156．选择你的朋友

选择你的朋友。经过实践和命运的考验的朋友才算合格。合格不仅体现在情感方面，还体现在洞察力方面。尽管这是人生第一要事，但世人对此并不上心。只有少数人用智力择友，而更多的则靠机遇。人们总是根据所交朋友来判断一个人的为人，因为智者永远不会与傻瓜有共鸣。同样，和某人交往很开心，并不意味着和他很亲密，可能只是喜欢与之为伴时的快乐，但未必信赖他的才能。有的友谊合法，有的则违法；后者是为了娱乐，前者却能产生思想和动力。大部分“朋友”看上你，不是因为你本人，而是因为你的境遇。众人的友好往往还抵不过一个挚友的真知灼见。因此，交友要精挑细选，而不应单纯依靠机缘。明智的友人驱走忧愁，愚昧的朋友让你烦忧。此外，别期盼朋友运气太好，可能你会就此失去他们。

156．Select your friends

Select your friends. Only after passing the matriculation of experience and the examination of fortune will they be graduates, not only in affection but in discernment. Though this is the most important thing in life, it is the one least cared for. Intelligence brings friends to some, chance to most. Yet a man is judged by his friends, for there was never agreement between wise men and fools. At the same time, to find pleasure in a man's society is no proof of near friendship: it may come from the pleasantness of his company more than from trust in his capacity. There are some friendships legitimate, others illicit; the latter for pleasure, the former for their fecundity of ideas and motives. Few are the friends of a man's self, most those of his circumstances. The insight of a true friend is more useful than the goodwill of others: therefore gain them by choice, not by chance. A wise friend wards off worries, a foolish one brings them about. But do not wish them too much luck, or you may lose them.