Francis Bacon – On Procrastination
Happiness is like a marketplace, and often, if you can just wait a little, the price will drop.
Sometimes, however, it is like a Sibylline offer: at first, everything is offered, but little by little, there is less and less, and the price always remains the same.
Because opportunity (as the famous verse says) turns its bald head after already showing its curls in the front, and no one has caught them; or at least, it first offers the neck of the bottle, and then the hard-to-grasp part.
Certainly, there is no greater wisdom than knowing when to start things and approach the task.
Dangers are no easier once they have been made easy; in fact, dangers have deceived people more than they have attacked them.
Furthermore, it is better to face some dangers even if they are not approaching us, than to watch over them for too long; because if a man watches for too long, it is likely that he will fall asleep.
On the other hand, being deceived by long shadows (like some were when the Moon was low on the horizon and illuminated the backs of their enemies) and shoot. To act prematurely or summon dangers by coming unprepared is one extreme.
Maturity or immaturity of an opportunity, as they say, should always be carefully considered, and it is usually good to entrust the beginnings of great endeavors to Argus with a hundred eyes, and their conclusions to Briareus with a hundred hands: first deliberating, then accelerating.
Because the helmet of Pluto that makes a politician invisible signifies secrecy in consultation and speed in execution.
Once things ripen to be executed, secrecy cannot be compared to speed; like a bullet in the air, it flies so fast that it is invisible to the eye.