PART 9 of 12
- 201. Fools are all those who look like fools, and half of those who do not.
Idiocy has taken over the world; if anything remains of wisdom, it is foolishness in the eyes of the divinity. The greatest fool is the one who doesn't think himself one, only others. To be wise, it isn't enough to look wise, and even less, seem wise to yourself. You know when you think you don't know, and you don't see when you don't see that others do. The world is filled with fools, but none of them considers himself one, or tries not to be one.
- 202. Words and deeds make a perfect man.
Speak what is very good, do what is very honorable. The first shows a perfect head, the second a perfect heart, and both arise in a superior spirit. Words are the shadows of deeds. Words are female, and deeds are male. Better to be celebrated than to celebrate others; it is easy to speak and difficult to act. Deeds are the substance of life, and wise sayings the adornment. Eminence endures in deeds but perishes in words. Actions are the fruit of prudent reflection. Words are wise, deeds are mighty.
- 203. Know the great men of your age.
They are not many. One Phoenix in all the world, one Great Captain, one perfect orator, one wise man per century, one eminent king in many. Mediocrities abound and win little esteem. Eminences are rare, for they require total perfection, and the higher the category, the harder it is to reach it. Many have called themselves "great," borrowing the name from Caesar and Alexander, but in vain; without deeds, that word is only a puff of air. There have been few Senecas, and only one Apelles won enduring fame.
- 204. Undertake the easy as though it were difficult, and the difficult as though it were easy, so as not to grow overconfident or discourage.
To avoid doing something, you need only consider it done. But diligence conquers impossibility. In moments of great danger, don't even think, simply act. Don't dwell on the difficulties.
- 205. Learn to use scorn.
One way to get things is to scorn them. When you look for them, they aren't there, and later, without your trying, they come running. Earthly things are the shadows of heavenly ones, and they behave like shadows; they flee when you pursue them and chase you when you flee them. Scorn is also the shrewdest way to take revenge. A wise maxim : Never defend yourself with the pen, for this leaves a trail and glorifies your rivals rather than punishing them for their insolence. Unworthy people cunningly oppose the great : they try to win fame indirectly, without really deserving it. Many people would be unknown if their excellent opponents had paid them no heed. There is no revenge like oblivion : burying others in the dust of their inanity. Impudent fools, they try to become immortal by setting fire to the wonders of the world and of the centuries. One way to quiet vulgar murmuring is to ignore it. To impugn it will harm you. To give it credit brings discredit on you. Be happy that people want to emulate you, though their breath can tarnish, if not blacken, the greatest perfection.
- 206. Know that there are vulgar people everywhere,
...even in Corinth [a symbol of learning and refinement], and even in the most distinguished family. Everyone experiences it in his own home. Not only are there vulgar people, there are high-born vulgarians, who are even worse. These people reflect the qualities of the vulgar, as in the pieces of a broken mirror, but do more harm. They speak like fools and impudently criticize others. Great disciples of ignorance, godfathers of idiocy, avid for degrading gossip. Pay no attention to what they say, and less to what they feel. Know them, yes, in order to avoid them : avoid taking part in their vulgarity or being its object. Any foolishness is vulgarity, and the vulgar are composed of fools.
- 207. Use self-control.
Be especially alert towards chance events. The sudden movements of the passions throw prudence off balance, and here is where you can be lost. You move more in a single moment of furor or content than you do in many hours of indifference. Run amuck for only a second and you will run up lifelong regrets. Cunning people set these traps for prudence in order to sound matters out and fathom the minds of their opponents. Prying out secrets, they get to the bottom of the greatest talents. Your counter-strategy? Control yourself, especially your sudden impulses. It takes much reflection to keep a passion from bolting like a horse; and if you're wise on horseback, you're wise in everything. The person who foresees danger feels his way along. A word uttered in passion may be light to the person who hurled it but should feel heavy to the one who catches and ponders it.
- 208. Don't die from an attack of foolishness.
Wise men commonly die insane. Fools choke to death on advice. You die of foolishness when you reason too much. Some die because they feel everything, others because they feel nothing. Some are fools because they suffer no regrets, and others because they do. It is foolish to perish from excessive intelligence. Some perish because they understand everything, and others live because they understand nothing. Although many die of foolishness, few fools every really die, for few ever begin to live.
