The 48 Laws of Power

Do not allow whatever compassion and pity you possess to suck you in. Every moment wasted on the dramas of others subtracts from your strength. When some event or interaction requires a response, you must train yourself to step back. The inspiration born of a feeling is the grandchild of a judgment and often of a false judgment. To trust one's feelings means to give more obedience to one's grandfather and grandmother than to the gods which are in us, our reason and our experience.