“The good and the pleasant both come to a person. The wise look at the two, and tell them apart.”

Two things arrive at every fork: the good and the pleasant. They often point different ways, and Death himself tells the boy Nachiketa that telling them apart is the mark of the wise.

The verse compresses most modern choices into nine Sanskrit words. The snooze button and the morning walk, the easy answer and the true one; the sorting practice never runs out of material.