Baltasar Gracian Quotes
Prose writer
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
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 good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
Know or listen to those who know.
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
The things we remember best are those better forgotten.
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
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 a nothing at all.
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent.
Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave.
Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
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.
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.
Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.
Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.
He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.
Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favors by the shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders.
There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.
Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
Work is the price which is paid for reputation.
Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.
One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
When desire dies, fear is born.
I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.
Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.
To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.
Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.
A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.
A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens a truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself.
Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
Evil report carries further than any applause.
There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.
We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.
To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
Begin with another's to end with your own.