Avoid Worry. Such prudence brings its own reward. It escapes much, and is thus the midwife of comfort and so of happiness. Neither give no take bad news unless it can help. Some people’s ears are stuffed with sweets of flattery, others with the bitters of scandal, while some cannot live without a daily annoyance no more than Mithridates could without poison* It is no rul of life to prepare for yourself lifelong trouble in order to give a temporary enjoyment to another, however near and dear. You should never spoil your own chances in order to please another who advises but keeps out o the affair. And in order to please another you have to cause yourself pain, remember the rule that it is better that he should suffer no than you should suffer afterwards in vain.

THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM BY BALTHASAR GRACIAN
TRANSLATED BY JOSEPH JACOBS 1892

*Mithridates VI (132?—63 B.C.E.), King of Pontus, is said to have taken small doses of poison to immunize himself from it in the event that it might be used in an assassination attempt.