When thou sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently him who is before thee,
These are reefs in your love-feasts, feasting together, fearlessly tending to themselves, waterless clouds carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit, who died twice having being uprooted,
See thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before obscure men.
and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite.