Who is so wise as to be able fully to know all things?
Therefore trust not too much to thine own thoughts: but be willing also to hear the sentiments of others.
Although thy opinion be good, yet if for God's sake thou leavest it, to follow that of another, it will be more profitable to thee.
3. For I have often heard, that it is more safe to hear and take counsel, than to give it.
It may also happen, that each one's thought may be good; but to refuse to yield to others, when reason or a just cause requires it, is a sign of pride and wilfulness.
Chap. X.
Of avoiding superfluity of words.
1. Fly the tumult of men as much as thou canst: for treating of worldly affairs hinders very much, although they be discoursed of with a simple intention.
For we are quickly denied and ensnared with vanity.
I could wish I had often been silent, and that I had not been in company.