《智慧书·第二辑·五一至一百》第24则
Do not be Unsociable. The truest wild beasts live in the most populous places. To be inaccessible is the fault of those who distrust themselves, whose honours change their manners. It is no way of earning people's goodwill by being ill-tempered with them. It is a sight to see one of those unsociable monsters who make a point of being proudly impertinent. Their dependants who have the misfortune to be obliged to speak with them, enter as if prepared for a fight with a tiger armed with patience and with fear. To obtain their post these persons must have ingratiated themselves with every one, but having once obtained it they seek to indemnify themselves by disobliging all. It is a condition of their position that they should be accessible to all, yet, from pride or spleen, they are so to none. 'Tis a civil way to punish such men by letting them alone, and depriving them of opportunities of improvement by granting them no opportunity of intercourse.
注释摘要
这一则完整地陈述了一个从升迁到孤立再到被社会放逐的过程，它的重心不在于笼统地劝人“合群”，而在于解剖一种地位变化所催生的特定人格。标题“不要孤僻不合群”只是入口，正文立刻就把这种不合群界定为凶猛——“真正的野兽就住在人烟最稠密的地方”，这句话在西班牙文里带着概念主义（conceptismo）式的翻转：野兽不在荒野，而在宫阙、市场和衙门走廊里，披着人的形体。…