
turn out badly,
what can we expect of those undertaken by a doubting reason and
a
vacillating judgement?
Back to
Maxims
92. Transcendent wisdom. I mean in everything. An ounce of
wisdom is worth
more than a ton of cleverness is the first and highest rule
of all deeds and
words, the more necessary to be followed the higher and
more numerous your post.
It is the only sure way, though it may not gain so
much applause. A reputation
for wisdom is the last triumph of fame. It is
enough if you satisfy the wise,
for their judgement is the touchstone of
true success.
Back to
Maxims
93. Versatility. A man of many excellent qualities equals many
men. By
imparting his own enjoyment of life to his circle of friends and
followers he
enriches their life. Variety in excellences is the delight of
life. It is a
great art to profit by all that is good, and, since nature has
made people in
their most perfected form an abstract of herself, so let art
create in them a
true microcosm by training their taste and
intellect.
Back to
Maxims
94. Keep the extent of your abilities unknown. The wise person
does not allow
his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if
he desires to be
honored by all. He allows you to know him but not to
comprehend him. No one
must know the extent of a wise person's abilities,
lest he be disappointed. No
one should ever have an opportunity to fathom
him entirely. For guesses and
doubts about the extent of his talents arouse
more veneration than accurate
knowledge of them, be they ever so
great.
Back to
Maxims
95. Keep expectation alive. Keep stirring it up. Let much
promise more, and
great deeds herald greater. Do not rest your whole fortune
on a single cast of
the dice. It requires great skill to moderate your
forces so as to keep
expectation from being dissipated
Back
to Maxims
96. The highest discretion. It is the throne of reason, the
foundation of
prudence - by its means success is gained at little cost. It
is a gift from
above, and should be prayed for as the first and best
quality. It is the main
piece of the suit of armor, and so important that
its absence makes a person
imperfect, whereas with other qualities it is
merely a question needing more or
less. All the actions of life depend in
its application - all requires its
assistance, for everything needs
intelligence. Discretion consists in a natural
tendency to the most rational
course, combined with a liking for the surest.
Back to
Maxims
97. Obtain and preserve a reputation. It is something only
borrowed from fame.
It is expensive to obtain a reputation, for it only
attaches to distinguished
abilities, which are as rare as mediocrities are
common. Once obtained, it is
easily preserved. It confers many an
obligation, but it does more. When it is
owing to elevated powers or lofty
spheres of action, it rises to a kind of
veneration and yields a sort of
majesty. But it is only a well-founded
reputation that lasts
permanently.
Back to
Maxims
98. Write your intentions in cypher. The passions are the
gates of the soul.
The most practical knowledge consists in disguising them.
He that plays with
cards exposed runs a risk of losing the stakes. The
reserve of caution should
combat the curiosity of inquirers with the policy
of the inky cuttlefish. Do
not even let your tastes be known, lest others
utilize them either by running
counter to them or by flattering
them.
Back to
Maxims
99. Reality and appearance. Things pass for what they seem,
not for what they
are. Few see inside, many get attached to
appearances. It is not enough to be
right if your actions look false and
ill.
Back to
Maxims
100. Be a person without illusions, one who is wise and
righteous, a
philosophical courtier. Be all these, not merely seem to be
them, still less
affect to be them. Philosophy is nowadays discredited, but
yet it was always
the chief concern of the wise. The art of thinking has
been degraded. Seneca
introduced it at Rome, it found favor for a time among
nobility, but now it is
considered nonsense. And yet the discovery of deceit
was always thought the
true nourishment of a thoughtful mind, the true
delight of a virtuous soul.
Back to
Maxims
101. One half of the world laughs at the other, and fools are
they all.
Everything is good or everything is bad according to who you ask.
What one
pursues another persecutes. He is an insufferable ass who would
regulate
everything according to his ideas. Excellences do not depend on a
single
person's pleasure. So many people, so many tastes, all different.
There is no
defect that is not affected by some. We need not lose heart if
something does
not please someone, for others will appreciate I; nor need
their applause turn
our head, for there will surely be others to condemn it.
The real test of
praise is the approval of renowned people and of experts in
the field. You
should aim to be independent of any one opinion, of any one
fashion, of any one
century.
Back to
Maxims
102. Be able to stomach big slices of luck. In the body of
wisdom not the least
important organ is a big stomach, for great capacity
implies great parts. Big
bits of luck do not embarrass one who can digest
still bigger ones. What is a
surfeit for one may be hunger for another. Many
are troubled as it were with
weak digestion, owing to their small capacity,
being neither born nor trained
for great employment. Their actions turn
sour, and the fumes that arise from
their undeserved honors turn their
proper place, for luck finds no proper place
in them. A person of talent
therefore should show that he has more room for
even greater enterprises,
and above all avoid showing signs of a little heart.
Back to
Maxims
103. Let each keep up his dignity. Let each deed of a person
in its degree,
though he be not a king, be worthy of a prince and let his
action be princely
within due limits. Sublime in action, lofty in thought,
in all things like a
king, at least in merit if not in might. For true
kingship lies in spotless
rectitude, and he need not envy greatness who can
serve as a model of it.
Especially should those near the throne aim at true
superiority, and prefer to
share the true qualities of royalty rather than
take parts in its mere
ceremonies - yet without affecting its imperfections
but sharing in its true
dignity.
Back to
Maxims
104. Get to know what is needed in different occupations.
Different qualities
are required. To know which is needed taxes attention
and calls for masterly
discernment. Some demand courage, others tact. Those
that merely require
rectitude are the easiest, the more difficult are those
requiring cleverness.
For the former all that is necessary is character, for
the latter all of one's
attention and zeal may not suffice. It is a
troublesome business to rule
people, still more fools or blockheads - twice
as much sense is needed with
those who have none. It is intolerable when an
office engrosses someone with
fixed hours and a settled routine. Those are
better that leave him free to
follow his own devices, combining variety with
importance, for the change
refreshes the mind. The most respected jobs are
those that have least, or most
distant, dependence on others. The worst are
those that worry us both here and
hereafter.
Back to
Maxims
105. Do not be a bore. The person obsessed with one activity
or one topic is
apt to be tiresome. Brevity is flattering and get more
accomplished - it gains
by courtesy what it loses by curtness. Good things,
when short, are twice as
good. The quintessence of the matter is more
effective than a big mishmash of
details. It is a well known truth that
talkative person rarely is wise, whether
in dealing with things at hand or
how they function. There are people who serve
more as stumbling blocks than
centerpieces, useless lumber in everyone's way.
The wise avoid being bores,
especially to the great - who are fully occupied; it
is worse to disturb one
of them than all the rest. Well said is soon said.
Back to
Maxims
106. Do not parade your position. To boast about your
position is more
offensive than personal vanity. To pose as an important
person is to be hated -
you should surely have had enough envy. The more you
seek esteem the less you
obtain it, for it depends on the opinion of others.
You cannot take it, but
must earn and receive it from others. Great
positions require exercising a
sufficient amount of authority - without it
they cannot be adequately filled.
Preserve therefore enough dignity to carry
on the duties of the office. Do not
enforce respect, but try to create it.
Those who insist on the dignity of their
office, show they have not deserved
it, and that it is too much for them. If
you wish to be valued, be valued
for your talents, not for anything obtained by
chance. Even kings prefer to
be honored for their personal qualifications
rather than for their
station.
Back to
Maxims
107. Show no self-satisfaction. You must neither be
discontented with yourself,
which is weak spirited, nor self-satisfied,
which is folly. Self-satisfaction
arises mostly from ignorance, and it would
be a happy ignorance not without its
advantages if it did not ruin
reputation. Because a person cannot achieve the
superlative perfections of
others, he contents himself with any mediocre talent
of his own. Distrust is
wise, and even useful, either to evade mishaps or to
afford consolation when
they come. For a misfortune cannot surprise a man who
has already feared it.
Even Homer nods at times, and Alexander fell from his
lofty state due to his
illusions. Things depend on many circumstances - what
constitutes triumph in
one set may cause a defeat in another. In the midst of
all, incorrigible
folly remains the same with empty self-satisfaction,
blossoming, flowering,
and running all to seed.
Back to
Maxims
108. The shortest path to greatness is along with others.
Intercourse with the
right people works well; manners and taste are shared,
good sense and even
talent grow insensibly. Let the impatient person then
make a comrade of the
sluggish, and so with the other temperaments, so that
without forcing it the
golden mean is obtained. It is a great art to agree
with others. The
alternation of contraries beautifies and sustains the
world, and if it can cause
harmony in the physical world, still more can it
do in the moral. Adopt this
policy in the choice of friends and defendants -
by joining extremes the more
effective middle way is found.
Back
to Maxims
109. Do not be censorious. There are people of gloomy
character who regard
everything as faulty, not from any evil motive but
because it is their nature
to. They condemn all - these for
what they have done, those for what they will
do. This
indicates a nature worse than cruel, vile indeed. They accuse with
such
exaggeration that they make out of motes beams with which to poke out the
eyes. They are always taskmasters who could turn a paradise into a prison -
if
passion intervenes they drive matters to the extreme. A noble nature, on
the
contrary, always knows how to find an excuse for failings, saying the
intention
was good, or it was an error of oversight.
Back to
Maxims
110. Do not wait till you are a setting sun. It is a maxim of
the wise to leave
things before things leave them. One should be able to
snatch a triumph at the
end, just as the sun even at its brightest often
retires behind a cloud so as
not to be seen sinking, and to leave in doubt
whether he has sunk or not.
Wisely withdraw from the mere chance of mishap,
lest you have to do so when it
becomes reality. Do not wait until they turn
you the cold shoulder and carry
you to the grave, alive in feeling but dead
in esteem. Wise trainers put
racehorses out to pasture before they arouse
derision by falling on the course.
A beauty should break her mirror early,
lest she do so later with open eyes.
Back to
Maxims
111. Have friends. A friends is a second self. Every friend
is good and wise
for his friend; between them everything turn to good.
Everyone is as others
wish him to be - but in order that they may wish him
well, he must win their
hearts and so their tongues. There is no magic like
a good turn, and the way to
gain friendly feelings is to do friendly acts.
The most and best of us depend
on others - we have to live either among
friends or among enemies. So seek
someone everyday who will wish you well -
if not a friend, by-and-by after
trials some of these will become your
confidants.
Back to
Maxims
112. Gain goodwill. For thus the first and highest cause
foresees and furthers
the greatest objects. By gaining their goodwill you
gain people's good opinion.
Some trust so much to merit that they neglect
grace, but wise men know that it
is a long and stony road without a lift
from favor. Goodwill facilitates and
supplies everything. It supposes gifts
or even supplies them, such as courage,
zeal, knowledge, or even discretion;
whereas it will not see defects because it
does not search for them. It
arises from some common interest, either material,
as in disposition,
nationality, family, race, occupation; or formal, which is of
a higher kind
of communion, as in capacity, obligation, reputation or merit.
The whole
difficulty is to gain goodwill - to keep it is easy. It has, however,
to be
sought for and when found to be utilized.
Back to
Maxims
113. In times of prosperity prepare for adversity. It is both
wiser and easier
to collect winter stores in summer. In prosperity favors
are cheap and friends
are many. It is well therefore to save them for more
unlucky days, for
adversity costs dear and has no helpers. Retain a store of
friends and people
who are in your debt - the day may come when their price
will go up. Lowly
minds never have friends - in luck they will not recognize
them, in misfortune
they will not be recognized by them.
Back
to Maxims
114. Never compete. Every competition damages your
reputation. Our rivals
seize occasion to obscure us so as to outshine us.
Few wage honorable war.
Rivalry discloses faults that courtesy would hide.
Many have lived in good
repute while they had no rivals. The heat of
conflict revives and gives new
life to dead scandals, digging up long-buried
skeletons. Competition begins
with belittling, and seeks aid anywhere it
can, not only where it should. And
when the weapons of abuse do not effect
their purpose, as often or mostly
happens, our opponents seek revenge and
use them at least for beating away the
dust of oblivion from anything that
is our discredit. People of goodwill are
always at peace, and those of good
reputation and dignity are of goodwill.
Back to
Maxims
115. Get used to the failings of those around you. Just as
you would to an ugly
face. It is indispensable if they depend on you, or you
on them. There are
wretched characters one cannot live with or without.
Therefore clever folk get
used to them, as to ugly faces, so that they are
not obliged to do so suddenly
under the pressure of necessity. At first they
arouse disgust, but gradually
they lose this influence, and reflection
provides for disgust puts up with it.
Back to
Maxims
116. Only act with honorable people. You can trust them and
they you. Their
honor is the best surety of their behavior even in
misunderstandings, for they
always act according to their character. Hence
it is better to have a dispute
with honorable people than to have a victory
over dishonorable ones. You cannot
deal well with the ruined, for they have
no hostages for rectitude. With them
there is no true friendship, and their
agreements are not binding, however
stringent they may appear, because they
have no feeling of honor. Never have
anything to do with such people, for if
honor does not restrain them, virtue
will not, since honor is the throne of
rectitude.
Back to
Maxims
117. Never talk about yourself. To do so you must either
praise yourself, which
is vain, or blame yourself, which is weak minded - it
is unseemly for the
speaker and unpleasant for the listener. And if you
should avoid this in
ordinary conversation, how much more so in official
matters, and above all in
public speaking, where every mere appearance of
unwisdom really is unwise. The
same want of tact lies in speaking of someone
in his presence, owing to the
danger of going to one of two extremes:
flattery or censure.
Back to
Maxims
118. Acquire the reputation for courtesy. This is enough to
make you liked.
Politeness is the main ingredient of culture - a kind of
witchery that wins the
regard of all as surely as discourtesy gains their
disfavor and opposition. If
this latter springs from pride it is abominable,
if from bad breeding it is
despicable. Better too much courtesy than too
little, provided it is not
indiscriminate, which degenerates into injustice.
Between opponents it is of
special worth as a proof of valor. It costs
little and helps much - everyone is
honored who gives honor. Politeness and
honor have this advantage, that they
remain with him who displays them to
others.
Back to
Maxims
119. Avoid becoming disliked. There is no right occasion to
seek dislike - it
comes without seeking soon enough. There are many who hate
of their own accord
without knowing the why or the how. Their ill will
outruns our readiness to
please. Their ill nature is more prone to do harm
to others than their greed is
eager to gain advantage for themselves. Some
manage to be on bad terms with
everyone because they always either produce
or experience a vexation of spirit.
Once hate has taken root it is, like bad
reputation, difficult to eradicate.
Wise people are feared, the malevolent
are abhorred, the arrogant are regarded
with disdain, buffoons with
contempt, eccentrics with neglect. Therefore pay
respect that you may be
respected, and know that to be esteemed you must show
esteem.
