When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you,
These people are hidden rocky reefs at your love feasts—shamelessly feasting with you, tending only to themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, doubly dead, uprooted;
Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings. He will not stand before obscure people.
and put a knife to your throat if you possess a large appetite.