In Acting or Refraining, weigh your Luck. More depends on that than on noticing your
temperament. If he is a fool who at forty applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he one
who then first applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your
luck even while waiting for it. For something is to be done with it by waiting so as to use it at the
proper moment, since it has periods and offers opportunities, though one cannot calculate its
path, its steps are so irregular. When you find Fortune favourable, stride boldly forward, for she
favours the bold and, being a woman, the young. But if you have bad luck, keep retired so as not to
redouble the influence of your unlucky star.
Recognise when Things are ripe, and then enjoy them. The works of nature all reach a
certain point of maturity; up to that they improve, after that they degenerate. Few works
of art reach such a point that they cannot be improved. It is an especial privilege of good taste
to enjoy everything at its ripest. Not all can do this, nor do all who can know this. There is a
ripening point too for fruits of intellect; it is well to know this both for their value in use and for
their value in exchange.
Know how to show your Teeth. Even hares can pull the mane of a dead lion. There is no joke
about courage. Give way to the first and you must yield to the second, and so on till the last, and to
gain your point at last costs as much trouble as would have gained much more at first. Moral
courage exceeds physical; it should be like a sword kept ready for use in the scabbard of
caution. It Is the shield of great place; moral cowardice lowers one more than physical. 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.
The Art of undertaking Things. Fools rush in through the door; for folly is always bold. The
same simplicity which robs them of all attention to precautions 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 is
freed from danger by caution, while fortune some-times helps in such cases. Step cautiously
where you suspect depth. Sagacity goes cautiously forward while precaution covers the
ground. Nowadays there are unsuspected depths in human. intercourse, you must therefore cast
the lead at every step.
Do not live in a Hurry. To know how to separate things is to know how to enjoy them.
Many 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 over-leaped 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 life-time; 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 men see work
ended with pleasure, pleasure ended with regret.
To find a proper Place by Merit, not by Presumption. The true road to respect is through merit, and if industry accompany merit the path becomes shorter. Integrity alone is not sufficient, push and insistence is degrading, for things arrive by that means so besprinkled with dust that the discredit destroys reputation. The true way is the middle one, half-way between deserving a place and pushing oneself into it.