How to benefit from your enemies

Human nature is one, fixed across ages and places. This is what these two texts by Plutarch, the Greek thinker, confirm. He sensed, long ago, the need to help his contemporaries "benefit from their enemies" and to "distinguish between flattery and friendship." In this ominous book, where humor, sects, myth, and history blend, Plutarch reveals all the tricks of flattery and warns against sweet praise, false sincerity, and hypocritical friends. He even goes as far as to prove the usefulness of enemies, who push us to be cautious, and this becomes a motivation for us to develop ourselves and achieve the best version of our selves. This, in the end, constitutes the best response and noblest critique we can face our opponents with. These illuminated pages, written many centuries ago, still retain their full relevance, and this is the best evidence of their validity, accuracy, and wisdom.