Back
to Maxims
120. Live practically. Even knowledge has to be in style, and
where it is not
it is wise to affect ignorance. Thought and taste change
with the times. Do
not be old fashioned in your ways of thinking and let
your taste be modern. In
everything the taste of the many carries the day;
for the time being one must
follow it in hope of leading it to higher
things. In the adornment of the body,
as of the mind, adapt yourself to the
present, even though the past appears
better. But this rule does not apply
to kindness, for goodness is for all
times. It is neglected nowadays and
seems out of date. Truthfulness, keeping
your word, and so too good people,
seem to come from the good old days, yet they
are liked for all that, but
even so if any exist they are not in fashion and are
not imitated. What a
misfortune for our age that it regards virtue as a
stranger and vice as a
matter of course! If you are wise live as you can, if
you cannot live as you
would. Think more highly of what fate has given you than
of what it has
denied.
Back to
Maxims
121. Do not make much ado about nothing. As some make gossip
out of everything,
so others make much ado of everything. They always talk
big, take everything in
earnest and turn it into a dispute or a secret.
Troublesome things must not be
taken too seriously if they can be avoided.
It is preposterous to take to heart
that which you should just throw over
your shoulders. Mush that would be
something has become nothing by being
left alone, and what was nothing has
become of consequence by being made
much of. At the outset things can be easily
settled, but not afterwards.
Often the remedy causes the disease. It is by no
means the least of life's
rules to let things alone.
Back to
Maxims
122. Distinction in speech and action. By this you gain a
position in many
places and win esteem in advance. It shows itself in
everything, in talk, in
look, even in gait. It is a great victory to conquer
people's hearts. It does
not arise from any foolish presumption or pompous
talk, but in a becoming tone
of authority born of superior talent combined
with true merit.
Back to
Maxims
123. Avoid affectation. The more merit, the less affectation,
which gives a
vulgar flavor to all. It is wearisome to others and
troublesome to the one
affected, for he becomes a martyr to care and
tortures himself with attention.
The most eminent merits lost most by it,
for they appear proud and artificial
instead of being the product of nature,
and the natural is always more pleasing
than the artificial. One always
feels sure that the person who affects a virtue
has it not. The more pains
you take with a thing, the more you should conceal
them, so that it may
appear to arise spontaneously from your own natural
character. Do not,
however, in avoiding affectation fall into it by affecting
to be unaffected.
The sage never seems to know his own merits, for only by not
noticing them
can you call others' attention to them. He is twice great who has
all the
perfections in the opinion of all except of himself - he attains
applause by
two opposite paths.
Back to
Maxims
124. Make yourself sought after. Few reach such favor with
the many, if with
the wise it is the height of happiness. When one has
finished one's work,
coldness is the general rule. But there are ways of
earning the reward of
goodwill. The sure way is to excel in your office and
talents; add to this
agreeable manner and you reach the point where you
become necessary to your
office, not your office to you. Some do honor to
their post, with others it is
the other way around. It is no great gain if a
poor successor makes the
predecessor seem good, for this does not imply that
the one is missed, but that
the other is wished away.
Back
to Maxims
125. Do not be a blacklister of other people's faults. It is
a sign of having a
tarnished name to concern oneself with the ill fame of
others. Some wish to
hide their own stains with those of others, or at least
wash them away; or they
seek consolation therein - it is the consolation of
fools. Their breath must
stink who form the sewers of scandal for the whole
town. The more one grubs
about in such matters the more one befouls oneself.
There are few without stain
somewhere or other. It is only of little known
people that the failings are
little known. Be careful then to avoid being a
registrar of faults. That is to
be an abominable thing, a man that lives
without a heart.
Back to
Maxims
126. Folly consists not in committing folly, but in not
hiding it when
committed. You should keep your desires sealed up, still more
your defects.
All go wrong sometimes, but the wise try to hide their errors
while fools boast
of them. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on
what is done; if a
man does not live chastely, he must live cautiously. The
errors of great men
are like the eclipses of the greater lights. Even in
friendship it is rare to
expose one's failings to one's friend. Nay, one
should conceal them from
oneself if one can. But here one can help with that
other great rule of life:
learn to forget.
Back to
Maxims
127. Grace in everything. It is the life of talent, the
breath of speech, the
soul of action, and the ornament or ornament.
Perfections are the adornment of
our nature, but this is the adornment of
perfection itself. It shows itself
even in the thoughts. It is mostly a gift
of nature and owes least to education
- it even triumphs over training. It
is more than ease, approaches the free and
easy, gets over embarrassment,
and adds the finishing touch to perfection.
Without it beauty is lifeless,
graciousness ungraceful. It surpasses valor,
discretion, prudence, even
majesty itself. It is a shortcut to accomplishment
and an easy escape from
embarrassment.
Back to
Maxims
128. High-mindedness. This is one of the principal
qualifications for a
gentleman, it spurs us on to all kinds of nobility. It
improves the taste,
ennobles the heart, elevates the mind, refines the
feelings, and intensifies
dignity. It raises him in whom it is found. At
times it even remedies the bad
turns of fortune, which turns itself around
because of envy. High-mindedness
can find full scope in the will when it
cannot be exercised in act.
Magnanimity, generosity, and all heroic
qualities recognize in it their source.
Back to
Maxims
129. Never complain. To complain always brings discredit.
Better to be a model
of self-reliance opposed to the passion of others than
an object of their
compassion. For complaining opens the way for the hearer
to act like those we
are complaining of, and to disclose one insult forms an
excuse for another. By
complaining of past offenses we give occasion for
future ones, and in seeking
aid or counsel we only obtain indifference or
contempt. It is much more politic
to praise a person's favors, so that
others may feel obliged to follow suit. To
recount the favors we owe the
absent is to demand similar ones from those
present, and thus we sell our
credit with the ones to the other. The shrewd
will therefore never publish
to the world his failures or his defects, but only
those marks of
consideration that serve to keep friendship alive and enmity
silent.
Back to
Maxims
130. Do and be seen doing. Things do not pass for what they
are but for what
they seem. To be of use and to know how to show it, is to
be twice as useful.
What is not seen is as if it was not. Even the right
does not receive proper
consideration if it does not seem right. The
observant are far fewer in number
than those who are deceived by
appearances. Deceit rules - things are judged by
their jackets and many
things are other than they seem. But a good exterior is
the best
recommendation of the inner perfection.
Back to
Maxims
131. Nobility of feeling. There is a certain distinction of
the soul, a high-
mindedness prompting to gallant acts, that gives an air of
grace to the whole
character. It is not found often, for it presupposes
great magnanimity. Its
chief characteristic is to speak well of an enemy and
to act even better toward
him. It shines brightest when a
chance comes for revenge; not alone does it let
the occasion pass but
improves it by using a complete victory in order to
display unexpected
generosity. It is a fine stroke of policy - no, the very
acme of statecraft.
It makes no pretense to victory, for it pretends to
nothing, and while
obtaining its deserts it conceals its merits.
Back to
Maxims
132. Revise your judgements. To appeal to an inner court of
revision makes
things safe. Especially when the course of action is not
clear, you gain time
either to confirm or improve your decision. It affords
new grounds for
strengthening or corroborating your judgement. And if it is
a matter of giving,
the gift is the more valued from its being evidently
well considered than for
being to promptly bestowed; long expected is
highest prized. And if you have to
deny something, that gains you time to
decide how and when to mature the
no so that it may be made
palatable. Besides, after the first heat of
desire is passed the repulse of
refusal is felt less keenly. But, especially
when people press for a reply,
it is best to defer it, for as often as not that
is only a feint to disarm
attention.
Back to
Maxims
133. Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
So say politicians.
If all are so, one is no worse off than the rest,
whereas solitary wisdom passes
for folly. So important is it to sail with
the stream. The greatest wisdom
often consists of ignorance, or the pretense
of it. One has to live with
others, and others are mostly ignorant. "To live
entirely alone one must be
very like a god or quite like a wild beast," But
I would turn the aphorism by
saying: Better be wise with the many than a
fool all alone. There be some too
who seek to be original by chasing
chimeras.
Back to
Maxims
134. Double your resources. You thereby double your life. One
must not depend
on one thing or trust to only one resource, however
preeminent. Everything
should be kept double, especially the causes of
success, of favor, or of esteem.
The moon's mutability transcends everything
and gives a limit to all existence,
especially of things dependent on human
will - the most brittle of all things.
To guard against this inconstancy
should be the sage's care, and for this the
chief rule of life is to keep a
double store of good and useful qualities. Thus
as nature gives us in
duplicate the most important of our limbs and those most
exposed to risk, so
art should deal with the qualities on which we depend for
success.
Back to
Maxims
135. Do not nourish the spirit of contradiction. It only
proves you foolish or
peevish and prudence should guard against this
strenuously. To find
difficulties in everything may prove you clever but
such wrangling writes you
down as a fool. Such folk make a war out of the
most pleasant conversation and
in this way act as enemies toward their
associates rather than toward those with
whom they do not consort. Grit
grates most in delicacies, and so does
contradiction in amusement. They are
both foolish and cruel who yoke together
the wild beast and the
tame.
Back to
Maxims
136. Post yourself in the center of things. So you feel the
pulse of affairs.
Many lose their way either in the ramifications of useless
discussion or in the
brushwood of wearisome verbosity without ever realizing
the real matter at hand.
They go over a single point a hundred times,
wearing themselves and others, and
yet never touch the all important center
of affairs. This comes from a
confusion of mind from which they cannot
extricate themselves. They waste time
and patience on matters they should
leave alone, and afterward there is no time
spared for what they have left
alone.
Back to
Maxims
137. The sage should be self-sufficient. He that was all in
all to himself
carried all with him when he carried himself. If a universal
friend can
represent us to Rome and the rest of the world, let a man be his
own universal
friend, and then he is in a position to live alone. Whom could
such a man want
if there is no clearer intellect or finer taste than his
own? He would then
depend on himself alone, which is the highest happiness
and like the Supreme
Being. He that can live alone resembles the brute beast
in nothing, the sage in
much and like a god in everything.
Back
to Maxims
138. The art of letting things alone. The more so the wilder
the waves of
public or of private life. There are hurricanes in human
affairs, tempests of
passion, when it is wise to retire to a harbor and ride
it out at anchor.
Remedies often make diseases worse; in such cases one has
to leave them to their
natural course and the moral influence of time. It
takes a wise doctor to know
when not to prescribe, and at times the greater
skill consists in not applying
remedies. The proper way to still the storms
of the vulgar is to hold yourself
back and let them calm down by themselves.
To give way now is to conquer by and
by. A fountain gets
muddy with but little stirring up, and does not get clear
by our meddling
with it but by our leaving it alone. The best remedy for
disturbances is to
let them run their course, for so they quiet down.
Back to
Maxims
139. Recognize unlucky days. They do exist. Nothing goes well
on them, and
even though the game may be changed the bad luck remains. Two
tries should be
enough to tell if one is in luck today or not. Everything is
in process of
change, even the mind, and no one is always wise. Chance has
something to say,
even how to write a good letter. All perfection turns on
the times - even
beauty has it hours. Even wisdom fails at times by doing
too much or too
little. To turn out well a thing must be done on its own
day. This is why with
some people everything turns out ill, with others all
goes well, even with less
trouble. They find everything ready, their wit
prompt, their presiding genius
favorable, their lucky star on the rise. At
such times one must seize the
occasion and not throw away the slightest
chance. But a shrewd person will not
decide on a day's luck by a single
piece of good or bad fortune, for the one may
be only a lucky chance and the
other a slight annoyance.
Back to
Maxims
140. Find the good in a thing at once. This is the advantage
of good taste.
The bee goes to the honey for her comb, the serpent to the
gall for its venom.
So with taste - some seek the good, others the ill.
There is nothing that has
no good in it, especially in books, as giving food
for thought. But many have
such a scent that amid a thousand excellences
they fix upon a single defect, and
single it out for blame as if they were
scavengers of people's hearts and minds.
So they draw up a balance sheet of
defects, which does more credit to their bad
taste than to their
intelligence. They lead a sad life, nourishing themselves
on bitters and
fattening on garbage. They have the luckier taste who amid a
thousand
defects seize upon a single beauty they may have hit upon by
chance.
Back to
Maxims
141. Do not listen to yourself. It is no use pleasing
yourself if you do not
please others, and as a rule general contempt is the
punishment for self-
satisfaction. The attention you pay to yourself you
probably owe to others. To
speak and at the same time to listen to yourself
cannot turn out well. If to
talk to oneself when alone is madness, it must
be doubly unwise to listen to
oneself in the presence of others. It is a
weakness of the great to talk with a
recurrent "As I was saying" and
"What?," which bewilders their hearers. At
every sentence they look for
applause or flattery, taxing the patience of the
wise. So too the pompous
speak with an echo, and as their talk can only totter
on with the aid of
stilts - at every word they need the support of a stupid
"Bravo!"
Back to
Maxims
142. Never from obstinacy take the wrong side because your
opponent has
anticipated you by taking the right one. You begin the fight
already beaten and
must soon take to flight in disgrace. With bad weapons
one can never win. It
was astute in the opponent to seize the better side
first, it would be folly to
come lagging after with the worst. Such
obstinacy, is more dangerous in actions
than in words, for action encounters
more risk than talk. It is the common
failing of the obstinate that they
lose the true by contradicting it, and the
useful by quarrelling with it.
The sage never places himself on the side of
passion, but espouses the cause
of right, either discovering it first or
improving it later. If the enemy is
a fool, he will in such case turn round to
follow the opposite and worse
way. Thus the only way to drive him from the
better course is to take it
yourself, for his folly will cause him to desert it,
and his obstinacy be
punished for so doing.
Back to
Maxims
143. Never become paradoxical in order to avoid being trite.
Both extremes
damage our reputation. Every undertaking that differs from the
reasonable
approaches foolishness. The paradox is a cheat; it wins applause
at first by
its novelty and piquancy, but afterwards it becomes discredited
when the deceit
is foreseen and its emptiness becomes apparent. It is a
species of jugglery,
and in political matters it would be the ruin of the
state. Those who cannot or
dare not reach great deeds on the direct road of
excellence go round by way of
paradox, admired by fools but making wise men
true prophets. It demonstrates an
unbalanced judgement, and if it is not
altogether based on the false, it is
certainly founded on the uncertain, and
risks the weightier matters of life.
