Related:

• When traveling, the sages say, one must always be prepared to accept local customs.
  Yet there are areas of this very kingdom where one might find it customary to tax a wizard into poverty...
• Perhaps I have given you the wrong impression. A wizard's life is not all fame, fortune and frivolity.
  There must be periods of rest as well, when a wizard should find a safe retreat where he can seclude himself from sorcery and restore his health and vitality in the proper ascetic atmosphere....
• The professional wizard, it is said, should always watch his hands.
  Actually, the truly professional wizard should watch a great many other things as well, including the reactions of his audience, the door or window that constitutes the nearest exit, and, perhaps most important, the constantly fluctuating interest rates on his retirement account in the First Bank of Vushta....
• Reasoned decision is important, and there comes a time in every wizard's life when he must decide what goal he should pursue to give true meaning to his life.
  Should it be money, or travel, or fame? And what of leisure and the love of women?...
• Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you you are wrong.
  There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right....
• A wizard is only as good as his spells," people will often say.
  It is telling however, that this statement is only made by people who have never been wizards themselves....
• Magicians must exercise caution in all things. Each of you has heard the story of the mage who perfected the gold producing spell, only to be crushed by his newfound wealth.
  Less well known is the story of the sorcerer who turned everyone he didn't like into a toad, until the day he exercised the spell on an entire unfriendly village and was found the next morning hopped to death....
• In magic, as in all true professions, there are rules by which you must play.
  At least, you must play by them until such time as you can get away with something else....
• A wizard's reputation is his bond, or so the sages say.
  And, as all learned men know, a reputation is difficult to build, and all too easily besmirched....