He who takes only the ripe fruit, ripened in its season, obtains its juice, and from the seed a fruit again in turn. As a bee gathers honey while protecting the flowers, so should one draw wealth from men without doing them harm. One should gather flower after flower, never causing the root to be cut, like a gardener in a garden, not like a charcoal-burner. "What will become of me if I do this, and what if I do not?" — pondering deeds in this way, a man should either act or refrain. Some undertakings, by their very nature, are always such that they ought never be begun, in which even a man's own exertion proves fruitless.