Back to
Maxims
144. Begin with another's to end with your own. This is a
politic means to your
own end. Even in heavenly matters Christian teachers
lay stress on this holy
cunning. It is a weighty piece of dissimulation, for
the foreseen advantages
serve as a lure to influence the other's will. His
affair seems to be in train
when it is really only leading the way for your
own. One should never advance
unless under cover, especially where the
ground is dangerous. Likewise with
persons who always say no at
first, it is useful to ward off this blow by
presenting your intent in such
a way that the difficulty of conceding does not
occur to them. This advice
belongs to the rule about second thoughts (maxim
13), which covers the most
subtle maneuvers of life.
Back to
Maxims
145. Do not show your wounded finger, for everything will
knock up against it.
Do not complain about it, for malice always aims where
weakness can be injured.
It is no use to be vexed; being the butt of the
talk will only vex you the more.
Ill will searches for wounds to irritate,
aims darts to try the temper, and
tries a thousand ways to sting to the
quick. The wise never confess to being
hit, or disclose any evil, whether
personal or hereditary. For even fate
sometimes likes to wound us where we
are most tender. It always mortifies
wounded flesh. Never therefore disclose
the source of pain or of joy, if you
wish the one to cease and the other to
endure.
Back to
Maxims
146. Look into the interior of things. Things are generally
other than they
seem, and ignorance that never looks beneath the rind is
disillusioned when you
show the kernel. Lies always come first, dragging
fools along by their
irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping
along on the arm of
time. The wise therefore reserve for truth one of their
ears, which their
common mother, nature, has wisely given in duplicate.
Deceit is very
superficial, and the superficial therefore easily fall into
it. Prudence lives
retired within its recesses, visited only by sages and
wise men.
Back to
Maxims
147. Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does
not need at times
the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will
never listen to
anyone. Even the most surpassing intellect should find a
place for friendly
counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn to lean. There are
some that are
incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible. They fall
to ruin because
none dares to extricate them. The highest should have the
door open for
friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be
free to advise, and
even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed. Our
satisfaction in him and our
trust in his steadfast faith give him that
power. One need not pay respect or
give credit to everyone, but in the
innermost sanctum of his caution a person
must have the true mirror of a
confidant to whom he owes the correction of his
errors, and has to thank for
it.
Back to
Maxims
148. Have the art of conversation. That is where the real
personality shows
itself. No act requires more attention, thought it be the
most common thing in
life. You must either lose or gain by it. If it takes
care to write a letter,
which is but a deliberate and written conversation,
how much more so the
ordinary kind in which there is occasion for a prompt
display of intelligence?
Experts feel the pulse of the soul in the tongue,
which is why the sage said,
"Speak, that I may know thee." Some hold that
the art of conversation is to be
without art - that it should be neat, not
gaudy, like clothing. This holds good
for talk between friends. But when
held with persons to whom one would show
respect, it should be more
dignified to answer to the dignity of the person
addressed. To be
appropriate it should adapt itself to the mind and tone of
others. And do
not be a critic of words, or you will be taken for a pedant; nor
a
tax-gatherer of ideas, or people will avoid you, or at least sell their
thoughts dear. In conversation discretion is more important than eloquence.
Back to
Maxims
149. Know how to put off ills on others. To have a shield
against ill will is a
great piece of skill in a ruler. It is not the resort
of incapacity, as ill-
wishers imagine, but is due to the higher policy of
having someone to receive
the censure of the disaffected and the punishment
of universal dislike.
Everything cannot turn out well, therefore, even at
the cost of our pride, to
have such a scapegoat, a target for unlucky
undertakings.
Back to
Maxims
150. Know how to get your price for things. Their intrinsic
value is not
sufficient, for not everyone bites at the essence or
looks into the interior.
Most go with the crowd, and go because they see
others go. It is a great stroke
of art to show things at true value - at
times by praising them (for praise
arouses desire), at times by giving them
a striking name (which is very useful
for putting things at a premium),
provided it is done without affectation.
Again, it is generally an
inducement to profess to supply only to connoisseurs,
for all think
themselves such, and if not, the sense of want arouses the desire.
Never
call things easy or common - that makes them depreciated rather than made
accessible. All rush after the unusual, which is more appetizing both for
the
taste and for the intelligence.
Back to
Maxims
151. Think beforehand. Today for tomorrow, and even for many
days hence. The
greatest foresight consists in determining beforehand the
time of trouble. For
the provident there are no mischances and for the
careful no narrow escapes. We
must not put off thought till we are up to the
chin in mire. Mature reflection
can get over the most formidable difficulty.
"The pillow is a silent Sibyl,"
and it is better to sleep on things
beforehand than lie awake about them
afterwards. Many act first and then
think later - that is, they think less of
consequences than of excuses.
Others think neither before nor after. The whole
of life should be one
course of thought how not to miss the right path.
Rumination and foresight
enable one to determine the course of life.
Back to
Maxims
152. Never have a companion who outshines you. The more he
does so the less
desirable a companion he is. The more he excels in quality,
the more in
reputation; he will always play first fiddle and you second. If
you get any
consideration, it is only his leavings. The moon shines bright
alone among the
stars; when the sun rises she becomes either invisible or
imperceptible. Never
join one that eclipses you but rather one who sets you
in a brighter light. By
this means the cunning Fabula in Martial's verse was
able to appear beautiful
and brilliant, owing to the ugliness and disorder
of her companions. But one
should as little imperil oneself by an evil
companion as pay honor to another at
the cost of one's own credit. When you
are on the way to fortune associate with
the eminent, when arrived with the
mediocre.
Back to
Maxims
153. Beware of entering where there is a great gap to be
filled. But if you do
be sure to surpass your predecessor - merely to equal
him requires twice his
worth. As it is an artful stroke to arrange it so
that one's successor shall
cause you to be missed, so it is policy to see
that our predecessor does not
eclipse us. To fill a great gap is difficult,
for the past always seems best,
and to equal the predecessor is not enough,
since he has the right of first
possession. You must therefore possess
additional claims to oust the other from
his hold on public
opinion.
Back to
Maxims
154. Do not believe, or like, lightly. Maturity of mind is
best shown in slow
belief. Lying is the usual thing, so then let belief be
unusual. He that is
lightly led away soon falls into contempt. At the same
time, there is no
necessity to betray your doubts against the good faith of
others. For this adds
insult to discourtesy, since you make out your
informant to be either deceiver
or deceived. Nor is this the only evil. Lack
of belief is the mark of a liar,
who suffers from two failings: he neither
believes nor is believed. Suspension
of judgement is prudent in a hearer;
the speaker can appeal to his original
source of information. There is a
similar kind of imprudence in liking too
easily, for lies may be told by
deeds as well as in words, and this deceit is
more dangerous for practical
life.
Back to
Maxims
155. The art of mastering your passions. If possible, oppose
the vulgar advance
of passion with prudent reflection. This is not difficult
for a truly prudent
person. The first step toward mastering a passion is to
acknowledge that you
are in a passion. By this means you begin the conflict
with command over your
temper, for one has to regulate one's passion to the
exact point that is
necessary and no further. This is the art of arts in
falling into and getting
out of rage. You should know how and when best to
come to a stop - and it is
most difficult to halt while running double-time.
It is a great proof of wisdom
to remain clear-sighted during paroxysms of
rage. Every excess of passion is a
digression from rational conduct. But by
this masterful policy reason will
never be transgressed, nor pass the bounds
of its own moral reason. To keep
control of passion one must hold firm the
reins of attention; he who can do so
will be the first person "wise on
horseback," and probably the last.
Back to
Maxims
156. Select your friends. Only after passing the examination
of experience and
the test of fortune will they be graduates, not only in
affection but in
discernment. Though this is the most important thing in
life, it is the one
least cared for. Intelligence brings friends to some,
chance to most. Yet a
person is judged by his friends, for there was never
sympathy between wise men
and fools. At the same time, to find pleasure in a
person's society is no proof
of close friendship: it may come from the
pleasantness of his company more than
from trust in his capacity. There are
some friendships legitimate, others
illicit; the latter for pleasure, the
former for their fertility of ideas and
motives. Few are the friends of a
person's innermost self, most those of his
circumstances. The insight of a
true friend is more useful than the goodwill of
others, therefore gain them
by choice, not by chance. A wise friend ward off
worries, a foolish one
brings them about. But do not wish them too much luck,
or you may lose
them.
Back to
Maxims
157. Do not make mistakes about character. That is the worst
and yet easiest
error. Better be cheated in the price than in the quality of
goods. In dealing
with people, more than with other things, it is necessary
to look within. To
know people is different from knowing things. It is
profound philosophy to
sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of
character. People must be
studied as deeply as books.
Back
to Maxims
158. Make use of your friends. This requires all the art of
discretion. Some
are good far off, some when near. Many are no good at
conversation but
excellent as correspondents, for distance removes some
failings which are
unbearable in close proximity to them. Friends are for
use even more than for
pleasure, for they have the three qualities of the
good, or, as some say, of
being in general: unity, goodness, and truth. For
a friend is all in all. Few
are worthy to be good friends, and even these
become fewer because people do not
know how to pick them out. Keeping
friends is more important than making them.
Select those that will wear well
- if they are new at first it is some
consolation that they will become old.
Absolutely the best are those well
salted, though they may require soaking
in the testing. There is no desert like
leaving without friends. Friendship
multiplies the good of life and divides the
evil. It is the sole remedy
against misfortune, like fresh air to the soul.
Back to
Maxims
159. Put up with fools. The wise are always impatient, for he
that increases
knowledge increases impatience with folly. Much knowledge is
difficult to
satisfy. The first great rule of life, according to Epictetus,
is to put up
with things - he valued this as half of all wisdom. To put up
with all the
varieties of folly would need much patience. We often have to
put up with most
from those on whom we most depend, which is a useful lesson
in self-control.
Out of patience comes forth peace, the priceless boon that
is the happiness of
the world. But let him that has no power of patience
then retire within
himself, though even there he will have to put up with
himself.
Back to
Maxims
160. Be careful in speaking. With your rivals out of
prudence, with others for
the sake of appearance. There is always time to
add a word, never to withdraw
one. Talk as if you were
making your will: the fewer words the less litigation.
In trivial matters
exercise yourself for the more weighty matters of speech.
Profound secrecy
has some of the luster of the divine. He who speaks quickly
soon falls of
fails.
Back to
Maxims
161. Know your pet faults. The most perfect of people has
them and is either
wedded to them or loves them. They are often faults of
intellect, and the
greater this is, the greater they are, or at least the
more conspicuous. It is
not so much that their possessor does not know them,
he loves them, which is a
double evil because it's an irrational affection
for avoidable faults. They are
spots on perfection, they displease the
onlooker as much as they please the
possessor. It is a gallant thing to get
clear of them, and so give play to
one's other qualities. For all people hit
upon such a failing, and on going
over your qualifications they will take a
long look at this blot and blacken it
in as deeply as possible, casting your
other talents into the shade.
Back to
Maxims
162. How to triumph over your rivals and detractors. It is
not enough to
despise them, though this is often wise - a gallant bearing is
the essential
thing. One cannot praise a person too much who speaks well of
them who speaks
ill of him. There is no more heroic vengeance than that of
talents and services
that at once conquer and torment the envious. Every
success is a further twist
of the cord round the neck of those who wish you
ill, and an enemy's glory is
the rival's hell. The envious die not once, but
as often as the envied wins
applause. The immortality of his fame is the
measure of the other's torture;
the one lives in endless honor, the other in
endless pain. The clarion of fame
announces immortality to the one and death
to the other - the slow death of envy
long drawn out.
Back
to Maxims
163. Never - out of sympathy with the unfortunate - involve
yourself in their
fate. One person's misfortune is another's luck, for one
cannot be lucky
without many being unlucky. It is a peculiarity of the
unfortunate to arouse
people's goodwill, who desire to compensate them for
the blows of fortune with
their useless favor, and it happens that one who
was abhorred by all in
prosperity is adored by all in adversity. Vengeance
on the wing is exchanged
for compassion afoot. Yet it should be noticed how
fate shuffles the cards.
There are people who always consort with the
unlucky, and he that yesterday flew
high and happy stands today miserable at
their side. That reveals nobility of
soul but not worldly
wisdom.
Back to
Maxims
164. Throw straws in the air to test the wind. Find how
things will be
perceived, especially from those whose reception or success
is doubtful. One
can thus be assured of its turning out well, and an
opportunity is provided for
going on in earnest or withdrawing entirely. By
trying people's intentions in
this way, the wise person knows on what ground
he stands. This is the great
rule of foresight in asking, in desiring, and
in ruling.
Back to
Maxims
165. Wage war honorably. You may be obliged to wage war but
not to use poisoned
arrows. Everyone must act as he is, not as others would
make him to be.
Gallantry in the battle of life wins everyone's praise; one
should fight so as
to conquer, not alone by force but by the way it is used.
A mean victory brings
no glory, but rather disgrace. Honor always has the
upper hand. An honorable
person never uses forbidden weapons, such as using
a friendship that's ended for
the purposes of a hatred just begun; a
confidence must never be used for a
vengeance. The slightest taint of
treason tarnishes one's good name. In people
of honor the smallest trace of
meanness repels. The noble and the ignoble
should be miles apart. Be able to
boast that is gallantry, generosity, and
fidelity were lost in the world
people would be able to rediscover them in your
own heart.
Back
to Maxims
166. Distinguish people of words from people of deeds.
Discrimination is
important, as in the case of friends, persons, and
employments, which all have
many varieties. Bad words even without bad deeds
are bad enough; good words
with bad deeds are worse. One cannot dine off
words, which are wind, nor off
politeness, which is but polite deceit. To
catch birds with a mirror is the
ideal snare. It is the vain alone who take
their wages in windy words. Words
should be the pledges of work, and, like
pawntickets, have their market price.
Trees that bear leaves but not fruit
usually have no core - know them for what
they are, of no use except for
shade.
Back to
Maxims
167. Know how to rely on yourself. In great crises there is
no better companion
than a bold heart, and if it becomes weak it must be
strengthened from the
neighboring parts. Worries dies away for the person
who asserts himself. One
must not surrender to misfortune or else it would
become intolerable. Many
people do not help themselves in their troubles and
double their weight by not
knowing how to bear them. He that knows himself
knows how to strengthen his
weakness, and the wise person conquers
everything, even the stars in their
courses.
Back to
Maxims
168. Do not indulge in the eccentricities of folly. Like
vanity,
presumptuousness, egotism, untrustworthiness, capriciousness,
obstinacy,
fancifulness, theatricalism, whimsy, inquisitivness,
contradiction, and all
forms of one-sidedness - they are all monstrosities
of impertinence. All
deformity of mind is more obnoxious than that of the
body, because it violates a
higher beauty. Yet who can assist such a
complete confusion of mind? Where
self-control is wanting, there is no room
for others' guidance. Instead of
paying attention to other people's real
derision, people of this kind blind
themselves with the false hope of
imaginary applause.
