"Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning. Be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives you may at any moment be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire to the damage of your own fingers."
"There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing."
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Source: Baltasar Gracian, Baltasar Gracián y Morales (2004). “The Art of Worldly Wisdom”, p.21, Shambhala Publications
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