The discreet arm themselves with a store of courtly, tasteful learning : not vulgar gossip, but a practical knowledge of current affairs. They salt their...
Good fortune has its rules, and to the wise not everything depends upon chance. Fortune is helped along by effort. Some people confidently approach the...
What is highly praised seldom measures up to expectation. Reality never catches up to imagination. It is easy to imagine something is perfect, and difficult...
Eminence requires both. When both are present, eminence outdoes itself. The mediocre people who apply themselves go further than the superior people who don’t. Work...
Knowledge and honorable intentions ensure that your success will bear fruit. When understanding marries bad intention, it isn’t wedlock but monstrous rape. Malevolence poisons perfection....
Vary your methods. This will confuse people, especially your rivals, and awaken their curiosity and attention. If you always act on your first intention, others...
Substance is not “stance” enough : you must also heed circumstance. The wrong manner turns everything sour, even justice and reason. The right one makes...
All beauty requires help. Perfection turns into barbarism unless ennobled by artifice. Artifice rescues the bad and perfects the good. Nature often lets us down...
Let friendly relations be a school of erudition, and conversation, refined teaching. Make your friends your teachers and blend the usefulness of learning with the...
Being defeated is hateful, and besting one’s boss is either foolish or fatal. Superiority is always odious, especially to superiors and sovereigns. The common sort...
No one is born that way. Perfect yourself daily, both personally and professionally, until you become a consummate being, rounding off your gifts and reaching...
