# Newsletters > Balthasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom >  Aphorism #187 Do pleasant Things Yourself, unpleasant Things through Others.

## Admin

Aphorism #187 Do pleasant Things Yourself, unpleasant Things through Others.

By the one course you gain goodwill, by the other you avoid hatred. A great man takes more pleasure in doing a favour than in receiving one: it is the privilege of his generous nature. One cannot easily cause pain to another without suffering pain either from sympathy or from remorse. In high place one can only work by means of rewards and punishment, so grant the first yourself, inflict the other through others. Have some one against whom the weapons of discontent, hatred, and slander may be directed. For the rage of the mob is likethat of a dog: missing the cause of its pain it turns to bite the whip itself, and though this is not the real culprit, it has to pay the penalty.

More...

----------

