A shortcut to becoming a true person
Put the right people beside you.
The company you keep can work wonders.
Customs and taste and even intelligence are being transmitted without our being aware of it.
Let the quick person join the hesitant one, and so on, through every sort of temperament.
That way you achieve moderation without straining after it.
It takes much skill to know how to adapt yourself.
The alternation of opposites makes the universe beautiful and sustains it, and causes even greater harmony in human customs than in nature.
Govern yourself by this advice when you select your friends and servants.
The communication of extremes will produce a discreet and golden mean.
- Aphorism 108, Gracian
