《智慧书·第四辑·一五一至二百》第40则
Find Consolation in all Things. Even the useless may find it in being immortal. No trouble without compensation. Fools are held to be lucky, and the good-luck of the ugly is proverbial. Be worth little and you will live long: it is the cracked glass that never gets broken, but worries one with its durability. It seems that Fortune envies the great, so it equalises things by giving long life to the useless, a short one to the important. Those who bear the burden come soon to grief, while those who are of no importance live on and on: in one case it appears so, in the other it is so. The unlucky thinks he has been forgotten by both Death and Fortune.
注释摘要
这则格言的标题与正文合起来，说的是一句相当无情却又有几分真实的观察：世间万物，哪怕是最不中用的存在，也能找到某种安慰——哪怕仅仅是因为它们活得够久、死不了。葛拉西安在这里玩的不是神学意义上的终极抚慰，而是一种世俗的、近乎讽刺的“命运补偿机制”：一事无成的人得到了长寿，丑陋的人据说运气好，傻瓜被看作有福。这不是在歌颂这些品质，而是在描述一个令正人君子颇为难堪…