Choose Your Friends ….they should become so after being examined by discretion, tested by fortune and certified not simply by your will but your understanding. Although the most important thing in life, it’s usually the one over which least care is taken: some are forced upon us, most are the result of pure chance.Continue reading “RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Choose Your Friends (Baltasar Graciáno)”
Tag Archives: How to Use Your Enemies
RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Know How to Deflect Trouble to Someone Else (Baltasar Graciáno)
Know How to Deflect Trouble to Someone Else Having a shield against ill will is a great trick of rulers. To have someone else who can be criticized for mistakes and chastised by gossipmongers is a sign of superior skill, not lack of competence as malice thinks. Have a fall guy, therefore, someone who, atContinue reading “RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Know How to Deflect Trouble to Someone Else (Baltasar Graciáno)”
RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Don’t Expose Your Sore Finger (Baltasar Graciáno)
Don’t Expose Your Sore Finger ….or everything will knock against it. Don’t complain about your sore points, for malice always attacks where our weaknesses hurt the most. Getting annoyed will only serve to spur on someone else’s enjoyment. The ill intentioned are always searching for a pretext to get your back up. Their dart likeContinue reading “RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Don’t Expose Your Sore Finger (Baltasar Graciáno)”
RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Get Used to the Bad Temperaments of Those You Deal With (Baltasar Gracián)
Get Used to the Bad Temperaments of Those You Deal With ..like getting used to ugly faces. This is advisable in situations of dependency. There are horrible people you can neither live with nor live without. It’s a necessary skill, therefore to get used to them, as to ugliness, so you’re not surprised each timeContinue reading “RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Get Used to the Bad Temperaments of Those You Deal With (Baltasar Gracián)”
RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies : Flattery More Harmful Than Hatred (Baltasar Gracián)
Flattery More Harmful Than Hatred Enemies are of more use to the wise man than friends are to the fool. Ill will usually levels mountains of difficulty which goodwill would balk at tackling. The greatness of many has been fashioned thanks to malicious enemies. Flattery is more harmful than hatred, for the latter is anContinue reading “RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies : Flattery More Harmful Than Hatred (Baltasar Gracián)”
RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Avoid Outdoing Your Superior (Baltasar Gracián)
Avoid Outdoing Your Superior All triumphs are despised, and triumphing over your superior is either stupid or fatal. Superiority has always been detested, especially by our superiors. Princes like to be helped but not surpassed. Advice should be offered as if a reminder of what they’ve forgotten, not an insight what they’ve never had. BaltasarContinue reading “RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Avoid Outdoing Your Superior (Baltasar Gracián)”
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