《智慧书·第五辑·二〇一至二五〇》第25则
Know your chief Fault. There lives none that has not in himself a counterbalance to his most conspicuous merit: if this be nourished by desire it may grow to be a tyrant. Commence war against it, summoning prudence as your ally, and the first thing to do is the public manifesto, for an evil once known is soon conquered, especially when the one afflicted regards it in the same light as the onlookers. To be master of oneself one should know oneself. If the chief imperfection surrender, the rest will come to an end.
注释摘要
这则格言的标题与正文是一句完整判断的延伸：认识你身上的主要缺点。葛拉西安的开篇方式极其精准，他不说「人人都有缺点」这种泛泛之谈，而是给出了一个结构性的定义——每个人身上都有一个与他最显著的优点相对称的抵消物。这里用的西班牙词 contrapeso，意思是天平另一端用以平衡的砝码，优点越重，那个抵消性的缺点就越有分量。这不是一般意义上的小毛病，而是与你的才能…