Back to
Maxims
169. Be more careful not to miss once than to hit a hundred
times. No one looks
at the blazing sun, but all gaze when it is eclipsed.
The common talk does not
reckon what goes right but what goes wrong. Evil
news carries farther than any
applause. Many people are not known to the
world till they have left it. All
the exploits of a person taken together
are not enough to wipe out a single
small blemish. Avoid therefore falling
into error, knowing that ill will
notices every error and no
success.
Back to
Maxims
170. In all things keep something in reserve. This is a sure
way of keeping up
your importance. A person should employ all his capacity
and power at once and
on every occasion. Even in knowledge there should be a
rearguard so that your
resources are doubled. One must always have something
to resort to when there
is fear of a defeat. The reserve is of more
importance than the attacking
force, for it is distinguished by valor and
reputation. Prudence always sets to
work with assurance of safety. In this
matter the piquant paradox holds true:
the half is more than the
whole.
Back to
Maxims
171. Do not waste influence. The great as friends are for
great occasions. One
should not make use of great confidence for little
things, for that wastes a
favor. The emergency anchor should be reserved for
the last resort. If you use
up the great for little ends what remain
afterward? Nothing is more valuable
than a protector and nothing costs more
nowadays than a favor. It can make or
unmake a whole world. It can even
support your wits or take them away. As
nature and fame are favorable to the
wise, so luck is generally envious of them.
It is therefore more important
to keep the favor of the mighty than goods and
chattels.
Back
to Maxims
172. Never contend with someone who has nothing to lose. By
doing so you enter
into an unequal conflict. The other enters without
anxiety - having lost
everything, including shame, he has no further loss to
fear. He therefore
resorts to all kinds of insolence. One should never
expose a valuable
reputation to so terrible a risk, least of all what has
cost years to gain and
may be lost in a moment - a single slight may wipe
out much sweat. A person of
honor and responsibility has a reputation,
because he has much to lose. He
balances his own and the other's reputation.
He only enters into the contest
with the greatest caution, and then goes to
work with such circumspection that
he gives prudence the opportunity to
retire in time and bring his reputation
under cover. For even by victory he
cannot gain what he has lost by exposing
himself to the chances of
loss.
Back to
Maxims
173. Do not be made of glass in your relations with others,
still less in
friendship. Some break very easily, and thereby show their
want of consistency.
They attribute to themselves imaginary offences and to
others oppressive
intentions. Their feelings are even more sensitive than
the eye itself and must
not be touched in jest or in earnest. Motes offend
them; they need not wait for
beams. Those who consort with them must treat
them with the greatest delicacy,
have regard to their sensitiveness, and
watch their demeanor, since the
slightest slight arouses their annoyance.
They are mostly very egoistic, slaves
of their moods, for the sake of which
they cast everything aside. They are
worshippers of little nothings. On the
other hand, the disposition of the true
lover is almost diamond-like: hard
and everlasting.
Back to
Maxims
174. Do not live in a hurry. To know how to separate things
is to know how to
enjoy them. Many people finish their fortune sooner than
their life. They run
through pleasures without enjoying them, and would like
to go back when they
find they have overrun the mark. Postilions of life,
they increase the ordinary
pace of life by the hurry of their own calling.
They devour more in one day
than they can digest in a whole lifetime; they
live in advance of pleasures, eat
up the years beforehand, and by their
hurry get through everything too soon.
Even in the search for knowledge
there should be moderation, lest we learn
things better left unknown. We
have more days to live through than pleasures.
Be slow in enjoyment, quick
at work, for people see work ended with pleasure,
pleasures ended with
regret.
Back to
Maxims
175. A solid person. One who is finds no satisfaction in
those that are not.
It is a pitiable eminence that is not well founded. Not
all are those that seem
to be so. Some are sources of deceit - impregnated
by chimeras, they give
births to impositions. Others are like them so much
that they take more
pleasure in a lie (because it promises much) than in the
truth (because it
performs little). But in the end these caprices come to a
bad end, for they
have no solid foundation. Only truth can give true
reputation; only reality can
be of real profit. One deceit needs many
others, and so the whole house is
built in the air and must soon come to the
ground. Unfounded things never reach
old age. They promise too much to be
much trusted: that cannot be true that
proves too much.
Back
to Maxims
176. Have knowledge, or know those who do. Without
intelligence, either one's
own or another's, true life is impossible. But
many do not know that they do
not know, and many think they know when they
know nothing. Failings of the
intelligence are incorrigible, since those who
do not know, do not know
themselves, and cannot therefore seek what they
lack. Many would be wise if
they did not think themselves wise. Thus it
happens that though the oracles of
wisdom are precious, they are rarely
used. To seek advice does not lessen
greatness or argue incapacity. On the
contrary, to ask advice proves you well
advised. Take counsel with reason if
you do not wish to court defeat.
Back to
Maxims
177. Avoid being to familiar with others. Nor should you
permit other to be
too familiar with you. He that is too familiar loses any
superiority his
influence gives him and so loses respect. The stars keep
their brilliance by
not making themselves common. The divine demands
decorum. Every familiarity
breeds contempt. In human affairs, the more a
person shows the less he has, for
in open communication you communicate the
failings that reserve might keep under
cover. Familiarity is never
desirable: with superiors because it is dangerous,
with inferiors because it
is unbecoming, least of all with the common herd, who
become insolent from
sheer folly - they mistake favor shown them for need felt
of them.
Familiarity verges on vulgarity.
Back to
Maxims
178. Trust your heart. Especially when it has been proved.
Never deny it a
hearing. It is a kind of house oracle that often foretells
things most
important. Many have perished because they feared their own
heart, but of what
use is it to fear it without finding a better remedy?
Many are endowed by
nature with a heart so true that it always warns them of
misfortune and wards
off its effects. It is unwise to seek evils, unless you
seek to conquer them.
Back to
Maxims
179. Reticence is the seal of capacity. A heart without a
secret is an open
letter. Where there is a solid foundation secrets can be
kept profound - there
are specious cellars where important things may be
hid. Reticence springs from
self-control and to control oneself in this is a
true triumph. You must pay
ransom to each you tell. The security of wisdom
consists of inner temperance.
The risk that reticence runs lies in the
cross-questioning of others, in the use
of contradiction to worm out
secrets, in the darts of irony. To avoid there the
prudent become more
reticent than ever. What must be done need not be said, and
what must be
said need not be done.
Back to
Maxims
180. Never guide the enemy to what he has to do. The fool
never does what the
wise judge wise, because he does not follow up with
suitable means. He that is
discreet follows still less a plan laid out, or
even carried out, by another.
One has to discuss matters from both points of
view - turn it over on both
sides. Judgements vary. Let him that has not
decided attend rather to what is
possible than what is
probable.
Back to
Maxims
181. The truth, but not the whole truth. Nothing demands more
caution than the
truth - it is the lancet of the heart. It requires as much
to tell the truth as
to conceal it. A single lie destroys a whole reputation
for integrity. The
deceit is regarded as treason and the deceiver as a
traitor, which is worse.
Yet not all truths can be spoken, some for our own
sake, others for the sake of
others.
Back to
Maxims
182. A grain of boldness in everything. This is an important
piece of prudence.
You must moderate your opinion of others so that you may
not think so high of
them as to fear them. The imagination should never
yield to the heart. Many
appear great till you know them personally, and
then dealing with them does more
to raise disillusion than esteem. No one
oversteps the narrow bounds of
humanity - all have their weaknesses either
in heart or head. Dignity gives
apparent authority, which is rarely
accompanied by personal power, for fortune
often redresses the height of
office by the inferiority of the holder. The
imagination always jumps too
soon and paints things in brighter colors than the
real. It thinks things
not as they are but as it wishes them to be.
Attentiveness - though
disillusioned in the past - soon corrects all that. Yet
if wisdom should not
be timorous, neither should folly be rash. And if self-
reliance helps the
ignorant, how much more the brave and wise?
Back to
Maxims
183. Do not hold your views to firmly. Every fool is firmly
convinced, and
everyone fully persuaded is a fool; the more erroneous his
judgement the more
firmly he holds it. Even in cases of obvious certainty,
it is fine to yield.
Our reasons for holding the view cannot escape notice,
our courtesy in yielding
will be recognized. Our obstinacy loses more than
our victory gains - that is
not to champion truth but rather rudeness. There
are some heads of iron most
difficult to turn, and add caprice to obstinacy
and the sum is a wearisome fool.
Steadfastness should be for the will, not
for the mind. Yet there are
exceptions where one would fail twice, owning
oneself wrong both in judgement
and in the execution of it.
Back
to Maxims
184. Do not stand on ceremony. Even in kings this affectation
is renowned for
eccentricity. To be punctilious is to be a bore, yet whole
nations have this
peculiarity. The garb of folly is woven out of such
things. Such folk are
worshippers of their own dignity, yet show how little
it is justified since they
fear that the least thing can destroy it. It is
right to demand respect, but
not to be considered a master of ceremonies.
Yet it is true that in order to do
without ceremonies one must possess
supreme qualities. Neither affect nor
despise etiquette - he cannot be great
who is great at such little things.
Back to
Maxims
185. Never stake your credit on a single cast of the dice. If
it miscarries the
damage is irreparable. It may easily happen that you might
fail once,
especially at first. Circumstances are not always favorable,
hence they say,
"Every dog has his day." Always connect your second attempt
with your first,
because whether it succeeds or fails the first will redeem
the second. Always
have resort to better means and appeal to more resources.
Things depend on all
sorts of chances. That is why the satisfaction of
success is so rare.
Back to
Maxims
186. Recognize faults, however highly placed. Integrity can
discover vice when
clothed in brocade or even crowned with gold, but will
not be able to hide its
own character for all that. Slavery does not lose
its vileness because it is
disguised by the nobility of its lord and master.
Vices may stand in a high
place, but are low for all that. People may see
that many a great person has
great faults, yet they do not see that he is
not great because of them. The
example of the great is so specious that it
even glosses over viciousness, until
it may so affect those who flatter it
that they do not notice that what they
gloss over in the great they
abominate in the lower classed.
Back to
Maxims
187. Do pleasant things yourself, unpleasant things through
others. By the one
course you gain goodwill, by the other you avoid hatred.
A great person takes
more pleasure in doing a favor than in receiving one -
it is the privilege of
his generous nature. One cannot easily cause pain to
another without suffering
pain either from sympathy or from remorse. In a
high position one can only work
by means of rewards and punishment, so grant
the first yourself, inflict the
other through others. Have someone against
whom the weapons of discontent,
hatred, and slander may be directed. For the
rage of the mob is like that of a
dog: missing the cause of its pain it
turns to bite the whip itself and, though
this is not the real culprit, it
has to pay the penalty.
Back to
Maxims
188. Be the bearer of praise. This increases our credit for
good taste, since
it shows that we have learned elsewhere to know what is
excellent and hence how
to prize it in the present company. It gives
material for conversation and for
imitation and encourages praiseworthy
exertions. Besides, this does homage in a
very delicate way to the
excellences before us. Others do the opposite, they
accompany their talk
with a sneer, and fancy they flatter those present by
belittling the absent.
This may serve them with superficial people, who do not
notice how cunning
it is to speak ill of everyone to everyone else. Many pursue
the plan of
valuing more highly the mediocrities of the day than the most
distinguished
exploits of the past. Let the cautious penetrate through these
subtleties,
and let him not be dismayed by the exaggerations of the one or made
overconfident by the flatteries of the other; knowing that both act in the
same
way by different methods, adapting their talk to the company they are
in.
Back to
Maxims
189. Utilize another's wants. The greater his wants the
greater the turn of the
screw. Philosophers say privation is non-existent,
but statesmen say it is all-
embracing, and they are right. Many make ladders
to attain their ends out of
the wants of others. They make use of the
opportunity and tantalize the
appetite by pointing out the difficulty of
satisfaction. The energy of desire
promises more than the inertia of
possession. The passion of desire increases
with every increase of
opposition. It is a subtle point to satisfy the desire
and yet preserve the
dependence.
Back to
Maxims
190. Find consolation in all things. Even the useless may
find it in being
immortal. No trouble without compensation. Fools are held
to be lucky, and the
good luck of the ugly is proverbial. Be worth little
and you will live long -
it is the cracked glass that never gets broken, but
worries one with its
durability. It seems that fortune envies the great, so
it equalizes things by
giving long life to the useless, a short one to the
important. Those who bear
the burden come soon to grief, while those who are
of no importance live on and
on: in one case it appears so, in the other it
is so. The unlucky thinks he has
been forgotten by both death and
fortune.
Back to
Maxims
191. Do not take payment in politeness. This is a kind of
fraud. Some do not
need exotic herbs for their magic potion, for they can
enchant fools by the
grace of their salute. Theirs is the Bank of Elegance,
and they pay with the
wind of fine words. To promise everything is to
promise nothing - promises are
the pitfalls of fools. The true courtesy is
performance of duty; the spurious,
and especially the useless, is deceit. It
is not respect but rather a means to
power. Obeisance is paid not to the man
but to his means, and compliments are
offered not to the qualities that are
recognized but to the advantages that are
desired.
Back to
Maxims
192. A peaceful life is a long life. To live, let live.
Peacemakers not only
live, they rule life. Hear, see, and be silent. A day
without dispute brings
sleep without dreams. Long life and a pleasant one is
life enough for two -
that is the fruit of peace. He has all that makes
nothing of what is nothing to
him. There is no greater
perversity than to take everything to heart. There is
equal folly in
troubling our heart about what does not concern us and in not
taking to
heart what does.
Back to
Maxims
193. Watch out for people who begin with another's concerns
to end with their
own. Watchfulness is the only guard
against cunning. Be intent on their
intention. Many succeed in making others
do their own affairs, and unless you
possess the key to their motives you
may at any moment be forced to take their
chestnuts out of the fire to the
damage of your own fingers.
Back to
Maxims
194. Have reasonable views of yourself and of your affairs.
This is especially
true in the beginning of life. Everyone has a high
opinion of himself,
especially those who have least ground for it. Everyone
dreams of his good luck
and thinks himself a marvel. Hope gives rise to
extravagant promises that
experience does not fulfill. Such idle
imaginations merely serve as a
wellspring of annoyance when disillusion
comes with the true reality. The wise
man anticipates such errors. He may
always hope for the best, but he always
expects the worst, so as to receive
what comes with equanimity. True, it is
wise to aim high so as to hit your
mark, but not so high that you miss your
mission at the very beginning of
life. This correction of expectations is
necessary because before experience
comes, expectation is sure to soar too high.
The best panacea against folly
is prudence. If you know the true sphere of your
activity and position, you
can reconcile ideals with reality.
