A person's life is a battle against the malice of others

One's life is a battle against the malice of others.

Sometimes act on second thoughts, sometimes on first impulses.

xiii

One's life is a battle against the malice of others. Wisdom fights by strategically changing its intentions. It never does what it threatens, and aims only to be noticed. Never do what you threaten to do, and aim only to be noticed. While showing a purpose to get the opponent's attention, he turns around and subdues the opponent in an unexpected way. The penetrating intelligence, however, anticipates this by vigilance and ambushes. It always understands the opposite of what the opponent wishes to have understood and sees through every devious feint. It passes over the first impulse and waits for the second or even the third. When cunning sees its trickery foreseen, it now soars higher, tries to deceive by the truth itself, changes its game to change its deception, deceives by not deceiving, and finds deception above the greatest frankness. But the opposing intellect is more vigilant, discovering the darkness hidden in the light and deciphering every move that is as clever as it is simple. Thus the cunning of the python is opposed to the far-flying rays of Apollo.

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