115.习惯熟人的缺点

115.习惯熟人的缺点

习惯熟人的缺点,正如你习惯一张丑陋的面孔。如果他们依赖你,或者你有求于他们,那么这样做就很有必要。有些人可恶,相处很难,但我们又不能不与之相处。因此,聪明的人干脆习惯他,正如见惯了丑陋的面孔一样,这样就不必强迫自己在迫不得已的情况下突然这样做。熟人的缺点,在开始的时候会令人反感,但是慢慢地,就不会那么令人讨厌——对于讨厌之人,有头脑之人要么防备,要么迁就。

115.Get used to the failings of your familiars

Get used to the failings of your familiars, as you do to ugly faces. It is indispensable if they depend on us, or we on them. There are wretched characters with whom one cannot live, nor yet without them. Therefore clever folk get used to them, as to ugly faces, so that they are not obliged to do so suddenly under the pressure of necessity. At first they arouse disgust, but gradually they lose this influence, and reflection provides for disgust or puts up with it.