Back to
Maxims
195. Know how to appreciate. There is no one who cannot teach
somebody
something, and there is no one so excellent that he cannot be
excelled. To know
how to make use of everyone is useful knowledge. Wise men
appreciate everyone,
for they see the good in each and know how hard it is
to make anything good.
Fools depreciate everyone, not recognizing the good
and selecting the bad.
Back to
Maxims
196. Know your ruling star. No one is so helpless as not to
have a ruling star;
if he is unlucky, that is because he does know it. Some
stand high in the favor
of princes and potentates without knowing why or
wherefore, except that good
luck itself has granted them favor on easy
terms, merely requiring them to aid
it with a little exertion. Others find
favor with the wise. One person is
better received by one nation than
another, or is more welcome in one city than
another. He finds more luck in
one office or position than another, and all
this though his qualifications
are equal or even identical. Luck shuffles the
cards how and when she will.
Let each person know his luck as well as his
talents, for on this depends
whether he loses or wins. Follow your guiding star
and help it without
mistaking it for any other, for that would be to miss the
north, though its
neighbor (or polestar) calls us to it with a voice of thunder.
Back
to Maxims
197. Do not carry fools on your back. He that does not know a
fool when he sees
one is one himself, still more he that knows him but will
not keep clear of him.
They are dangerous company and ruinous confidants.
Even though their own
caution and others' care keeps them in bounds for a
time, still at length they
are sure to do or to say some foolishness that is
all the greater for being kept
so long in stock. They cannot help another's
credit who have none of their own.
They are most unlucky, which is the
nemesis of fools, and they have to pay for
one thing or the other. There is
only one thing that is not so bad about them,
and this is that though they
can be of no use to the wise, they are good as
warning signs or as
signposts.
Back to
Maxims
198. Know how to transplant yourself. There are nations with
whom one must
cross their borders to make one's value felt, especially when
in great posts.
Their native land is always the stepmother to great talents;
envy flourishes
there on its native, soil and they remember one's small
beginnings rather than
the greatness one has reached. A needle is
appreciated that comes from one end
of the world to the other, and a piece
of painted glass might outvie the diamond
in value if it comes from afar.
Everything foreign is respected, partly because
it comes from afar partly
because it is ready made and perfect. We have seen a
person once the
laughingstock of their village and now the wonder of the whole
world,
honored by their fellow countrymen and by foreigners - by the latter
because
they come from afar, by the former because they are seen from afar. The
wood
statue on the altar is never reverenced by him who knew it as a tree trunk
in the garden.
Back to
Maxims
199. Find your proper place by merit, not by presumption. The
true road to
respect is through merit, and if industry accompanies merit the
path becomes
shorter. Integrity alone is not sufficient, push and insistence
is degrading,
for things that arrive by that means are so sullied that the
discredit destroys
reputation. The true way is the middle one, halfway
between deserving a place
and pushing oneself into it.
Back
to Maxims
200. Leave something to wish for. That way you will not be
miserable from too
much happiness. The body must respire and the soul
aspire. If one possessed
all, all would be disillusion and discontent. Even
in knowledge there should be
always something left to know in order to
arouse curiosity and excite hope.
Surfeit of happiness are fatal. In giving
assistance it is a piece of policy
not to satisfy entirely. If there is
nothing left to desire, there is
everything to fear - an unhappy state of
happiness. When desire dies, fear is
born.
Back to
Maxims
201. They are all fools who seem so, as well as half the
rest. Folly arose with
the world, and if there be any wisdom it is folly
compared with the divine. But
the greatest fool is he who thinks he is not
one and all others are. To be wise
it is not enough to seem wise, least of
all to seem so to oneself. He knows who
does not think that he knows, and he
does not see who does not see that others
see. Though all
the world is full of fools, there is no one who thinks himself
one, or even
suspects the fact.
Back to
Maxims
202. Words and deeds make the perfect person. One should
speak well and act
honorably the one is an excellence of the head, the other
of the heart, and both
arise from nobility of soul. Words are the shadows of
deeds - the former are
feminine, the latter masculine. It is more important
to be renowned than to
convey renown. Speech is easy, action hard. Actions
are the stuff of life,
words its frippery. Eminent deeds endure, striking
words pass away. Actions
are the fruit of thought; if this is wise, they are
effective.
Back to
Maxims
203. Know the great people of your age. They are not many.
There is one
phoenix in the whole world, one great general, one perfect
orator, one true
philosopher in a century, one really illustrious king in
several. Mediocrities
are as numerous as they are worthless; eminent
greatness is rare in every
respect, since it needs complete perfection, and
the higher the species the more
difficult is the highest rank in it. Many
have claimed the title Great,
like Caesar and Alexander, but in vain,
for without deeds the title is a
mere breath of air. There have been few
Senecas, and fame records but one
Apelles.
Back to
Maxims
204. Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult and
difficult as if they were
easy. In one case so that confidence may not fall
asleep, in the other so that
it may not be dismayed. For a thing to remain
undone nothing more is needed
than to think it done. On the other hand,
patient industry overcomes
impossibilities. Great undertakings are not to be
brooded over, lest their
difficulty when seen causes despair.
Back
to Maxims
205. Know how to play the card of contempt. It is a shrewd
way of getting
things you want, by pretending to depreciate them; generally
they are not to be
had when sought for, but fall into one's hands when one
is not looking for them.
As all mundane things are but shadows of the things
eternal, they share with
shadows this quality, they flee from him who
follows them and follow him that
flees from them. Contempt is also the most
subtle form of revenge. It is a
fixed rule with the wise never to defend
themselves with the pen. For such
defense always leaves a stain, and does
more to glorify one's opponent than to
punish his offence. It is a trick of
the worthless to stand forth as opponents
of great men, so as to win
notoriety by a roundabout way, which they would never
do by the straight
road of merit. There are many we would not have heard of if
their eminent
opponents had not taken notice of them. There is no revenge like
oblivion,
through which they are buried in the dust of their unworthiness. An
audacious person hopes to make himself eternally famous by setting fire to
one
of the wonders of the world and of the ages. The art of reproving
scandal is
not to take notice of it. To combat it damages our own case -
even if credited
it causes discredit and is a source of satisfaction to our
opponent. This
shadow of a stain dulls the luster of our fame, even if it
cannot altogether
deaden it.
Back to
Maxims
206. Know that there are vulgar people everywhere. This is
true even in Corinth
itself,
even in the highest families. Everyone may try the experiment
within his own gates. But there is also such a thing as vulgar opposition to
vulgarity, which is worse. This special kind shares all the qualities of the
common kind, just as bits of broken glass, but this kind is still more
pernicious; it speaks folly, blames impertinently, is a disciple of ignorance, a
patron of folly, a past master of scandal. You need not notice what it says,
still less what it thinks. It is important to know vulgarity in order to avoid
it, whether it is subjective or objective. For all folly is
vulgarity, and
the vulgar consist of fools.
Back to
Maxims
207. Be moderate. One has to consider the chance of a
mischance. The impulses
of the passions cause prudence to slip, and there is
risk of ruin. A moment of
wrath or of pleasure carries you on farther than
many hours of calm, and often a
short diversion may put a whole life to
shame. The cunning of others uses such
moments of temptation to search the
recesses of the mind. They use such
thumbscrews to test your best sense of
caution. Moderation serves as a
counterplot, especially in sudden
emergencies. Much thought is needed to
prevent a passion taking the bit in
the teeth, and he is doubly wise who is wise
on horseback. He who knows the
danger may with care pursue his journey. As
light as a word may appear to
him who throws it out, it may import much to him
that hears it and ponders
on it.
Back to
Maxims
208. Do not die of the fools' disease. The wise generally die
after they have
lost their reason, fools before they have found it. To die
of the fool's
disease is to die of too much thought. Some die because they
think and feel too
much, others live because they do not think or feel at
all. The first are fools
because they die of sorrow, the others because they
do not. A fool is he that
dies of too much knowledge. Thus some die because
they are too knowing, others
because they are not knowing enough. Yet though
many die like fools, few die
fools.
Back to
Maxims
209. Keep yourself free from common follies. This is a
special stroke of
policy. They are of special power because they are common,
so that many who
would not be led away by an individual folly cannot escape
the universal
failing. Among these are to be counted the common prejudice of
anyone who is
satisfied with his fortune, however great, or unsatisfied with
his intellect,
however poor it is. Or again, that each, being discontented
with his own lot,
envies that of others. Or further, that persons of today
praise the things of
yesterday, and those here the things there. Everything
past seems best and
everything distant is more valued. He is a great fool
that laughs at everything
as is he that weeps at everything.
Back
to Maxims
210. Know how to play the card of truth. It is dangerous, yet
a good person
cannot avoid speaking it. But great skill is needed here. The
most expert
doctors of the soul pay great attention to the means of
sweetening the pills of
truth. For when it deals with the destroying of
illusion it is the quintessence
of bitterness. A pleasant manner has here an
opportunity for a display of skill
- with the same truth it can flatter one
and fell another to the ground.
Matters of today should be treated as if
they were long past. For those who can
understand, a word is sufficient, and
if it does not suffice, it is a case for
silence. Princes must not be cured
with bitter draughts, so it is desirable in
their case to gild the pill of
disillusion.
Back to
Maxims
211. In heaven all is bliss. And in hell all misery. One
earth, between the
two, both one thing and the other. We stand between the
two extremes, and
therefore share both. Fate varies - all is not good luck
nor all mischance.
This world is merely zero - by itself it is of no value -
but with heaven in
front of it, it means much. Indifference at its ups and
downs is prudent, nor
is there any novelty for the wise. Our life gets as
complicated as a comedy as
it goes on, but the complications get gradually
resolved - see that the curtain
comes down on a good
denouement.
Back to
Maxims
212. Keep to yourself the final touches of your art. This is
a maxim of the
great masters who pride themselves on this subtlety in
teaching their pupils:
one must always remain superior, remain master. One
must teach an art artfully.
The source of knowledge need not be pointed out
no more than that of giving. By
this means a person preserves the respect
and the dependence of others. In
amusing and teaching, you must observe the
rule: keep up expectation and advance
in perfection. To keep a reserve is a
great rule for life and for success,
especially for those in high
places.
Back to
Maxims
213. Know how to contradict. A chief means of finding thing
out - to embarrass
others without being embarrassed. The true thumbscrew, it
brings the passions
into play. A little disbelief makes people spit up
secrets. It is the key to a
locked up heart, and with great subtlety makes a
double trial of both mind and
will. A sly depreciation of another's
mysterious word scents out the
profoundest secrets; some sweet bait brings
them into the mouth till they fall
from the tongue and are caught in the net
of astute deceit. By reserving your
attention the other becomes less
attentive, and lets his thoughts appear while
otherwise his heart were
inscrutable. An affected doubt is the subtlest
picklock that curiosity can
use to find out what it wants to know. Also in
learning it is a subtle plan
of the pupil to contradict the master, who
thereupon takes pains to explain
the truth more thoroughly and with more force,
so that a moderate
contradiction produces complete instruction.
Back to
Maxims
214. Do not turn one blunder into two. It is quite usual to
commit four
blunders in order to remedy one, or to excuse one piece of
impertinence by still
another. Folly is either related to or identical with
the family of lies, for
in both cases it needs many to support one. The
worst of a bad case is having
to fight it, and worse than the ill itself is
not being able to conceal it. The
annuity of one failing serves to support
many others. A wise person may make
one slip but never two, and that only in
running not while standing still.
Back to
Maxims
215. Watch out for those who act on second thoughts. It is a
device of business
people to put the opponent off his guard before attacking
him, and thus to
conquer by being defeated. They dissemble their desire so
as to attain it.
They put themselves second so as to come out first. This
method rarely fails if
it is not noticed. Let therefore the attention never
sleep when the intention
is so wide awake. And if the other puts himself
second so to hide his plan, put
yourself first to discover it. Prudence can
discern the artifices that such a
man uses, and notices the pretexts he puts
forward to gain his ends. He aims at
one thing to get another, then he turns
round smartly and fires straight at his
target. It is good to know what you
grant him, and at times it is desirable to
let him understand that you
understand.
Back to
Maxims
216. Be expressive. This depends not only on the clearness
but also on the
vivacity of your thoughts. Some have an easy conception but
a hard labor, for
without clarity the children of the mind - thoughts and
judgements - cannot be
brought into the world. Many have a capacity like
that of vessels with a large
mouth and a small vent. Others say more than
they think. Resolution for the
will, expression for the thought - both are
gifts. Plausible minds are
applauded, yet confused ones are often venerated
just because they are not
understood - at times obscurity is convenient if
you wish to avoid vulgarity.
How will the audience understand someone who
does not connect and definite idea
with what he is talking
about?
Back to
Maxims
217. Neither love nor hate forever. Trust the friends of
today as if they will
be enemies tomorrow, and that of the worst kind. As
this happens in reality,
let it happen in your precaution. Do not put
weapons in the hand for deserters
from friendship to wage war with. On the
other hand, leave the door of
reconciliation open for enemies, and if it is
also the gate of generosity so
much the more safe. The vengeance of long ago
is at times the torment of today,
and the joy over the ill we have done is
turned to grief.
Back to
Maxims
218. Never act from obstinacy but from knowledge. All
obstinacy is an evil
tumor on the mind, a grandchild of passion that never
did anything right. There
are people who make a war out of everything, real
bandits of social intercourse.
All that they undertake must end in victory.
They do not know how to get on in
peace. Such people are fatal when they
rule and govern, for they make
government a rebellion and enemies out of
those they should regard as children.
They try to effect everything with
strategy and treat it as the fruit of their
skill. But when others have
recognized their perverse humor, they revolt
against them and learn to
overturn their chimerical plans. They succeed in
nothing but only heap up a
mass of troubles, since everything serves to increase
their disappointment.
They have a head turned and a heart spoilt. Nothing can
be done with such
monsters except to flee from them - even the savagery of
barbarians is
easier to bear than their loathsome nature.
Back to
Maxims
219. Do not pass for a hypocrite. Though nowadays, such
people are
indispensable. Be considered prudent rather than astute.
Sincerity should not
degenerate into simplicity nor sagacity into cunning.
Be respected as wise
rather than feared as sly. The openhearted are loved
but often deceived. The
great art consists in disclosing what is thought to
be deceit. Simplicity
flourished in the golden age, cunning in these days of
iron. The reputation of
someone who knows what he has to do is honorable and
inspires confidence, but to
be considered a hypocrite is deceptive and
arouses mistrust.
Back to
Maxims
220. If you cannot clothe yourself in lion-skin use foxpelt.
To follow the
times is to lead them. He that gets what he wants never loses
his reputation.
