How to Use Your Enemies Read online

  Dazzle anew. This is the privilege of the phoenix. Excellence normally grows old, and with it fame. Custom diminishes admiration, and mediocre novelty usually trumps aged pre-eminence. Valour, ingenuity, fortune, indeed everything, should be reborn. Dare to dazzle anew, rising repeatedly like the sun, shining in different fields, so that your absence in one area awakens desire and your novel appearance in another, applause.

  Know how to use your enemies. You must know how to take hold of everything – not by the blade, which wounds, but by the hilt, which defends. This applies especially to envy. 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 an effective remedy for the flaws that the former conceals. Sensible people fashion a mirror from spite, more truthful than that of affection, and reduce or correct their defects, for great caution is needed when living on the frontier of envy and ill will.

  Forestall malicious gossip. The mob is many-headed, with many malicious eyes and many slanderous tongues. Sometimes a rumour tarnishing the best reputation spreads through it, and if this results in your becoming a byword, it will destroy your name. The basis for this is normally some obvious defect, some ridiculous shortcomings, which are popular material for gossip. There are flaws secretly exposed by private envy to public malice, for there are malevolent tongues that destroy a great reputation more quickly with a joke than with open effrontery. It’s very easy to gain a bad reputation, for badness is easy to believe and hard to erase. The sensible man should avoid such things and carefully forestall the insolence of the mob, for prevention is easier than cure.

  Let your manner be lofty, endeavour to make it sublime. A great man’s conduct should not be petty. You should never go into minute details, especially with unpleasant things, because although it’s an advantage to notice everything casually, it isn’t to want to inquire into every last thing. You should normally act with a noble generality, which is a form of gallantry. A large part of ruling is dissimulation; you should pass over most things that occur among your family, your friends and particularly your enemies. Triviality is annoying, and in a person’s character, tedious. To keep coming back to a disagreement is a kind of mania. Normally, each person’s behaviour follows their heart and their talents.

  Understand yourself: your temperament, intellect, opinions, emotions. You can’t be master of yourself if you don’t first understand yourself. There are mirrors for the face, but none for the spirit: let discreet self-reflection be yours. And when you cease to care about your external image, focus on the inner one to correct and improve it. Know how strong your good sense and perspicacity are for any undertaking and evaluate your capacity for overcoming obstacles. Fathom your depths and weigh up your capacity for all things.

  Unfathomable abilities. The circumspect man, if he wants to be venerated by everyone, should prevent the true depths of his knowledge or his courage being plumbed. He should allow himself to be known, but not fully understood. No one should establish the limits of his abilities, because of the danger of having their illusions shattered. He should never allow anyone to grasp everything about him. Greater veneration is created by conjecture and uncertainty over the extent of our ability than by firm evidence of this, however vast it might be.

  On moral sense. It is the throne of reason, the foundation of prudence, and with it, success is easy. It’s heaven’s gift – the most wished for, because the greatest and the best. The most important piece of armour, so vital it’s the only one whose absence is called a loss. Its lack is always noted first. All life’s actions depend on its influence, and all seek its approval, for everything must be carried out with common sense. It consists of an innate propensity for all that most conforms to reason, and is always wedded to what’s most right.

  Conceal your wishes. Passions are breaches in the mind. The most practical kind of knowledge is dissimulation; whoever plays their hand openly runs the risk of losing. Let the reserve of the cautious compete against the scrutiny of the perceptive; against the sharp eyes of the lynx, the ink of the cuttlefish. Don’t let your desires be known so that they won’t be anticipated, either by opposition or flattery.

  Half the world is laughing at the other half, and all are fools. Either everything is good or everything bad, depending on people’s opinions. What one pursues, another flees. Whoever wants to make their own opinion the measure of all things is an insufferable fool. Perfection doesn’t depend on one person’s approval: tastes are as plentiful as faces, and as varied. There’s not a single failing without its advocate. Nor should we lose heart if something doesn’t please someone, for there’ll always be someone else it does. But their applause shouldn’t go to our heads, for others will condemn such praise. The measure of true satisfaction is the approval of reputable men who are experts in the relevant field. Life doesn’t depend on any one opinion, any one custom, or any one century.

  Understand what different jobs entail. They are all different and you need great knowledge and observation here. Some require courage, others subtlety. Those that depend on integrity are easier to handle, those on artifice, harder. With the right disposition, nothing else is needed for the former; but all the care and vigilance in the world are not enough for the latter. To govern people is a demanding job, and fools and madmen more so. Twice the wit is needed to deal with someone with none. A job that demands complete dedication, has fixed hours and is repetitive is intolerable; better is one which is free from boredom and which combines variety and importance, because change is refreshing. The best are those where dependency on others is minimal. The worst, one where you are held to account, both in this world and the next.

