# Newsletters > Balthasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom >  Aphorism #285 Never die of another's Ill-luck.

## Admin

Aphorism #285 Never die of another's Ill-luck.

Notice those who stick in the mud, and observe how they call others to their aid so as to console themselves with a companion in misfortune. They seek some one to help them to bear misfortune, and often those who turned the cold shoulder on them in prosperity give them now a helping hand. There is greatcaution needed in helping the drowning without danger to oneself.

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## Eugenie

I agree you need to be cautious, but I think you need to help, whatever the cost, in the way best for you. 
I cannot know what to think of this Balthasar, for being a religious, he was not bo be part of the world, in it but not part of it.
I keep getting the feeling he was that day's Tony Robbins. And I don't know what to think of that.

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## crystalmoonshin

If one wantsto help, he must be confident enough that whatever aid he offers will not only deliver the unfortunate one, but must not also cause something negative on his own part. After all, isn't it said in the Book of Ecclesiastes that if two blind men help each other, they shall fall together? To be able to help out the other, at least one of them must be able to see.

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## Eugenie

Exactly.

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## anxietygerl18

I agree with the caution thing, however, for myself because I value helping people it would be my automatic instinct to help that person whether it was the wrong choice; because i might get pulled in but at least i stuck with my value and that to me matters over the result of the situation

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