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.

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

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

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

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

Know how to keep anticipation alive: always strive to feed it, by letting the much promise more, and the one achievement be the announcement only of a greater. Put not all your reserves into the first throw; the great trick is to dole out strength, and to dole out mind, in such a fashion as to bring forward increasingly the fulfillment of what was expected of you.

The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious. [...because they focus on what they don't have rather than being grateful for what they have, which is always better than some others.]

Success rarely brings satisfaction.

The greatest wisdom often consist in ignorance.

Know the great men of your age.

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

Knowing how to keep a friend is more important than gaining a new one.

Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing.

The greatest fool is he who thinks he is not one and all others are.

Deceit comes in through the ears, but usually leaves through the eyes.

The wise person finds enemies more useful than the fool does friends .

La galantería y la honra tienen esta ventaja, que se quedan: aquélla en quien la usa, ésta en quien la haze.

Trust your heart, especially when it is a strong one.

It is a great deed to leave nothing for tomorrow.

Nature often lets us down when we most need her; let us turn to art.

The greatest service you can render someone else is helping him help himself.

Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains.

The truest wild beasts live in the most populous places.

When everyone covets something, they are easily annoyed by it.

Have Friends. 'Tis a second existence.

Be known for pleasing others, especially if you govern them. Ruling other has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else.

Wisdom is immortal. She can wait forever, but you cannot.

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

You have to appear wiser and more prudent than is required by the people you are dealing with if you want to give a high opinion of yourself.

There is no wilderness like a life without friends.

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

Do not make mistakes about character. Better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods.

Wisdom and courage make mutual contributions to greatness.

There is no desert like being friendless.

There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing.

Honorable beginnings should serve to awaken curiosity, not to heighten people's expectations. We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations, and something turns out better than we thought it would.

No one demands more caution than a spy, and when someone has the skeleton key to minds, counter him by leaving the key of caution inside, on the other side of the keyhole.

Do not make Mistakes about Character. That is the worst and yet easiest error. Better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods. In dealing with men, more than with other things, it is necessary to look within. To know men is different from knowing things. It is profound philosophy to sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character. Men must be studied as deeply as books.

Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external percepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority.

Display startling novelty-rise afresh like the sun every day. Change too the scene on which you shine, so that you rloss may be felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins applause in the new.

You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century.

What the multitude says, is so, or soon will be so.

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