Here's the never-changing rule:
With everybody, play the fool.
Be coy, aloof -- and always smile.
Betraying needs is out of style.
Take all you can from everyone.
What's not begun is never done.
Make no end, make no beginning.
Never losing is like winning.
So stand there like an icy pillar --
There's no hand upon your tiller.
You belong to no one, have nothing,
Go nowhere, know not loving --
You're safe, taking from empty hands.
You take the seas; I'll take the lands.
Leave me the rocks; you count the sands.
... written in the 1970s(?)