28
"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don't you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it?
29
If you don't, then when you have laid the foundation but can't finish, all the onlookers start making fun of you
30
and say, `This is the man who began to build, but couldn't finish!'
31
"Or again, suppose one king is going out to wage war with another king. Doesn't he first sit down and consider whether he, with his ten thousand troops, has enough strength to meet the other one, who is coming against him with twenty thousand?
32
If he hasn't, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to inquire about terms for peace.
33
"So every one of you who doesn't renounce all that he has cannot be my talmid.
34
Salt is excellent. But if even the salt becomes tasteless, what can be used to season it?
35
It is fit for neither soil nor manure -- people throw it out. Those who have ears that can hear, let them hear!"