The Art of Worldly Wisdom(108)

The Shortest Path to Greatness is along with Others. Intercourse works well: manners and taste are shared; good sense and even talent grow insensibly. Let the impatient person then make a comrade of the sluggish, and so with the other temperaments, so that without any forcing the golden mean is obtained. It is a great art to agree with others. The alternation of contraries beautifies and sustains the world: if it can cause harmony in the physical world, still more can it do in the moral. Adopt this policy in the choice of friends and servants — by joining extremes the more effective middle way is found.