  Don’t be tedious. People with only one concern and only one subject are usually boring. Brevity flatters and opens more doors: it gains in courtesy what it loses in concision. What’s good, if brief, is twice as good. Even bad things, if brief, are not so bad. Paring things down to their essence achieves more than verbosity. It’s a commonplace that a tall person is rarely wise – not so much long-legged, as long-winded. There are those who, rather than embellish the world, are mere obstacles, worthless ornaments shunned by all. The discreet person should avoid being a hindrance, especially to the most powerful who are always very busy; worse to annoy one of them than the rest of the world. What’s well said, is quickly said.

  A short cut to being a true person: know how to rub shoulders with others. Interaction is very effective: custom and taste can be learnt, character and even ingenuity can rub off on you without your knowing. Let the impulsive get together with those who are restrained, and similarly other opposite temperaments. In this way, a proper balance will be effortlessly achieved. To know how to accommodate is a great skill. The alternation of opposites beautifies and sustains creation, and if it creates harmony in the natural world, even more so in the moral sphere. Make use of this politic advice when choosing friends and helpers, for from such communication between extremes, a discreet balance will be achieved.

  Don’t hang around to be a setting sun. The sensible person’s maxim: abandon things before they abandon you. Know how to turn an ending into a triumph. Sometimes the sun itself, whilst still shining brilliantly, goes behind a cloud so nobody can see it setting, leaving people in suspense over whether it has or not. To avoid being slighted, avoid being seen to decline. Don’t wait until everyone turns their back on you, burying you alive to regret but dead to esteem. Someone sharp retires a racehorse at the right time, not waiting until everyone laughs when it falls in mid-race. Let beauty astutely shatter her mirror when the time is right, not impatiently and too late when she sees her own illusions shattered in it.

  Have friends. They are a second self. To a friend, another friend is always good and wise; between friends, everything turns out well. You are worth as much as others say you are, and to win their good wo
rds, win their hearts. Performing a service for another works like a charm, and the best way to win friends is to do people favours. The greatest and the best that we have depends on others. You must live with either friends or enemies. You should make a new friend every day, if not a confidant, then at least a supporter, for if you have chosen well, some will later become confidants.

  Win affection. Even the first and highest Cause, in its most important affairs, foresees this need and works towards it. Win someone’s affection and their respect will follow. Some so trust merit that they underestimate diligence. But caution knows full well that without people’s favour, merit alone is the longest route to take. Goodwill facilitates everything and makes good all deficiencies. It doesn’t always take certain qualities – like courage, integrity, wisdom and even discretion – for granted, but will grant them. It never sees faults because it doesn’t want to. It usually arises from some material connection, whether temperament, race, family, nationality or employment, or from a more sublime, intangible one, such as talent, duty, reputation or merit. The difficulty lies in gaining it, for it’s easy to preserve. You can diligently acquire it and learn how to profit from it.

  In good fortune prepare for bad. It’s sensible to make provision for winter in the summer, and far easier. Favours are cheap then, and friends abundant. It’s good to store things up against bad times, for adversity is costly and in need of everything. Have friends and grateful people set aside, for some day you will appreciate what you barely notice now. Villainy never has any friends, disowning them in prosperity, and in adversity being disowned.

  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 time their harshness manifests itself. At first they’ll frighten you, but gradually your initial horror will disappear and caution will anticipate or tolerate the unpleasantness.

  Live according to common practice. Even knowledge must keep in fashion; when it’s not, you need to know how to appear ignorant. Reasoning and taste change with the times. You shouldn’t reason and debate in an old-fashioned way and your taste should be up-to-the-minute. The preference of the majority sets the standard in all things. Follow it whilst it lasts, and move towards eminence. A sensible person must adapt the trappings of both body and soul to the fashion of the times, even if the past seems better. Only in matters of goodness does this rule of life not apply, for you should always practise virtue. Telling the truth and keeping your word are unknown today and seem like things from the past. Good men, though always loved, seem relics of better times, and so even if there happen to be any, they’re not emulated because they’re not in fashion. The misfortune of your century, that virtue is taken as unusual and malice as the norm! Let those with discretion live as they can, if not as they would prefer, and consider what fortune has given them to be better than what it has denied.

  Be desired. Few win universal favour; if they win the favour of the wise, it’s fortunate. Those on the way out are normally held in lukewarm esteem. There are ways to merit the prize of affection: eminence in your occupation and in your skills is a sure way, and an affable manner is effective. Make the eminent job depend on you so that people see that the job needed you, not you the job. Some confer honour on their position; others have honour conferred on them by it. It’s no advantage to be thought good because your successor was bad, since this is not unqualified desire for you, but hatred for the other.

