141．不要只倾听自己的声音

不要只倾听自己的声音。如果你不能愉悦他人，愉悦自己也无用处。人若自满，必受惩罚，也即遭人蔑视。把注意力放在自己身上，还不如放在别人身上。说话的时候只听自己的声音，不会有好的结果。如果说自言自语是疯狂，那么，在别人面前只听自己说则是双倍的愚蠢。有的大人物在讲话时反复说“正如我刚才所说”或者问“是不是”，这是一个缺点，会让听众迷惑。每说一句话都在期待他人的赞同和恭维，这让智者的耐心不堪重荷。浮华虚夸之人也是如此，他们说话也需借用高跷才能蹒跚而行。因此，他们每说一个字，都要那些愚蠢的“好啊”来支持。

141．Do not listen to yourself

Do not listen to yourself. It is no use pleasing yourself if you do not please others, and as a rule general contempt is the punishment for self-satisfaction. The attention you pay to yourself you probably owe to others. To speak and at the same time listen to yourself cannot turn out well. If to talk to oneself when alone is madness, it must be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others. It is a weakness of the great to talk with a recurrent "as I was saying" and "eh?" which bewilders their hearers. At every sentence they look for applause or flattery, taxing the patience of the wise. So too the pompous speak with an echo, and as their talk can only totter on with the aid of stilts, at every word they need the support of a stupid "Bravo!"