Use cleverness when force will not do. Take one way or
another, the king's
highway of valor or bypath of cunning. Skill has
effected more than force, and
astuteness has conquered courage more often
than the other way around. When you
cannot get something, that is the time
to despise it.
Back to
Maxims
221. Do not seize occasions to embarrass yourself or others.
There are some
people who are stumbling blocks of good manners either for
themselves of for
others. They are always on the verge of some stupidity.
You meet with them
easily and part from them uneasily. A hundred annoyance a
day is nothing to
them. Their humor always strokes the wrong way since they
contradict all and
everything. They put on the judgement cap backwards and
thus condemn all. Yet
the greatest test of others' patience and prudence are
just those who do no good
and speak ill of all. There are many monsters in
the wide realm of indecorum.
Back to
Maxims
222. Reserve is proof of prudence. The tongue is a wild beast
- once let loose
it is difficult to chain. It is the pulse of the soul by
which wise men judge
its health. By this pulse a careful observer feels
every movement of the heart.
The worst is that he who should be most
reserved is the least. The sage saves
himself from worries and
embarrassments, and shows his mastery over himself. He
goes his way
carefully, a Janus of
impartiality, an Argus of
watchfulness.
Certainly Momus would
have better placed the eyes in the hand than the windows in the
breast.
Back to
Maxims
223. Do not be eccentric, neither from affectation nor
carelessness. Many have
some remarkable and individual quality leading to
eccentric actions. Theses are
more defects than excellent differences. And
just as some are known for some
special ugliness, so these for something
repellant in their outward behavior.
Such eccentricities simply serve as
trademarks through their atrocious
singularity - they cause either derision
or ill will.
Back to
Maxims
224. Never take things against the grain, no matter how they
come. Everything
has a smooth and a seamy side. The best of weapons wounds
it taken the blade,
while the enemy's spear may be our best protection if
taken by the staff. Many
things cause pain that would cause pleasure if you
regarded their advantages.
There is a favorable and an unfavorable side to
everything - cleverness consists
in finding out the favorable. The same
thing looks quite different in another
light; look at it therefore on its
best side and do not exchange good for evil.
Thus it happens that many find
joy, many grief, in everything. This remark is a
great protection against
the frowns of fortune, and a weighty rule of life for
all times and all
conditions.
Back to
Maxims
225. Know your chief fault. There is no one lives who has not
in himself a
counterbalance to his most conspicuous merit, and if it is
nourished by desire
it may grow to be a tyrant. Commence war against it,
summoning prudence as your
ally. The first thing to do is to make it public,
for an evil once known is
soon conquered, especially when the one afflicted
regards it in the same light
as the onlookers. To be master of oneself one
should know oneself. If the
chief imperfection is surrendered, the rest will
also come to an end.
Back to
Maxims
226. Take care to be obliging. Most talk, and act, not as
they are, but as they
are obliged. To persuade people of the bad is easy for
anyone, since the bad is
easily credited even when it is incredible. The
best we have depends on the
opinion of others. Some are satisfied if they
have right on their side, but
that is not enough, for it must be assisted by
energy. To oblige people often
costs little and helps much. With words you
may purchase deeds. In this great
house of the world there is no chamber so
hidden that it may not be wanted one
day in the year, and then you would
miss it however little it is worth.
Everyone speaks of a subject according
to his feelings.
Back to
Maxims
227. Do not be the slave of first impressions. Some marry the
very first
account they hear, all others must live with them as concubines.
But as a lie
has swift legs, the truth with them can find no lodging. We
should neither
satisfy our will with the first object nor our mind with the
first proposition -
for that is superficial. Many are like new casks who
keep the scent of the
first liquor they hold, be it good or bad. If this
superficiality become known,
it becomes fatal, for it then give opportunity
for cunning mischief. The evil-
minded hasten to color the mind of the
gullible. Always therefore leave room
for a second hearing. Alexander always
kept one ear for the other side. Wait
for the second or even third edition
of news. To be the slave of your first
impressions shows lack of capacity,
and is not far from being the slave of your
passions.
Back
to Maxims
228. Do not be a scandalmonger. Still less pass for one, for
that means to be
considered a slanderer. Do not be witty at the cost of
others; it is easy but
hateful. Everyone will have their revenge on such a
person by speaking ill of
him and, as they are so many and he but one, he is
more likely to be overcome
than they convinced. Evil should never be our
pleasure and therefore never our
theme. The backbiter is always hated, and
if now and then one of the great
consorts with him it is less from pleasure
in his sneers than from esteem for
his insight. He that speaks ill will
always hear worse.
Back to
Maxims
229. Plan out your life wisely. Not as chance would have it,
but with prudence
and foresight. Without amusements it is wearisome, like a
long journey where
there are no inns - manifold knowledge gives manifold
pleasure. The first day's
journey of a noble life should be passed in
conversing with the dead: we live to
know and to know ourselves, hence true
books make us truly human. The second
day should be spent with the living,
seeing and noticing all the good in the
world. Everything is not to be found
in a single country. The Universal Father
has divided his gifts and at times
has given the richest dowry to the ugliest.
The third day is entirely for
oneself. The greatest happiness is to be a
philosopher.
Back
to Maxims
230. Open your eyes early. Not all who see have their eyes
open, nor do all
those see who look. To come up on things too late is more
worry than help.
Some just begin to see when there is nothing more to see:
they pull their houses
down about their heads before they come to
themselves. It is difficult to give
understanding to those who have no power
of will, still more difficult to give
power of will to those who have no
understanding. Those who surround them play
a game of blindman's buff with
them, making them the butts of jokes. Because
they are hard of hearing, they
do not open their eyes to see. There are often
those who encourage such
insensibility because their very existence depends on
it. It
is an unhappy steed who rider is blind: it will never grow sleek.
Back
to Maxims
231. Never let things be seen half finished. They can only be
enjoyed when
complete. All beginning are misshapen, and this deformity
sticks in the
imagination. The recollection of having seen a thing imperfect
disturbs our
enjoyment of it when completed. To swallow something great at
one gulp may
disturb the judgement of the separate parts, but satisfies the
taste. Before a
thing is manifest, it is nothing, and while it is in process
of being it is
still nothing. To see the tastiest dishes prepared arouses
disgust rather than
appetite. Let each great master take care not to let his
work be seen in its
embryonic stages - they might take this lesson from
Mother Nature, who never
brings the child to the light till it is fit to be
seen.
Back to
Maxims
232. Have a touch of business sense. Life should not be all
thought, there
should be action as well. Very wise folk are generally easily
deceived, for
while they know out-of-the-way things they do not know the
ordinary things of
life, which are of real necessity. The observation of
higher things leaves them
no time for things close at hand. Since they do
not know the very first thing
they should know - and what everybody knows so
well - they are either esteemed
or thought ignorant by the superficial
multitude. Let therefore the prudent
take care to have something to the
businessman about him - enough to prevent him
being deceived and so laughed
at. Be a person adapted to the daily round, which
if not the highest is the
most necessary thing in life. Of what use is
knowledge if it is not
practical, and to know how to live is nowadays the true
knowledge.
Back to
Maxims
233. Do not let the morsels you offer be distasteful.
Otherwise they give more
discomfort than pleasure. Some annoy when
attempting to please, because they
take no account of varieties of taste.
What is flattery to one is offense to
another, and in attempting to be
useful you may become insulting. It often
costs more to displease someone
than it would have cost to please him - you
thereby lose both gift and
thanks because you have lost the compass that steers
for pleasure. If you do
not know another's taste, you do not know how to
please him. Thus it happens
that many insult where they mean to praise, and get
soundly punished, and
rightly so. Others desire to charm by their conversation,
and only succeed
in boring by their babble.
Back to
Maxims
234. Never trust your honor to another, unless you have his
in pledge. Arrange
that silence is a mutual advantage, disclosure a danger
to both. Where honor is
at stake you must act with a partner, so that each
must be careful of the
other's honor for the sake of his own. Never fully
entrust your honor to
another, but if you have to, let caution surpass
prudence. Let the danger be in
common and the risk mutual, so that your
partner cannot turn king's evidence.
Back to
Maxims
235. Know how to ask. With some nothing is easier, with
others nothing is so
difficult. For there are men who cannot refuse - with
them no skill is
required. But with others their first word at all times is
no - with
them great art is required, and with everyone pick the
right moment. Surprise
them when they are in a pleasant mood, when a repast
of body or soul has just
left them refreshed - but only of their shrewdness
has not anticipated your
cunning. The days of joy are the days of favor, for
joy overflows from the
inner person into the outward creation. It is no use
to apply when another has
just been refused, since the reticence of saying
no has just bee
overcome. Nor is it good time after sorrow. To oblige
a person beforehand is a
sure way, unless he is base and mean.
Back
to Maxims
236. Make an obligation beforehand of what would have to be a
reward afterward.
This is a stroke of subtle policy. To grant favors before
they are deserved is
a proof of being obliging. Favors thus granted
beforehand have two great
advantages: the promptness of the gift obliges the
recipient more strongly. And
the same gift that would afterward be merely a
reward is beforehand an
obligation. This is a subtle means of transforming
obligations, since that
which would force you to reward someone is changed
into one that obliges them to
satisfy their obligation. But this is only
suitable for people who feel
obligation, since with people of lower stamp
the honorarium paid beforehand acts
rather as a bit than as a
spur.
Back to
Maxims
237. Never share the secrets of your superiors. You may think
you will share
pears, but you will only share parings. Many have been ruined
by being
confidants: they are like sops of bread used like spoons, they run
the same risk
of being eaten up afterwards. It is no favor to a prince to
share a secret - it
is only a relief. Many break the mirror that reminds
them of their ugliness.
We do not like seeing those who have seen us as we
are, nor is he seen in a
favorable light who has seen us in an unfavorable
one. No one ought to be too
much beholden to us, least of all one of the
great, unless it is for favors done
for him rather than for favors received.
Especially dangerous are secrets
entrusted to friends. When you communicate
a secret to someone you make
yourself his slave. With a prince this is an
intolerable position that cannot
last; he will desire to recover his lost
liberty, and to gain he will overturn
everything, including right and
reason. Accordingly, neither tell secrets nor
listen to them.
Back
to Maxims
238. Know what is lacking in yourself. Many would have been
great people if
they had not had something wanting, without which they could
not rise to the
height of perfection. It is remarkable that some people
could be much better
if they could be just a little better in something.
They do not perhaps take
themselves seriously enough to do justice to their
great abilities. Some are
lacking geniality of disposition, a quality which
their entourage soon finds
want of, especially if they are in high office.
Some are without organizing
ability, others lack moderation. In all such
cases a careful person may make of
habit a second nature.
Back
to Maxims
239. Do not be overly critical. It is much more important to
be sensible. To
know more than is necessary blunts your weapons, for fine
points generally bend
or break. Commonsense truth is the surest. It is well
to know but not to
niggle. Lengthy comment leads to disputes. It is much
better to have sound
sense, which does not wander from the matter in
hand.
Back to
Maxims
240. Make use of folly. The wisest person plays this card at
times. Sometimes
the greatest wisdom lies in seeming not to be wise. You
need not be unwise, but
merely affect unwisdom. To be wise with fools and
foolish with the wise is of
little use; speak to each in his own language.
He is no fool who affects folly,
but he is who suffers from it. Ingenious
folly, rather than simple affect, is
the true foolishness, since cleverness
is at such a high pitch. To be well
liked one must dress in the skin of the
simplest of animals.
Back to
Maxims
241. Put up with mockery but do not practice it yourself. The
first is a form
of courtesy, the second may lead to embarrassment. To snarl
at playful jokes
seems beastly. Audacious mocking is delightful and to stand
for it proves your
power. To show oneself annoyed causes others to be
annoyed. Best leave it
alone - that is the surest way of avoiding fitting
the fool's cap. The most
serious matters have arisen out of jests. Nothing
requires more tact and
attention. Before you begin to joke know how far the
subject of your joke is
able to bear it.
Back to
Maxims
242. Push advantages. Some put all their strength in the
commencement and never
carry a thing to conclusion. They invent but never
execute. These be ambiguous
spirits - they obtain no fame for they sustain
no game to the end. Everything
ends at the first stop. In some that arises
from impatience, which is the
failing of the Spaniards, as patience is the
virtue of the Belgians. The latter
bring things to an end, the former come
to an end with things. They sweat away
until the obstacle is overcome, but
then they are content - they do not know how
to push the victory home. They
prove that they can but will not. This shows
that they are either incapable
or unreliable. If the undertaking is good, why
not finish it? It is bad, why
undertake it? Strike down your quarry, if you
are wise - do not be content
merely to flush it out.
Back to
Maxims
243. Do not be too much of a dove. Alternate the cunning of
the serpent with
the candor of the dove. Nothing is easier than to deceive
an honest man. He
believes in much who lies about nothing; he who does no
deception has much
confidence. To be deceived is not always due to
stupidity, it may arise from
sheer goodness. There are two sets of people
who can guard themselves from
injury: those who have learned by experiencing
it at their own cost and those
who have observed it at the cost of others.
Prudence should use as much
suspicion as subtlety uses snares, and none need
be so good as to enable others
to do him ill. Combine in yourself the dove
and the serpent, not as a monster
but as a prodigy.
Back to
Maxims
244. Create a feeling of obligation. Some transform favors
received into favors
bestowed, and seem - or let it be thought - that they
are doing a favor when
receiving one. There are some so astute that they get
honor by asking, and buy
their own advantage with applause from others. They
manage matters so cleverly
that they seem to be doing others a service when
receiving one from them. They
transpose the order of obligation with
extraordinary skill, or at least render
it doubtful who has obliged whom.
They buy the best by praising it, and make a
flattering honor out of the
pleasure they express. They oblige by their
courtesy, and thus make people
beholden for what they themselves should be
indebted. In this way the
conjugate "to oblige" in the active instead of in
passive voice, thereby
proving themselves better politicians than grammarians.
This is a subtle
piece of finesse, but even greater is to perceive it, and to
retaliate on
such fools' bargains by paying in their own coin, and so come into
your own
again.
Back to
Maxims
245. Have original and out-of-the-way views. These are signs
of superior
ability. We do not think much of someone who never contradicts
us; that is not
a sign he loves us but rather that he loves himself. Do not
be deceived by
flattery and thereby have to pay for it, rather condemn it.
Besides, you may be
given credit for being criticized by some, especially if
they are those of whom
the good speak ill. On the contrary, it should
disturb us if our affairs please
everyone, for that is a sign that they are
of little worth. Perfection is for
the few.
Back to
Maxims
246. Never offer satisfaction unless it is demanded. And if
they do demand it,
it is a kind of crime to give more than necessary. To
excuse oneself before
there is occasion is to accuse oneself. To draw blood
in full health gives the
hint to ill will. An excuse unexpected arouses
suspicion from its slumbers.
