Secret of Secrets

...temperance and liberality may be acquired, foolish and superfluous donation is to be avoided. And it is of the substance of liberality and virtue to forgive and not to inquire into the secrets of hidden things, nor to bring to memory a thing given. And it is of the kind of good things, and the substance of virtues, to remunerate the deserving, and to remit injury; to honor those who are to be honored, to venerate those who are to be venerated, to assist suppliants, to supply the defects of the innocent, to respond to those who greet you, to repress the tongue, to dissemble an injury for a time, and to pretend to be ignorant of the foolishness of a fool. I have therefore taught you what I was always accustomed to teach you and to sow in your breast. I have confidence, therefore, that that document will be in your life and works a light always shining and sufficient knowledge for your rule for all the time of your life. Nevertheless, I say to you: the philosophical wisdom shortened, even if I had never told you anything else except the following document, should suffice in all your works in this world and in the future.

Know, therefore, that the intellect is the head of governance, the salvation of the soul, the preserver of virtues, the mirror of vices; for in it are observed those things which are to be shunned, and through it we choose those things which are to be chosen. It is the origin of virtues, the root of all laudable and honorable goods. And the first instrument of the intellect is the desire for good fame, because he who truly desires good fame will be famous and glorious, and he who desires it falsely will be confounded through infamy. Fame, therefore, is what is primarily and in itself sought in governance, because governance is not sought for its own sake, but for the sake of good fame. The beginning, therefore, of wisdom and intellect is the desire for good fame, which is had or acquired through governance and dominion. If dominion or governance is acquired or desired for any other cause, it will not be an acquisition of fame, but of envy. Envy, therefore, generates lying, which is the root of reprehensible things and the material of vices; lying generates...