Hide Your Wounded Finger

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"145. Hide your wounded finger, or you will bump it on everything.
Never complain about it. Malice always zeroes in on what hurts or weakens us. Look discouraged and you will only encourage others to make fun of you. Evil intent is always looking for ways to get a rise out of you. It uses insinuation to discover where you hurt, and knows a thousand stratagems to probe your wounds. The wise will ignore malicious hints, and conceal his troubles, either personal or inherited, for even Fortune sometimes like to hit you where it hurts. It always goes straight for raw flesh. Be careful not to reveal what mortifies and what vivifies you, lest the former last and the latter end." (Gracian, 1647)
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Annotation:
Hide your flaws and don't complain about it. Don't give evil intent the opportunity to draw satisfaction for your demise. Neither should you look discouraged -  for enemies will always look for ways to bring you down. Once they realize your weakness, the more they are encouraged to bury you deeper. The wise person is prudent, instead, hides his issues or troubles - may it be personal or inherited. He does not reveal his weakness nor give out his source of strength, because former stands time and what the latter is only good while it lasts.