Nor need a shrewd person show himself aware of
another's suspicion, which is
equivalent to seeking out offense. He had best
disarm distrust by the integrity
of his conduct.
Back to
Maxims
247. Know a little more, live a little less. Some say the
opposite. To be at
ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really
belongs to us but time,
which you have even if you have nothing else. It is
equally unfortunate to
waste your precious life in mechanical tasks or in a
profusion of too important
work. Do not heap up occupation and thereby envy,
otherwise you complicate
life and exhaust your mind. Some wish to apply the
same principle to knowledge,
but unless one knows one does not truly
live.
Back to
Maxims
248. Do not go with the latest speaker. There are people who
go by the latest
thing they have heard and thereby go to irrational
extremes. Their feelings and
desires are made of wax; the last comer stamps
them with his seal and
obliterates all previous impressions. These people
never gain anything, for
they lose everything so soon. Everyone dyes them
with his own color. They are
of no use as confidants; they remain children
their whole life. Owing to this
instability of feeling and volition, they
stumble along, crippled in will and
thought, tottering from one side of the
road to the other.
Back to
Maxims
249. Never begin life with what should end it. Many take
amusement at the
beginning, putting off anxiety to the end; but the
essential should come first
and accessories afterwards if there is room.
Others wish to triumph before they
have fought. Others again begin with
learning things of little consequence and
leave studies that would bring
them fame and gain to the end of life. Another
is just about to make his
fortune when he disappears from the scene. Method is
essential for knowledge
and for life.
Back to
Maxims
250. When to turn conversation around. When they talk malice.
With some
everything goes in reverse: their no is yes and
their yes
is no . If they speak ill of something it is the
highest praise.
For what they want for themselves they depreciate to others.
To praise a thing
is not always to speak well of it. For some avoid praising
what's good by
praising what's bad. Nothing is good for him for whom nothing
is bad.
Back to
Maxims
251. Use human means as if there were no divine ones, and
divine means as if
there were no human ones. A masterful rule, which needs
no comment.
Back to
Maxims
252. Neither belong entirely to yourself nor entirely to
others. Both are mean
forms of tyranny. To desire to be all for oneself is
the same as desiring to
have all for oneself. Such people will not yield the
least bit or lose the
smallest portion of their comfort. They are rarely
beholden, lean on their own
luck, and their crutch generally breaks. It is
convenient at times to belong to
others so that others may belong to us. And
he that holds public office is no
more nor less than a public slave; let a
man give up both berth and burden, as
the old woman said to Hadrian. On
the other hand, some
people are all for others - this is folly, which always
flies to extremes, and
in this case in a most unfortunate manner. No day, no
hour, is their own. They
so much belong to others that they may be called
slaves to all. This applies
even to knowledge, where a person may know
everything for others and nothing for
himself. A shrewd person knows that
others, when they seek him, do not seek
him but their advantage in
him and by him.
Back to
Maxims
253. Do not explain too much. Most people do not esteem what
they understand
and venerate what they do not see. To be valued things
should cost dear; what
is not understood becomes overrated. You have to
appear wiser and more prudent
than is required by the people you are dealing
with if you want to give a high
opinion of yourself. Yet in this there
should be moderation and no excess. And
though with sensible people common
sense holds its own, with most people a
little elaboration is necessary.
Give them no time for criticizing - occupy
them with discerning your
meaning. Many praise a thing without being able to
tell why, if asked. The
reason is that they venerate the unknown as a mystery,
and praise it because
they hear it praised.
Back to
Maxims
254. Never despise an evil, however small. They never come
alone, they are
linked together like pieces of good fortune. Fortune and
misfortune generally
go to find their fellows. Hence all avoid the unlucky
and associate with the
fortunate. Even the doves with all their innocence
resort to the whitest walls.
Everything fails with the unfortunate -
himself, his words, and his luck. Do
not wake misfortune when she sleeps.
One slip is a little thing, yet some fatal
loss may follow it till you do
not know where it will end. For just as no
happiness is perfect, so no piece
of bad luck is complete. Use patience with
what comes from above, prudence
with that from below.
Back to
Maxims
255. Do good a little at a time, but often. One should never
give beyond the
possibility of return. He who gives much does not give but
sells. Nor drain
gratitude to the dregs, for what the recipient sees all
return is impossible he
breaks off correspondence. With many people it is
not necessary to do more than
overburden them with favors to lose them
altogether; they cannot repay you, and
so they retire, preferring rather to
be enemies than perpetual debtors. The
idol never wishes to see before him
the sculptor who shaped him, nor does the
benefited wish to see his
benefactor always before his eyes. There is a great
subtlety in giving what
costs little yet is much desired, so that it is esteemed
the
more.
Back to
Maxims
256. Go prepared. Go armed against discourtesy,
faithlessness, presumption, and
all other kinds of folly. There is much of
it in the world, and prudence lies
in avoiding meeting with it. Arm yourself
each day before the mirror of
attention with the weapons of defense. Thus
you will beat down the attacks of
folly. Be prepared for the occasion, and
do not expose your reputation to
vulgar contingencies. Armed with prudence,
a person cannot be disarmed by
impertinence. The road of human intercourse
is difficult, for it is full of
ruts that may jolt our reputation. Best to
take the byway, taking Ulysses as a
model of shrewdness. Feigned
misunderstanding is of great value in such
matters. Aided by politeness it
helps us over all, and is often the only way
out of
difficulties.
Back to
Maxims
257. Never let matters come to a braking point. For our
reputation always comes
out injured. Everyone may be of importance as an
enemy if not as a friend. Few
can do us good, almost any can do us harm. In
Jove's bosom itself even his
eagle never nestles securely from the day he
has quarreled with a beetle.
Hidden foes use the paw of the declared enemy
to stir up the fire, and meanwhile
they lie in ambush for such an occasion.
Friends provoked become the bitterest
of enemies. They cover their own
failings with the faults of others. Everyone
speaks as things seem to him,
and things seem as he wishes them to appear.
Everyone will blame us at the
beginning for want of foresight, at the end for
lack of patience, at all
times for imprudence. If, however, a breach is
inevitable, let it be rather
excused as a slackening of friendship than by an
outburst or wrath. This is
good application of the saying about a good retreat.
[Maxim #38]
Back to
Maxims
258. Find someone to share your troubles with. You will never
be all alone,
even in dangers, nor bear all the burdens of hate. Some think
by their high
position that they can carry off the whole glory of success,
and find that they
have to bear the whole humiliation of defeat. In this way
they have no one to
excuse them, no one to share the blame. Neither fate nor
the mob are so bold
against two. Hence the wise physician, if he has failed
to cure, looks out for
someone who, under the name of a consultation, may
help him carry out the
corpse. Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls
with double force on him
that stands alone.
Back to
Maxims
259. Anticipate injuries and turn them into favors. It is
wiser to avoid than
to revenge them. It is an uncommon piece of shrewdness
to change a rival into a
confidant, or transform into guards of honor those
who were aiming to attack us.
It helps much to know how to oblige, for he
leaves no time for injuries who
fills time up with gratitude. It is true
savoir faire, to turn
anxieties into pleasures. Try and make a
confidential relation out of ill will
itself.
Back to
Maxims
260. We belong to no one and no one to us, entirely. Neither
relationship nor
friendship nor the most intimate connection is sufficient
to effect this. To
give one's whole confidence is quite different from
giving one's regard. The
closest intimacy has its exceptions, without which
the laws of friendship would
be broken. The friend always keeps one secret
to himself, and even the son
always hides something from his father. Some
things are kept from one that are
revealed to another and vice versa. In
this way one reveals all and conceals
all, by making a distinction among the
persons with who we are connected.
Back to
Maxims
261. Do not follow up a folly. Many make an obligation out of
a blunder, and
because they have entered the wrong path they think it proves
their strength of
character to go on in it. Within they regret their error,
while outwardly they
excuse it. At the beginning of their mistake they were
regarded as inattentive,
in the end as fools. Neither an unconsidered
promise nor a mistaken resolution
are really binding. Yet some continue in
their folly and prefer to be constant
fools.
Back to
Maxims
262. Be able to forget. It is more a matter of luck than of
skill. The things
we remember best are those better forgotten. Memory is not
only unruly, leaving
us in the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well,
putting its nose into
places where it is not wanted. In painful things it is
active, but neglectful
in recalling the pleasurable. Very often the only
remedy for the trouble is to
forget it, and all we forget is the remedy.
Nevertheless one should cultivate
good habits of memory, for it is capable
of making existence a paradise or an
inferno. The happy are an exception who
enjoy innocently their simple
happiness.
Back to
Maxims
263. Many things of taste one should not possess oneself. One
enjoys them
better if they are another's rather than one's own. The owner
has the good of
them first day, for all the rest of the time they are for
others. You take a
double enjoyment in other men's property, being without
fear of spoiling it and
with the pleasure of novelty. Everything tastes
better for having been without
it - even water from another's well tastes
like nectar. Possession hinders
enjoyment and increases annoyance, whether
you lend or keep. You gain nothing
except keeping things for or from others,
and by this means gain more enemies
than friends.
Back to
Maxims
264. Have no careless days. Fate loves to play tricks, and
will heap up chances
to catch us unawares. Our intelligence, prudence, and
courage, even our beauty,
must always be ready for trial. For their day of
careless trust will be that of
their discredit. Care always fails just when
it was most wanted. It is
thoughtlessness that trips us up into destruction.
Accordingly, it is a piece
of military strategy to put perfections to their
trial when unprepared. The
days of parade are watched and are allowed to
pass, but the day is chosen when
least expected so as to put valor to the
severest test.
Back to
Maxims
265. Set difficult tasks for those under you. Many have
proved themselves able
at once when they had to deal with difficulty, just
as fear of drowning makes a
person into a swimmer. In this way, many have
discovered their own courage,
knowledge, or tact, which but for the
opportunity would have been forever buried
beneath their lack of initiative.
Dangerous situations are the occasions to
create a name for oneself, and if
a noble mind sees honor at stake, he will do
the work of thousands. Queen
Isabella the Catholic knew well this rule of life
(as well as all the
others) and to a shrewd favor of this kind of Great
Captain
won his fame, and many others earned an undying name. By this
great art she
made great men.
Back to
Maxims
266. Do not become bad from sheer goodness. That is, by never
getting angry.
Such people without feeling are scarcely to be considered
human. It does not
always arise from laziness, but from sheer inability. To
feel strongly on
occasion shows personality; birds soon mock at the
scarecrow. It is a sign of
good taste to combine bitter and sweet. All
sweets is diet for children and
fools. It is a great evil to sink into such
insensibility out of too great
goodness.
Back to
Maxims
267. Silken words, sugared manners. Arrows pierce the body,
insult the souls.
Sweet pastry perfumes the breath. It is a great art in
life to know how to sell
wind. Most things are paid for in words, and by
them you can remove
impossibilities. Thus we deal in air, and a royal breath
can produce courage
and power. Always have your words, so that even your
enemies enjoy them. To
please one must be peaceful.
Back to
Maxims
268. The wise do at once what the fool does later. Both do
the same thing - the
only difference lies in the time they do it: the one at
the right time, the
other at the wrong. Who starts out with his mind
topsy-turvy will so continue
till the end. He catches by the foot what he
ought to knock on the head, he
turns right into left, and in all his acts is
immature. There is only one way
to turn him in the right direction, and that
is to force him to do what he might
have done sooner or later, so he does it
willingly and gains honor thereby.
Back to
Maxims
269. Make use of the novelty of your position. For people are
valued while they
are new. Novelty pleases all because it is uncommon, taste
is refreshed, and a
brand new mediocrity is thought more of than accustomed
excellence. Ability
wears away by use and becomes old. However, know that
the glory of novelty is
short lived. After four days respect is gone.
Accordingly, learn to utilize
the first fruits of appreciation, and seize
during the rapid passage of applause
all that can be put to use. For once
the heat of novelty is over, the passion
cools and the appreciation of
novelty is exchanged for distaste at the
customary. Believe that everything
has its season, which soon passes.
Back to
Maxims
270. Do not condemn alone that which pleases all. There must
be something good
in a thing that pleases so many - even if it cannot be
explained it is certainly
enjoyed. Peculiarity is always hated and, when in
the wrong, laughed at. You
simply destroy respect for your taste rather than
do harm to the object of your
blame, and are left alone, you and your bad
taste. If you cannot find the good
in a thing, hide your incapacity and do
not damn it right away. As a general
rule bad taste springs from want of
knowledge. What all say, is so, or will be
so. br>
Back to
Maxims
271. In every occupation, if you know little stick to the
safe path. If you are
not respected as subtle, you will be regarded as sure.
On the other hand,
someone well trained can plunge in and act as he pleases.
To know little and
yet seek danger is no different than to seek ruin. Follow
the right hand, for
what has gone before can be followed after. Let those
with little knowledge
keep to the king's highway, and in every case, knowing
or unknowing, security is
shrewder than uniqueness
Back to
Maxims
272. Sell things with a tariff of courtesy. You oblige people
most that way.
The bid of an interested buyer will never equal the return
gift of a grateful
recipient of a favor. Courtesy does not really make
presents, but lays people
under obligation, and generosity is the great
obligation. To the right-minded
nothing costs more dear than what is given
to him. You sell it to him twice and
for two prices: one for the value, one
for the politeness. At the same time, it
is true that with vulgar souls
generosity is gibberish, for they do not
understand the language of good
breeding
Back to
Maxims
273. Comprehend the disposition of the people you deal with.
Then you will know
their intentions. Cause known, effect known; beforehand
in the disposition and
after in the motive. The melancholy person always
foresees misfortunes, the
backbiter scandals - having no conception of the
good, evil offers itself to
them. A person moved by passion always speaks of
things as different from what
they are; it is his passion that speaks, not
his reason. Thus each speaks as
his feeling or his humor prompts him, and
all far from the truth. Learn how to
decipher faces and spell out the soul
in the features. If someone always laughs
set him down as foolish, if never
as false. Beware of the gossip - he is either
a babbler or a spy. Expect
little good from the misshapen: they generally take
revenge on nature, and
do little honor to her, as she has done little to them.
Beauty and folly
generally go hand in hand.
Back to
Maxims
274. Be attractive. It is the magic of subtle courtesy. Use
the magnet of your
pleasant qualities more to attract goodwill than good
deeds, but apply it to
all. Merit is not enough unless
supported by grace, which is the sole thing
that gives general acceptance,
and the most practical means of rule over others.
To be vogue is a matter of
luck, yet it can be encouraged by skill, for art can
best take root on a
soil favored by nature. There goodwill grows and develops
into universal
favor.