- 209. Free yourself from common foolishness.
This requires a special sort of sanity. Common foolishness is authorized by custom, and some people who resisted the ignorance of individuals were unable to resist that of the multitude. The vulgar are never happy with their luck, even when it is best, or unhappy with intellect, even when it is the worst. Unhappy with their own happiness, they covet that of others. People of today praise things of yesterday, and those who are here, the things that are there. The past seems better, and everything distant is held more dear. The person who laughs at everything is just as foolish as the one made wretched by everything.
- 210. Know how to handle truth.
The truth is dangerous, but a good person cannot fail to speak it. This requires artifice. The skilled physicians of the mind invented truth-sweeteners, for when truth is used to give someone the lie, it is quintessentially bitter. This takes consummate skill and the right manner. With the very same truth, one person flatters, and another batters, our ears. Speak to those present in the past. When you're dealing with someone intelligent, it is enough to allude to things, or use no words at all. Princes should never be given bitter cures. To disillusion them, gild the pill.
- 211. In heaven all is contentment, in hell all is sorrow, and on earth, which is in between, we find both.
We live between two extremes and partake of both. Luck changes : not all is happiness and not all is adversity. This life is a zero : by itself it is nothing. Add the heavens, and it is much. Indifference to the world's variety is prudence; the wise care little for novelty. Our lives fold and unfold like theater, so be careful to end well.
- 212. Never reveal the final stratagems of your art.
Great teachers are subtle about the way they reveal their subtleties. Preserve your superiority and remain a teacher. Use art when you reveal your art. Don't dry up the sources of your teaching or your giving. That way you will preserve your reputation and keep others dependent on you. Both in teaching and in granting others what they want, you should bait people's admiration and reveal perfection little by little. Reserve has always been a great rule for living and for winning, especially in matters of importance.
- 213. Know how to contradict.
It is a great way to provoke others : they commit themselves and you commit nothing. You can use contradiction to pry loose the passions of others. Showing disbelief makes people vomit up their secrets; it is the key to tightly closed breasts. With great subtlety you can test the will and judgment of others. Shrewdly scorn the word that someone else has cloaked in mystery, and you will hunt down his deepest secrets and make them come little by little to his tongue, where they can be trapped in the nets of subtle deceit. The prudent person's reserve makes others lose theirs. It discovers their feelings when their hearts should have been inscrutable. A feigned doubt is the best skeleton key your curiosity can have : it will find out all it wants. Even when it comes to learning, the good student contradicts his teacher and makes him more eager to explain and defend the truth. Challenge someone discreetly and his teaching will be more perfect.
- 214. Don't turn one act of foolishness into two.
Often we commit four to correct one. They say that one lie leads to another, greater one, and it is the same with folly. It is always bad to back the wrong cause, and worse still not to know how to hide your error. Imperfection is taxing, but you will pay still more dearly if you defend and increase it. The greatest of sages can commit one mistake, but not two : he may fall into error, but he doesn't lie down and make his home there.
- 215. Pay attention to the person with hidden intentions.
The shrewd person distracts someone's will in order to attack it. Once it wavers it is easily defeated. These people conceal their intentions in order to get what they want and put themselves second in order to come out first. Their aim is best when no one sees them take aim. Stay awake as long as intentions do. When intentions go into hiding, redouble your vigilance. Be careful to penetrate the scheming of others. Watch them dart to and fro in order to home in on what they want. They propose one thing and intend another, flying in circles before their intentions come home to roost. Be cautious of their concessions. Sometimes it is best to make others understand that you have understood.
- 216. Express yourself clearly.
Not only easily, but lucidly. Some people conceive well but give birth badly, for without clarity, the children of the soul -- concepts, resolutions -- never see the light. Some people resemble drinking vessels that absorb much but give off little, while others say even more than they feel. What resolution is to the will, clarity is to the intellect : both are great gifts. People of lucid understanding are acclaimed, the confused have often been venerated for being incomprehensible, and, in fact, sometimes it is good to be obscure, so as not to be vulgar. But how will others understand what they are hearing if we ourselves have no clear idea what we are saying?
- 217. Neither love nor hate forever.
