In Italy you cannot get anything by legal means, not even legal things.
Even these are obtained by illegal means : favor, recommendation, pressure, blackmail…
Cunning is a poor cousin of intelligence. It is short-lived
He is convinced he is intelligent…
For a short period of time, cunning can be an expedient to substitute for intelligence, to compensate for inability or lack of means.
But it is short-lived.
Sometimes it is the lack of intelligence that makes one clever, although the results obtained in this way certainly do not have the taste and honor of victory.
But he does not know the deep joy of those who reach the goal faithfully.
He neither tastes nor sees the color.
In the long run, the systematic use of “cunning” leads to an irreparable and final loss of social standing.
It is only a matter of time.
And when no one trusts him any more, when he is considered to be just a “sly”, an untrustworthy and undesirable person, then there is no more cleverness to make up for it.
Only then does the “sly” begin to realize this and wonder if it was really worth it.
In the end, cunning always turns out to be what it is : poor man’s stuff.
