Know the great men of your age.

Keep the extent of your abilities unknown.The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honored at all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so great.

Don't express your ideas too clearly. Most people think little of what they understand, and venerate what they do not.

Do not make mistakes about character. Better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods.

Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains.

There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing.

The sage has one advantage: he is immortal. If this is not his century, many others will be.