  The fool is not someone who does something foolish, but someone who, once this is done, doesn’t know how to hide it. Your emotions need to be concealed, and even more so your faults. Everyone errs, but with this difference: the shrewd dissimulate what they’ve done, while fools blab about what they’re about to do. Reputation is more a matter of caution than of deeds; if you’re not pure, be cautious. A great person’s mistakes are observed more closely, like the eclipses of the largest planets. The only things that shouldn’t be disclosed in a friendship are your faults; were it possible, these shouldn’t even be disclosed to yourself. But another rule of life can be helpful here: know how to forget.

  Reconsider things. Taking a second look at things provides security, especially when the solution isn’t obvious. Take your time, whether to grant something or to improve your situation – new reasons to confirm and corroborate your personal judgement will appear. If it’s a question of giving, then a gift is more valued because wisely given than quickly given; something long desired is always more appreciated. If you must refuse, then it allows time to think how, and for your refusal to taste less bitter, because more mature and considered. More often than not, once the initial desire for something has cooled, a refusal will not be felt as a rebuff. If someone asks for something quickly, delay granting it, which is a trick to deflect attention elsewhere.

  Better mad with the crowd than sane all alone, say politicians. For if everyone is mad, you’ll be different to none, and if good sense stands alone, it will be taken as madness. To go with the flow is so important. The greatest form of knowledge is, on occasion, not to know, or to affect not to know. You have to live with others, and most are ignorant. To live alone, you must be either very like God or a complete animal. But I would modify the aphorism and say: better sane with the majority than mad all alone. For some want to be unique in their fantastical illusions.

  Have double of life’s necessities. This is to double life. Don’t depend on just one person, or limit yourself to a single resource, however excellent. Everything should be doubled, and especially the sources of advantage, favour and pleasure. The mutability of the moon pervades everything and sets a limit on all permanence, especially in areas that depend on our frail human will. Let your reserves help you against the fragility of life, and let a key rule of the art of living be to double the sources of your own benefit and comfort. Just as nature doubled the most important and exposed parts of the body, so human skill should double those things on which we depend.

  The art of leaving things alone. Especially when the seas of public or personal life are stormiest. There are whirlwinds in the affairs of men, tempests of the will, and it makes good sense to retire and wait things out in a safe harbour. Remedies often make troubles worse. Let nature or morality take its course. The wise doctor needs to know when to prescribe something and when not, and often the art lies in not applying any remedy at all. Simply sitting back can be a way of calming the whirlwinds of the mob. Yielding to time now will lead to victory later. A spring’s water is easily muddied; you will never make it clear by trying to, only by leaving it well alone. There is no better remedy for disorder than to let it run its course; it will then disappear on its own.

  Know your unlucky days, for they exist. Nothing will work out right and, even though you change your game, your bad luck will remain. After a few moves you should recognize bad luck, and then withdraw, realizing whether it’s your lucky day or not. Even understanding has its moments, for no one is knowledgeable on all occasions. It takes good fortune to reason successfully, just as to write a letter well. All perfection depends on the opportune moment. Even beauty is not always in fashion. Discretion contradicts itself, sometimes falling short, sometimes going too far. To work out well, everything depends on the right time. Just as on some days everything turns out badly, on others it all goes well – and with less effort. It’s as though everything has already been done; your ingenuity and character are perfectly aligned with your lucky star. Take advantage of such occasions and don’t waste a single moment of them. But a judicious man given one obstacle shouldn’t declare it a bad day, or a good one given the reverse, for the former might just be a setback, and the latter, luck.

  Don’t support the worse side out of stubbornness, simply because your opponent has already chosen the better one. The battle will be lost before it’s begun and you’ll
inevitably have to surrender, scorned. You’ll never come out best by supporting the worst. Your opponent showed astuteness in anticipating the better side, and you’d be stupid in then deciding to support the worse. Those obstinate in deeds are more stubborn than those obstinate in words, for actions carry more risk than words. The stupidity of stubborn people is seen in their not recognizing what’s true or advantageous, preferring argument and contradiction. The circumspect are always on the side of reason, not passion, having got in first to support the best or, if not, having subsequently improved their position, for if their opponents are fools, their very stupidity will make them change course, switch sides, and thereby worsen their position. The only way to get your opponent to stop supporting what’s best is to support it yourself, for their stupidity will then make them drop it, and their stubbornness will be their downfall.

  Go in supporting the other person’s interests so as to come out achieving your own. This is a strategy for achieving what you want. Even in matters concerning heaven, Christian teachers recommend such holy astuteness. It’s an important kind of dissimulation, because the perceived benefit is just the bait to catch another’s will. They’ll think you are furthering their own aims, but this will be no more than a means of furthering your own. You should never enter into anything recklessly, especially when there’s an undercurrent of danger. With people whose first word is usually ‘no’, it’s also best to conceal your true intentions so that they won’t focus on the difficulties of saying ‘yes’, especially when you sense their aversion to doing so. This piece of advice belongs with those about concealed intentions, for all involve extreme subtlety.