142．当对手先站在正确的一方时，你不能固执地站在错误的一方

当对手先站在正确的一方时，你不能倔强地站在错误的一方。否则，你会不战而败，含辱而退。武器不好就不能取胜。对手抢先夺取较为有利的一方，是他的狡猾；若你跟着固守在最糟糕的一方，就很愚蠢了。行动上表现出的倔强比言语上表现出的执拗更危险，因为行动比言语冒更多风险。倔强的人好反驳而失理，好争吵而无益，这是他们常犯的错误。明智之人从不冲动，他们信奉正途，不管是自己早就发现，抑或是后来才加以修正。如你的对手是个蠢蛋，在此情况下，他就会转身踏上相反的错误道路。那么，要把敌人赶出好路，你只需自己占领就行——敌人的愚蠢会让他抛弃正确的路线，令其因倔强而招致惩罚。

142．Never from obstinacy take the wrong side because your opponent has anticipated you in taking the right one

Never from obstinacy take the wrong side because your opponent has anticipated you in taking the right one. You begin the fight already beaten and must soon take to flight in disgrace. With bad weapons one can never win. It was astute in the opponent to seize the better side first, it would be folly to come lagging after with the worst. Such obstinacy is more dangerous in actions than in words, for action encounters more risk than talk. It is the common failing of the obstinate that they lose the true by contradicting it, and the useful by quarrelling with it. The sage never places himself on the side of passion, but espouses the cause of right, either discovering it first or improving it later. If the enemy is a fool, he will in such a case turn round to follow the opposite and worse way. Thus the only way to drive him from the better course is to take it yourself, for his folly will cause him to desert it, and his obstinacy be punished for so doing.