Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.
A cup is useful only when it is empty; and a mind that is filled with beliefs, with dogmas, with assertions, with quotations, is really an uncreative mind.
I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men toabstain from threats and insulting words toward an enemy, for neither ...diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him more cautious,and the other increases his hatred of you and makes him