《智慧书·第一辑·一至五十》第36则
In Acting or Refraining, weigh your Luck. More depends on that than on noticing your temperament. If he is a fool who at forty applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he one who then first applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it. For something is to be done with it by waiting so as to use it at the proper moment, since it has periods and offers opportunities, though one cannot calculate its path, its steps are so irregular. When you find Fortune favourable, stride boldly forward, for she favours the bold and, being a woman, the young. But if you have bad luck, keep retired so as not to redouble the influence of your unlucky star.
注释摘要
这一则的标题与正文合在一起，讲的是一句话：无论采取行动还是按兵不动，你都得掂量自己的运气。葛拉西安在这里把运气抬高到一个几乎压过禀赋的位置——他说，掂量运气比认清性情更要紧。他紧接着用了一句相当刻薄的反讽：人如果到了四十岁才去找希波克拉底求健康，那是傻瓜；但更傻的，是到了这把年纪才去找塞内加求智慧。希波克拉底是医生，塞内加是斯多亚哲人，两者放在一起，意思很…