When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:
See you a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before obscure men.
And put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite.
These are spots in your love feasts, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about by winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;