Too Perfect?
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weakness. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.
An admirer who feels that he cannot be happy by surrendering himself elects to become envious of that which he admires. So he speaks another language - the thing which he really admires is called a stupid, insipid and queer sort of thing. Admiration is happy self - surrender; envy is unhappy self - assertion.
A garden of weeds. You may not feed them but they spread as you water feed them but they spread as you water the garden. you may not see how, but they take over, tall and ugly, preventing anything beautiful from flourishing. Before it is too late, do not water indiscriminately. Destroy the weeds of envy by giving them nothing to feed on.
For not many men, the proverb says, can love a friend who fortune prospers without feeling envy; and about the envious brain, cold poison clings and doubles all the pain life brings him. His own woundings he must nurse, and feels another's gladness like a curse.
The reason for being careful with the envious is that they are so indirect, and will find innumerable ways to undermine you. But treading carefully around them will often only make their envy worse. They sense that you are being cautious, and it registers as yet another sign of your superiority.That is why you must act before envy takes root.
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