21 If we are too young our judgement is impaired, just as it is if we are too old. Thinking too little about things or thinking too much both make us obstinate and fanatical. If we look at our work immediately after completing it, we are still too involved; if too long afterwards, we cannot pick up the thread again. It is like looking at pictures which are too near or too far away. There is just one indivisible point which is the right place. Others are too near, too far, too high, or too low. In painting the rules of perspective decide it, but how will it be decided when it comes to truth and morality.

22 Flies are so mighty that they win battles, paralyse our minds, eat up our bodies.

23 Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.

24 Man’s condition. Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.

25. The fact that kings are habitually seen in the company of guards, drums, officers and all the things which prompt automatic responses of respect and fear has the result that, when they are something alone and unaccompanied, their features are enough to strike respect and fear into their subjects, because we make no mental distinction between their person and the retinue with which they are normally seen to be associated. And the world, which does not know that this is the effect of habit believes it to derive from some natural force, hence such sayings as: ‘The character of divinity is stamped on his features.’