雙語智慧書·準備一些譏誚話，并善加利用

37．準備一些譏誚話，并善加利用
　　準備一些譏誚話，并善加利用。人際交往中，此點最奧妙。有的譏誚話常常用來探測別人的情緒，它往往是刺探人心的最敏銳的試金石。有的話惡毒、粗野，因深染妒忌之氣或激情之毒，它猛一出現(xiàn)可立馬摧毀所有的好感和尊重。就是被這種話稍稍刺激，許多人和尊長或下屬再不親密--他們原本親密無間，眾人的暗諷和一些人的惡意都不能動搖他們的關(guān)系。有的譏誚話可以起到好的作用，鞏固和提高人的名望。不管怎樣，他人越有奸計，我們越要加倍小心，敏銳且有預(yù)見性地把它化解掉。知曉他人的惡意，本身就是一種防備--能夠被預(yù)見的一擊常常打不中目標。

37．Keep a store of sarcasms, and know how to use them
　Keep a store of sarcasms, and know how to use them. This is the point of greatest tact in human intercourse. Such sarcasms are often thrown out to test men's moods, and by their means one often obtains the most subtle and penetrating touchstone of the heart. Other sarcasms are malicious, insolent, poisoned by envy or envenomed by passion, unexpected flashes which destroy at once all favour and esteem. Struck by the slightest word of this kind, many fall away from the closest intimacy with superiors or inferiors which could not be the slightest shaken by a whole conspiracy of popular insinuation or private malevolence. Other sarcasms, on the other hand, work favourably, confirming and assisting one's reputation. But the greater the skill with which they are launched, the greater the caution with which they should be received and the foresight with which they should he foreseen. For here a knowledge of the evil is in itself a means of defence, and a shot foreseen always misses its mark.