Back to
Maxims
275. Join in the game as far as decency permits. Do not
always pose and be a
bore - this is a maxim for gallant bearing. You may
yield a touch of dignity to
gain the general goodwill. You may now and then
go where most go, yet not
beyond the bound of decorum. He who makes a fool
of himself in public will not
be regarded as discreet in private life. One
may lose more on a day of pleasure
than has been gained during a whole year
of labor. Still you must not always
keep away; to be eccentric is to condemn
all others. Still less act prudish -
leave that to its appropriate sex -
even religious prudery is ridiculous.
Nothing so becomes a man as to be a
man. A woman may affect a manly bearing as
an excellence, but not vice
versa.
Back to
Maxims
276. Know how to renew your character both with nature and
with art. Every
seven years the disposition changes, they say. Let it be a
change for the
better and for the nobler in your taste. After the first
seven comes reason,
with each succeeding luster let a new excellence be
added. Observe this change
so as to aid it, and hope also for betterment in
others. Hence it happens that
many change their behavior when they change
their position or their occupation.
At times the change is not noticed till
it reaches the height of maturity. At
twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a
lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a
serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an
ape, at eighty nothing at all.
Back to
Maxims
277. Display yourself. It is the illumination of talents. For
each there comes
an appropriate moment - use it, for not every day comes to
triumph. There are
some dashing men who make a show with little and others
who make a whole
exhibition with much. If ability to display them is joined
to versatile gifts,
they are regarded as miraculous. There are whole nations
given to display; the
Spanish people take the highest rank in this. Light
was the first thing to
cause creation to shine forth. Display fills up much,
supplies much, and gives
a second existence to things, especially when
combined with real excellence.
Heaven, which grants perfection, also
provides the means of display. Even
excellence depends on circumstances and
is not always opportune. Ostentation is
out of place when it is out of time.
More than any other quality it should be
free of any affectation. If not, it
is an offense, for it then borders on
vanity and so on contempt. It must be
moderate to avoid being vulgar, and any
excess is despised by the wise. At
times it consists of a sort of mute
eloquence, a careless display of
excellence. For a wise concealment is often
the most effective boast, since
the very withdrawal from view piques curiosity
to the highest. It is a fine
subtlety too, not to display one's excellences all
at one time, but to grant
stolen glances at it, more and more as time goes on.
Each exploit should be
the pledge of a greater, and applause at the first should
only die away in
expectation of its sequel.
Back to
Maxims
278. Avoid notoriety in all things. Even excellences become
defects if they
become notorious. Notoriety arises from eccentricity, which
is always blamed:
he that is singular is left severely alone. Even beauty is
discredited by
foolish excess, which offends by the very notice it attracts.
Still more does
this apply to discreditable eccentricities. Yet among the
wicked there are some
that seek to be known for seeking novelties in vice so
as to attain to the fame
of infamy. Even in matters of the intellect lack of
moderation may degenerate
into empty talk.
Back to
Maxims
279. Do not respond to those who contradict you. You have to
distinguish
whether the contradiction comes from cunning or from vulgarity.
It is not
always obstinacy, but may be artfulness. Notice this, for in the
first case one
may get into difficulties, in the other into danger. Caution
is never more
needed than against spies. There is no countercheck to the
picklock of the mind
as to leave the key of caution in the inside lock of
the door.
Back to
Maxims
280. Be trustworthy. Honorable dealing is at an end, trusts
are denied, few
keep their word, the greater the service the poorer the
reward - that is the way
of the world nowadays. There are whole nations
inclined to false dealing; with
some treachery has always to be feared, with
others breach of promise, with
others deceit. Yet this bad behavior of
others should be a warning to us rather
than an example. The fear is that
the sight of such unworthy behavior will
override our integrity. But a
person of honor should never forget what he is
because he sees what others
are.
Back to
Maxims
281. Find favor with people of good sense. The tepid
yes from a
remarkable person is worth more than all the applause of
the vulgar - you cannot
make a meal off the smoke of chaff. The wise speak
with understanding and their
praise gives permanent satisfaction. The sage
Antigonus reduced the theater of
his fame to Zeus alone, and Plato called
Aristotle his whole school. Some
strive to fill their stomach albeit only
with the breath of the mob. Even
monarchs have need of authors, and fear
their pens more than ugly women the
painter's pencil.
Back
to Maxims
282. Make use of absence to make yourself more esteemed or
valued. If the
accustomed presence diminishes fame, absence augments it.
Someone that is
regarded as a lion in his absence may be laughed at when
present like the
ridiculous offspring of the mighty. Talents get soiled by
use, for it is easier
to see the exterior rind than the kernel of greatness
it encloses. Imagination
reached farther than sight. Disillusion, which
ordinarily comes through the
ears, also goes out through the ears. He keeps
his fame that keeps himself in
the center of public opinion. Even the
phoenix uses its retirement for new
adornment and turns absence into
desire.
Back to
Maxims
283. Have the gift of discovery. It is a proof of the highest
genius, yet when
was genius without a touch of madness? If discovery be a
gift of genius, choice
is a mark of sound sense. Discovery comes by special
grace and very seldom.
For many can follow up a thing when found, but to
find it first is the gift of
the few - the first in excellence and in age.
Novelty flatters, and if
successful gives the possessor double credit. In
matters of judgement novelties
are dangerous because they lead to paradox,
in matters of genius they deserve
all praise. Yet both equally deserve
applause if successful.
Back to
Maxims
284. Do not be burdensome. Then you will net be slighted.
Respect yourself if
you would have others respect you. Be sooner sparing
than lavish with your
presence. You will thus become desired and so well
received. Never come
unasked and only go when sent for. If you undertake a
thing of your own accord
you get all the blame if it fails, none of the
thanks if it succeeds. Those who
do not mind their own business are always
the butt of blame, and because they
thrust themselves in without shame they
are thrust out with it.
Back to
Maxims
285. Never die of another's bad luck. Notice those who stick
in the mud, and
observe how they call others to their aid so as to console
themselves with a
companion in misfortune. They seek someone to help them to
bear misfortune, and
often those who turned the cold shoulder on them in
prosperity now give them a
helping hand. There is great caution needed in
helping the drowning without
endangering oneself.
Back to
Maxims
286. Do not become responsible for all or for everyone.
Otherwise you become a
slave and the slave of all. Some are born more
fortunate than others; they are
born to do good as others are to receive it.
Freedom is more precious than any
gifts for which you may be tempted to give
it up. Lay less stress on making
many dependent on you than on keeping
yourself independent of any. The sole
advantage of power is that you can do
more good. Above all do not regard a
responsibility as a favor, for
generally it is another's plan to make you
dependent on him.
Back
to Maxims
287. Never act out of passion. If you do all is lost. You
cannot act for
yourself if you are not yourself, and passion always drives
out reason. In such
cases interpose a prudent go-between who can keep cool.
That is why onlookers
see more of the game, because they keep cool. As soon
as you notice that you
are losing your temper beat a wise retreat. For no
sooner is the blood up than
it is spilled. A few moments may be given for
many days' repentance for oneself
and complaints from others.
Back
to Maxims
288. Live for the moment. Our acts and thoughts and all must
be determined by
circumstances. Act when you may, for time and tide wait for
no one. Do not
live by certain fixed rules, except those that relate to the
cardinal virtues.
Nor let your will pledge to fixed conditions, for you may
have to drink the
water tomorrow that you cast away today. There are some so
absurdly paradoxical
that they expect all the circumstances of an action
should bend to their
eccentric whims and not vice versa. The wise man knows
that the very polestar
of prudence lies in steering by the prevailing
wind.
Back to
Maxims
289. Nothing depreciates a person more than to show he is
just like anyone else.
The day he is seen to be all too human he ceases to
be thought divine.
Frivolity is the exact opposite of reputation. And as the
reserved are held to
be more than men, so the frivolous are held to be less.
No failing causes
failure of respect. For frivolity is the exact opposite of
solid seriousness.
A person of levity cannot be a person of weight even when
he is old, and age
should oblige him to be prudent. Although this blemish is
so common it is none
the less despised.
Back to
Maxims
290. It is a piece of good fortune to combine people's love
and respect.
Generally, one dare not be liked if one would be respected.
Love is more
sensitive than hate. Love and honor do not go well together. So
that one
should aim neither to be much feared nor much loved. Love
introduces
confidence, and the further this advances the more respect
recedes. Prefer to
be loved with respect rather than with passion, for that
is a love suitable for
many.
Back to
Maxims
291. Know how to test people. The care of the wise must guide
against the snare
of the wicked. Great judgement is needed to test the
judgement of another. It
is more important to know the characteristics and
properties of people than
those of vegetables and minerals. Indeed, it is
one of the shrewdest things in
life. You can tell metals by their ring and
men by their voice. Words are
proof of integrity, deeds still more. Here one
requires extraordinary care,
deep observation, subtle discernment, and
judicious decision.
Back to
Maxims
292. Let your personal qualities surpass the requirements of
your office. Do
not let it be the other way about. However high the post,
the person should be
higher. An extensive capacity extends and dilates more
and more as his office
becomes higher. On the other hand, the narrow-minded
will easily lose heart and
come to grief with diminished responsibilities
and reputation. The great
Augustus thought more of being a great man than a
great prince. Here a lofty
mind finds fit place, and well-grounded
confidence finds its opportunity.
Back to
Maxims
293. Maturity. It is shown in the costume, still more in the
customs. Material
weight is the sign of a precious metal, moral weight is
the sign of a precious
man. Maturity gives finish to his
capacity and arouses respect. A composed
bearing in a person forms a façade
to his soul. It does not consist in the
insensibility of fools, as frivolity
would have it, but in a calm tone of
authority. With people of this kind
sentences are orations and acts are deeds.
Maturity puts a finish on a
person for each is so far complete only according as
he possesses maturity.
On ceasing to be a child a person begins to gain
seriousness and
authority.
Back to
Maxims
294. Be moderate in your views. Everyone holds views
according to his interest,
and imagines he has abundant grounds for them.
For with most people judgement
has to give way to inclination. It may occur
that two may meet with exactly
opposite views and yet each thinks to have
reason on his side, yet reason is
always true to itself and never has two
faces. In such a situation a prudent
person will proceed with care, for his
judgement of his opponent's view may cast
doubt on his own. Place yourself
in the other person's place and then
investigate the reasons for his
opinion. You will not then condemn him or
justify yourself in such a
confusing way.
Back to
Maxims
295. Do not affect what you have not effected. Many claim
accomplishments
without the slightest cause. With great coolness they make a
mystery of all.
Chameleons of applause they afford others a surfeit of
laughter. Vanity is
always objectionable, here it is despicable. These ants
of honor go crawling
about filching scraps of exploits. The greater your
exploits the less you need
affect them. Content yourself with doing, leave
the talking to others. Give
away your deeds but do not sell them. And do not
hire venal pens to write down
praises in the mud, to the derision of those
who know better. Aspire rather to
be a hero than merely to appear to be
one.
Back to
Maxims
296. Noble qualities. Noble qualities make noble people; a
single one of them
is worth more than a multitude of mediocre ones. There
was once a man who made
all his belongings, even his household utensils, as
great as possible. How much
more ought a great man see that the qualities of
his soul are as great as
possible. In God all is eternal and infinite; in a
hero everything should be
great and majestic, so that all his deeds - no,
all his words - should be
pervaded by a transcendent majesty.
Back
to Maxims
297. Always act as if others were watching. He must see all
round who sees that
men see him or will see him. He knows that walls have
ears and that ill deeds
rebound back. Even when alone he acts as if the eyes
of the whole world were
upon him. For he knows that sooner or later all will
be known, so he considers
those to be present as witnesses who must
afterwards hear of the deed. He that
wished the whole world might always see
him did not mind that his neighbors
could see him over their
walls.
Back to
Maxims
298. Three things go to a prodigy. They are the choicest
gifts of Heaven's
perfections - a fertile genius, a profound intellect, a
pleasant and refined
taste. To think well is good, to think right is better
- it is the
understanding of the good. It will not do for the judgement to
reside in the
backbone; it would be more trouble than use. To think right is
the fruit of
reasonable nature. At twenty the will rules, at thirty the
intellect, at forty
the judgement. There are minds that shine in the dark
like the eyes of a lynx,
and are most clear where there is most darkness.
Others are more adapted for
the occasion - they always hit on that which
suits the emergency; such a quality
produces much and good - a sort of
fertile felicity. In the meantime, good
taste seasons the whole of
life.
Back to
Maxims
299. Leave of hungry. One ought to remove even the bowl of
nectar from the
lips. Demand is the measure of value. Even with regard to
bodily thirst it is
a mark of good taste to slake but not to quench it.
Little and good is twice
good. The second time around comes as a great
falling off. Too much pleasure
is always dangerous and brings down the
ill-will of the highest powers. The
only way to please is to revive the
appetite by the hunger that is left. If you
must excite desire, better do it
by the impatience of want than by the surfeit
of enjoyment. Happiness earned
gives double joy.
Back to
Maxims
300. In one word, be a saint. So is all said at once. Virtue
is the link of
all perfections, the center of all the felicities. She makes
a person prudent,
discreet, sagacious, cautious, wise, courageous,
thoughtful, trustworthy, happy,
honored, truthful, and a universal hero.
Three things make a person happy -
health, holiness, and wisdom. Virtue is
the sun of our world, and has for its
course a good conscience. She is so
beautiful that she finds favor with both
god and man. Nothing is lovable but
virtue, nothing detestable but vice. A
person's capacity and greatness are
to be measured by his virtue and not by his
fortune. She alone is
all-sufficient. She makes people lovable in life,
memorable after
death.
Back to
Maxims
From 50: one's
conscience.
Back to
50
From 155:Spanish proverb: "No one is wise on
horseback."
Back to
155
From 206: An ancient Greek city renowned as a
place of
learning and culture.
Back to
206
From 222:Janus is the ancient Roman god of
doorways, who is
often depicted as one-headed but with two faces, looking in
opposite
directions.
Argus is a mythological giant
with a hundred eyes.
In a story by the classical Greek
writer Lucian, the Greek god
Momus ridiculed the god Hephaistos for making a
man without a window in his
breast.
Back to
222
From 252: Referring to a story about the Roman
emperor
Hadrian, who when confronted by an old woman with a petition
dismissed her
saying he didn't have time to consider it. She retorted "Then
give up your
berth." Hadrian recognized the justice in this and passed
judgement on her
petition on the spot.
Back to
252
From 265:"El Gran Capitan," a reference to the
Spanish general
Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba (1453-1515), who commanded the
Spanish army against
Charles VIII of France.
Back to 265