Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

The more you look at 'common knowledge', the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is to be knowledge. No real knowledge is common.

There is a Persian proverb: 'To test that which has been tested is ignorance.' To try to test something without the means of testing is even worse.

If you give what can be taken, you are not really giving. Take what you are given, not what you want to be given. Give what cannot be taken.

You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend.

MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you

Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.