Treat your friends as though they could become your worst enemies. Since this happens in reality, let it happen in foresight. We shouldn't give arms to the turncoats of friendship; they will wage the worst sort of war with them. On the contrary, when it comes to enemies, leave the door open to reconciliation. The door of gallantry is the surest one. The pleasure of revenge often turns into torment, and the satisfaction of having harmed someone often turns to pain.
- 218. Never do something out of stubbornness, only out of attentive reflection.
Any obstinacy is evil -- the daughter of passion, who never got anything right. There are some who turn everything into warfare, who behave like social bandits and would like to conquer others in all they do. They have no idea how to live peaceably. These people are particularly harmful as rulers. They divide the government into factions and make enemies out of those who should be as obedient as children. They want to do everything through stealth, and attribute their success to their own scheming. But once others discover their paradoxical humor, they grow angry with them and block them in their chimerical pursuits, and thus they achieve nothing. They cannot digest all their troubles and others take pleasure in their bellyaches. Their judgment is damaged, and sometimes their hearts. The way to deal with such monsters is to flee civilization and dwell among savages. For the barbarism of savages is more bearable than the savagery of these barbarians.
- 219. Don't be known for your artifice, though you can no longer live without it.
Better prudent than astute. Everyone likes to be treated squarely, but not everyone likes to treat others that way. Don't let sincerity turn into simplicity, or shrewdness into cunning. Better to be venerated as wise than feared as stealthy. Sincere people are loved, but often deceived. The best artifice is to conceal it, for artifice is taken as deceit. Plainness flourished in the age of gold, and malice in this age of iron. It is an honor to be considered a capable person; it inspires confidence. But to be thought astute rouses suspicious of sophistry.
- 220. If you can't wear the skin of a lion, wear the skin of a fox.
To follow the times is to lead them. If you get what you want, your reputation will not suffer. If you lack strength, use skill; take one road or the other, the royal road of courage or the shortcut of artifice. Know-how has accomplished more than strength, and the wise have conquered the courageous more often than vice versa. When you can't get what you want, you risk being despised.
- 221. Don't be hotheaded, putting yourself or others at risk.
Some people are obstacles to their own dignity, and to that of others. They are always on the verge of foolishness. They are easy to find and difficult to get along with. They are not content with a hundred annoyances a day. Everything rubs them the wrong way, and they contradict as many people as they rub up against. They put their judgment on backward and disapprove of everything. But those who most try our prudence are those who do nothing well and speak ill of everything. The land of discontent is a spacious one, filled with monsters.
- 222. Cautious hesitation is a sign of prudence.
The tongue is a wild animal, and once it breaks loose, it is hard to return it to its cage. It is the pulse of the soul. The wise use it to test our health; the attentive, to listen to the heart. The trouble is that the person who ought to be the most cautious is often the least. The wise avoid troublesome, compromising situations, and show their self-mastery. The wise person is circumspect : a Janus of equity, and Argos of watchfulness. A better Momus would have wanted eyes on the hands rather than a window in the breast.
[Momus censured Hephaestus for having formed a man without leaving a little door in the breast that would enable others to look into his secret thoughts.]
- 223. Don't be eccentric.
Either out of affectation or because they don't notice, many people have notable eccentricities, and do whimsical things that are more defects than signs of distinction. Some people are known for a singularly ugly facial blemish, but eccentric people are known for a certain excess in the way they handle themselves. Being eccentric will only ruin your reputation. Your own special impertinence will rouse laughter in some and annoyance in others.
- 224. Know how to take things.
Never against the grain, though they're handed to you that way. There are two sides to everything. If you grab the blade, the best thing will do you harm; the most harmful will defend you if you seize it by the hilt. Many things that caused pain could have caused pleasure if only their advantages had been considered. There are always pros and cons; the trick lies in knowing how to turn things to your advantage. Things look different when seen in a different light. So look at them in the light of happiness. Don't confuse good and bad. This is why some people find contentment in everything, and others sorrow. This is a sure defense against the reversals of fortune, and a great rule for living, at all times and in every pursuit.
- 225. Know your major defect.
Every talent is balanced by a fault, and if you give in to it, it will govern you like a tyrant. You can begin to overthrow it by paying heed to it : begin to conquer it by identifying it. Pay it the same attention as those who reproach you for it. To master yourself, you must reflect upon yourself. Once this imperfection has surrendered, all others will follow.
ON TO APHORISMS 226-250