弗朗西斯·培根/Francis Bacon
An ant is a wise creature for itself,but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden.And certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste the public.Divide with reason between self love and society;and be so true to thyself,as thou be not false to others;specially to thy king and country.It is a poor centre of a man's actions,himself.The referring of all to a man's self is more tolerable in a sovereign princ e;because themselves are not only themselves,but their good and evil i s at the peril of the public fortune.But it is a desperate evil in a se rvant to a prince,or a citizen in a republic.For whatsoever affairs pa ss such a man's hands,he crooketh them to his own ends;which must nee ds to be often eccentric to the ends of his master or state.Therefore l et princes,or states,choose such servants as have not this mark;excep t they mean their service should be made but the accessory.That which m aketh the effect more pernicious is that all proportion is lost.It were disproportion enough for the servant's good to be preferred before the master's;but yet it is a greater extreme,when a little good of the se rvant shall carry things against a great good of the master's.And yet that is the case of bad officers,treasurers,ambassadors,generals,and other false and corrupt servants;which set a bias upon their bowl,of t heir own petty ends and envies,to the overthrow of their master's grea t and important affairs.And for the most part,the good such servants r eceive is after the model of their own fortune;but the hurt they sell f or that good is after the model of their master's fortune.And certainl y it is the nature of extreme self-lovers,as they will set an house on fire,and it were but to roast their eggs;and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters,because their study is but to please the m and profit themselves;and for either respect they will abandon the go od of their affairs.