Baltasar Gracián Quotes

Wise men appreciate all men for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.

Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding better those who push forward who employ their enterprise who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck and to effectively gain her favor.

A sage has one advantage he is immortal. If this is not his century many others will be.

Rivalry discovers that courtesy overlooks.

There are rules to luck, not everything is chance for the wise; luck can be helped by skill.

Knowledge without courage is sterile.

One who was adored by all in prosperity is abhorred by all in adversity.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. Tis the sole remedy against misfortune the very ventilation of the soul.

The truths that matter most to us come always half spoken.

Nothing arouses ambition so much as the trumpet clang of another's fame.

Memory is not only unruly, leaving us in the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well, putting its nose into places where it is not wanted.

Never compete with someone who has nothing to lose.

One should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a Paradise or an Inferno.

It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.

Surfeits of happiness are fatal.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.

Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

Words are feminine deeds are masculine.

Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult and difficult as if they were easy in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep in the other that it may not be dismayed.

Truth always lags last limping along on the arm of Time.

The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious.

Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can’t be good, be careful.

Though such authority and respect shouldn't be handed to all and sundry, have in caution's innermost room a confidant, a faithful mirror, whose correction you value when disillusionment is necessary.

We have eyelids but not earlids, for the ears are the portals of learning, and Nature wanted to keep them wide open.

If you are wise live as you can if you cannot live as you would.

Nothing really belongs to us but time which even he has who has nothing else.

Superiority is always detested.

Begin with another's to end with your own.

He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead for she is wont to favor the bold.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

Friends are a second existence.

It is a great misfortune to be of use to nobody scarcely less to be of use to everybody.

Be first the master of yourself

Cautious silence is the refuge of good sense

The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected.

For the advice in a joke is sometimes more useful than the most serious teaching.

At twenty a man is a peacock at thirty a lion at forty a camel at fifty a serpent at sixty a dog at seventy an ape at eighty nothing at all.

Respect yourself is you would have others respect you.

A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him than what it has denied.

Say farewell to luck when winning. It is the way of the gamblers of reputation. Quite as important as a gallant advance is a well-planned retreat. Lock up your winnings when they are enough, or when great. Continuous luck is always suspect; more secure is that which changes. Though half bitter and half sweet, it is more satisfying to the taste. The more luck pyramids, the greater the danger of slip and collapse. For luck always compensates her intensity by her brevity. Fortune wearies of carrying anyone long upon her shoulders.

The great art of giving consists in this the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Good things when short are twice as good.

It requires as much caution to tell the truth as to conceal it.

Do not show your wounded finger for everything will knock up against it.

Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself.

Deal with people from whom you can learn

There is no wilderness like a life without friends friendship multiplies blessings and minimizes misfortunes it is a unique remedy against adversity and it soothes the soul.

Time and I against any two.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

The greatest wisdom often consists in ignorance.

He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... To find one real friend in a lifetime is a good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.

Even knowledge has to be in fashion and where it is not it is wise to affect ignorance.

Harness the imagination: Sometimes curbing her, sometimes giving her rein, for she is the whole of happiness. She sets to rights even the understanding. She sinks to tyranny, not satisfied with mere faith, but demanding works. Thus she becomes the mistress of life itself. She does so with pleasure or with pain, according to the nonsense presented. She makes people contented or discontented with themselves. By dangling before some nothing but the specter of their eternal suffering, she becomes the scourge of these fools. To others she shows nothing but fortune and romance, while merrily laughing. Of all this she is capable if not held in check by the wisest of wills.