《智慧书·第六辑·二五一至三百》第18则
The Wise do at once what the Fool does at last. Both do the same thing; the only difference lies in the time they do it: the one at the right time, the other at the wrong. Who starts out with his mind topsyturvy will so continue till the end. He catches by the foot what he ought to knock on the head, he turns right into left, and in all his acts is but a child. There is only one way to get him in the right way, and that is to force him to do what he might have done of his own accord. The wise man, on the other hand, sees at once what must be done sooner or later, so he does it willingly and gains honour thereby,
注释摘要
智者当下即行，愚者终了方为。这句格言的标题和正文原本是一句话的前后两半，合在一起便说出了全部要点：智者与愚人所做的事本身并无不同，区别仅仅在于时间——一个在恰当的时机做，一个在不恰当的时机做。葛拉西安用这种几乎不带修饰的对称句法，把整个命题压缩到最短，这正是概念主义文体的典型做法：一个观念被压成一颗硬核，读者得自己把两层意思剥开——一是时机的决定性，二是主…