雙語智慧書·讓別人依賴你

5．讓別人依賴你
讓別人依賴你。神之所以為神，不在于人們裝飾其雕像，而在于人們誠心誠意地崇拜他。智者寧愿他人時刻需要自己，而非感激自己。保持他人的希求是智慧的，期望別人的感激是愚蠢的；期盼讓人牢記，而感激使人忘卻。受人依賴，比受人恭敬更有益。人解了渴之后，往往轉(zhuǎn)身離開井邊；橘子一旦榨干，便會被人從金盤子中扔到垃圾筐里。當(dāng)人們對你的依賴消失，良好的品行和尊敬也會隨著消失。努力保持人們對你的渴求之心，且不使其得到完全滿足，這是最重要的人生經(jīng)驗之一。此法讓你變得不可或缺，甚至連王座上的君主也永遠(yuǎn)需要你。但是不要做得太過分，以免誤入歧途，也不要為了一己之私而讓別人陷入病入膏肓的絕境。


5．Create a feeling of dependence
Create a feeling of dependence. Not he that adorns but he that adores makes a divinity. The wise man would rather see men needing him than thanking him. To keep them on the threshold of hope is diplomatic, to trust to their gratitude boorish; hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one. More is to be got from dependence than from courtesy. He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well, and the orange once sucked falls from the golden platter into the waste-basket. When dependence disappears, good behaviour goes with it as well as respect. Let it be one of the chief lessons of experience to keep hope alive without entirely satisfying it, by preserving it to make oneself always needed even by a patron on the throne. But let not silence be carried to excess lest you go wrong, nor let another's failing grow incurable for the sake of your own advantage.