Baltasar Gracian Quotations

Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.

We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.

Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.

The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.

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.

Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.

Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.

Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.

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.

He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.

A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.

Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.

It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.

One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.

Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.

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.

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 do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.

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.

He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.

Work is the price which is paid for reputation.

Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.

Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.

It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.

It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.

Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.

Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.

The things we remember best are those better forgotten.

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

Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.

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

The wise does at once what the fool does at last.

To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.

Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.

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

There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.

A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.

Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.

Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.

Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.

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.

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

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 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.

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.

To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.

Begin with another's to end with your own.

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

Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.

Fortune pays sometimes for the intensity of her favors by the shortness of their duration

Like love, courage is no joking matter. If it yields once, it will have to yield again, and again. The same difficulty will have to be conquered later on, and it would have been better to get it over with.

It is a great art to know how to sell wind

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

It is more offensive to outshine in dignity than in personal attractions.

Chance has something to say in everything, even how to write a good letter

Truth always lags behind, limping along on the arm of Time.

Never risk your reputation on a single shot, for if you miss the loss is irreparable.

Know or listen to those who know.

Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that is to be a slave, a slave to every man Above all, keep yourself free of commitments and obligations - they are the device of another to get you into his power

Hurry is the weakness of fools.

Know how to play the card of contempt. It is the most politic kind of revenge. For there are many of whom we should have known nothing if their distinguished opponents had taken no notice of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness.

Life is a warfare against the malice of others.

Keep the extent of your abilities unknown.The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honored at all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so great.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

There are friendships merely for pleasure, some for the exchange of ideas. Rarest are those friends of one's inmost self.

Many pleasant things are better when they belong to someone else. ... When things belong to others, we enjoy them twice as much, without the risk of losing them, and with the pleasure of novelty.

Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning. Be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives you may at any moment be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire to the damage of your own fingers.

Help others solve their problems; standing farther away, you can often see matters more clearly than they do. . . The greatest service you can render someone else is helping him or her help themselves.

An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of cleverness.

Few are the friends of a mans self, most those of his circumstances.

Friends provoked become the bitterest of enemies.

Always act as if you were seen.

Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool. The faultier a person's judgement the firmer their convictions.

Truth is for the minority.

Maturity is the slowness in which a man believes.

Be first the master of yourself

Do pleasant things yourself, but unpleasant things through others.

Excellence resides in quality, not in quantity. The best is always few and rare; much lowers value.

When desire dies, fear is born.

Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.

The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good.

Rate the intensive above the extensive. The perfect does not lie in quantity, but in quality.

The liar suffers twice: he neither believes nor is believed.

Keep expectation alive. Keep stirring it up. Let much promise more, and great deeds herald greater.

Character and intelligence are the poles you talent spins on, displaying your gifts.

He who puts off nothing till tomorrow has done a great deal.

To keep is more important than to make friends.

Many people who pretend to be very busy have the least to do.

All victories breed, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal.

Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls with double force on him that stands alone.