The advantage is on the side of the first. And if it is also large, it follows that the first move gives superiority. Many would become leaders in their field if not surpassed by others.
In turbulent times of life, it is best to cease all activity and wait for the storm to pass; you give in now - you win in the future. Rivers also swirl from a breeze, and the water does not become clear with your efforts, but when you move away from it. There is no better antidote to clutter than to let it run its course - everything works out somehow.
Adapt to each. Clever is Proteus - learned with the learned, holy with the saints. The art of winning hearts is great: likeness breeds goodwill.
Simulated doubt is the best key with which curiosity opens everything you want.
Let no one know the limits of your possibilities, otherwise you will give reasons for disappointment. Never let yourself be completely exposed. When the world does not know and doubts, it appreciates more than when all your strength, be it great, is visible.
May your kindness serve as bait for the senses rather than gain, or both. Qualities alone are not enough if a pleasant character does not come into play - this alone makes you really likeable.
Reason without wisdom is double madness.
A wise man gains more from enemies than a fool from friends.
Know the happy and the unhappy, so that you can join the first and avoid the others. Lack of luck is most often the punishment for stupidity, and for those close to you, a contagious nuisance.
Organize your life wisely: not at the will of chance, but in such a way that you both gain and enjoy it. Life is hard without a bit of rest, just like a long journey without stops; the diversity of knowledge makes it enjoyable.
Self-knowledge. Know your nature, your mind, your judgments, your inclinations. As long as you don't know yourself, you can't dominate yourself. If there is a mirror for the face, let clear judgment be a mirror for the spirit.
By self-control you can disturb the self-control of the other - thus, his desires are manifested, even if his heart is impenetrable.
The word is the guarantee of the deed.
Better to have a reputation for caution than for cunning. Honesty is pleasing to everyone, even if not everyone is familiar with it. Be simple but not naive, shrewd but not cunning. Better to have been regarded as a rational person, than to have been feared as a pretender.
Look inside. Many things are not at all what they seem at first; this misunderstanding of yours, this inability to get beyond the shell turns into disappointment when you come to know the essence.
Form your judgement. This is necessary, especially in important situations. Fools go to hell because they don't think; being unable to understand even half of a thing, being unable to foresee either harm or gain, they cannot act properly; they give a lot of weight to less important things and little weight to important things, evaluating them upside down. There are things that you have to go inside and that you have to keep in the depths of your mind. The wise man forms a judgment about everything, but especially about those that have a deep and important meaning, because he assumes that in these things there is more than meets the eye. And so thinking goes further than superficial opinion.
The arrow pierces the body, and the evil word pierces the soul.
There are plenty of people who never lose their minds, for the simple reason that they never have.
So much you must know, so little we are given to live, and life without knowledge is not life.
The senseless hustle and bustle is always unbearable, and when you do work it sucks.
Respect yourself if you want to be respected.
Servilism is more dangerous than hatred.
Double your support in life and you double your life. Don't limit yourself to one protector, don't limit yourself to just one thing, whatever it may be, even if it will seem unusual to always have two sources of contentment, of compassion, of satisfaction.
Learn to control yourself so that you will not be judged in happiness or in misfortune for the quickness of nature, but you will be praised for the superiority of the spirit.
Temper your dislike. We easily fall prey to resentment, even if we admit the existence of undoubted qualities. This vulgar natural propensity dares to throw itself even upon remarkable men. Let reason tame it—there is no greater disgrace than antipathy to the best; as laudable as sympathy with heroes is, so shameful is antipathy to them.
Know how to ask. For some, there is nothing harder, for others, nothing easier. There are people who do not know how to refuse; it is embarrassing to approach them.
Make a plan, but don't overdo it. Do not display it in front of everyone, and even more so, do not allow it to be guessed; it is fitting that the plan should be kept secret, because it arouses suspicion, especially a refined plan is viewed with hostility.
Avoid. The method of wise men. With an elegant joke, they get themselves out of the most tangled maze. They know how to come out smiling, whole and unscathed, from the most violent quarrel.
Learn to decipher the expression of the face, to read the soul by external signs. Make the difference: who always laughs at stupidity; who never laughs out of malice.
Praise be to him with a penetrating mind. The ability to think has always been highly valued; but now this is little - you must also discover the deception. A man without insight cannot be called rational.