Lehal Library

womaniser formal Generosity and meanness bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities on If we take the first of the qualities listed above, we can say that it would be nice to be seen as generous. All the same, being generous just to be seen to be so will damage you. Generosity practised out of real good will, as it should be, risks passing unnoticed and you won’t escape a reputation for meanness. Hence, if you’re determined to have people think of you as generous, you’ll have to be lavish in every possible way; naturally, a ruler who follows this policy will soon use up all his wealth to the point that, if he wants to keep up his reputation, he’ll have to impose special taxes and do everything a ruler can to raise cash. His people will start to hate him and no one will respect him now he has no money. Since his generosity will have damaged the majority and bene- fited only a few, he’ll be vulnerable to the first bad news, and the first real danger may well topple him. When he realizes this and tries to change his ways, he’ll immediately be accused of meanness. Since a ruler can’t be generous and show it without putting himself at risk, if he’s sensible he won’t mind getting a repu- tation for meanness. With time, when people see that his penny-pinching means he doesn’t need to raise taxes and can defend the country against attack and embark on campaigns without putting a burden on his people, he’ll increasingly be seen as generous – generous to those he takes nothing from, which is to say almost everybody, and mean to those who get