Friend, look at your own hands and see where you are rashly placing them before you understand the cost. Do not begin a new project unless you are certain that the ruin of the attempt will not stain your name more deeply than the success would have adorned it. This is the first duty of any who seek to live well in the world: measure the danger of the fall before you make the leap, for a broken reputation cannot be easily mended by later triumphs.

Consider how many men chase glory in fields where they are likely to stumble and lose everything they have built. They think that boldness alone makes a hero, yet true prudence demands that one only enter battles where victory is probable and disgrace is impossible. If you must serve, choose a path so steady that your failure would bring no shame to your house or your name, for the finest honor is kept safe in the quiet keeping of a prudent mind rather than lost in the noise of reckless ventures.