“When a wise man wants to make someone weak, he first makes that person believe that he is strong. The other man will then fall into the trap of challenging someone even stronger and be destroyed.

When a wise man wants to bring someone low, he first makes that person climb the highest mountain in the world to allow him the illusion that he is very powerful. The other man will then believe that he can go still higher and plunge into the abyss. 

When a wise man covets something that belongs to another man, he loads him with gifts. The other man will have so many useless objects to take care of that he will lose everything else, too busy trying to keep what he thinks he owns.

When a wise man cannot discover what his opponent is planning, he feigns an attack. We are always prepared to defend ourselves, because we all live with the fear and paranoia that other people don’t like us. His opponent—however brilliant he may be—is insecure and reacts with excessive violence to the provocation. In doing so, he reveals what weapons he has, and the wise man thus discovers what his opponent’s strong and weak points are. Then, knowing exactly what kind of reaction to expect, the wise man either attacks or retreats.

And so wise men often defeat warriors, but warriors also defeat wise men.

The wounded person should ask himself: “Is it worth filling my heart with hatred and dragging the weight of it around with me?” “

Paulo Coelho – Manuscript Found in Accra

Photograph, Robert Clark – The Kelpies/ Andy Scott