Baltasar Gracian
There are rules to luck, not everything is chance for the wise; luck can be helped by skill.Collection: Wise
Know what is evil, no matter how worshipped it may be. Let the man of sense not mistake it, even when clothed in brocade, or at times crowned in gold, because it cannot thereby hide its hypocrisy, for slavery does not lose its infamy, however noble the master.Collection: Mistake
Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste.Collection: Exaggeration Is
You may be obliged to wage war, but not to use poisoned arrows.Collection: War
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.Collection: Helping Others
Truth is for the minority.Collection: Truth
None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others.Collection: Perfect
If there is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear, an unhappy state of happiness.Collection: Unhappy
Tis by no means the least of life's rules: To let things alone.Collection: Mean
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.Collection: Risk
Maturity is the slowness in which a man believes.Collection: Believe
Many people who pretend to be very busy have the least to do.Collection: People
The worthless usually live long.Collection: Long
Many get the repute of being witty but thereby lose the credit of being sensible. Jest has its little hour, seriousness should have all the rest.Collection: Witty
Wisdom and courage make mutual contributions to greatness.Collection: Greatness
Never risk your reputation on a single shot, for if you miss the loss is irreparable.Collection: Loss
Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains.Collection: Mountain
Even monarchs have need of authors, and fear their pens more than ugly women the painter's pencil.Collection: Writing
It takes more to make one sage today than it did to make the seven of Greece. And you need more resources to deal with a single person these days than with an entire nation in times past.Collection: Art
A brand new mediocrity is thought more of than accustomed excellence.Collection: Excellence
The sage has one advantage: he is immortal. If this is not his century, many others will be.Collection: Wisdom
Chance has something to say, even how to write a good letter.Collection: Writing
One who was abhorred by all in prosperity is adored by all in adversity.Collection: Adversity
A person of your century: Great persons are of their time. Not all were born into a period worthy of them, and many so born failed to benefit by it. Some merited a better century, for all that is good does not always triumph. Fashions have their periods and even the greatest virtues, their styles. But the philosopher, being ageless, has one advantage: Should this not prove the right century, many to follow will.Collection: Fashion
Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of time.Collection: Time
When you find Fortune favorable, stride boldly forward, for she favors the bold, and being a woman, the young.Collection: Favors
There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing.Collection: Busy
Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itselft.Collection: Trying
Be known for pleasing others, especially if you govern them. Ruling other has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else.Collection: Inspirational
For a thing to remain undone nothing more is needed than to think of it done.Collection: Thinking
Few are the friends of a mans self, most those of his circumstances.Collection: Friends
Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to any one. Even the most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn to lean. There are some that are incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible: They fall to ruin because none dares to extricate them. The highest should have the door open for friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.Collection: Fall
To overvalue something is a form of lying.Collection: Lying
You can cultivate taste, as you can the intellect. Full understanding whets the appetite and desire, and, later, sharpens the enjoyment of possession.Collection: Character
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.Collection: Inspirational
The liar suffers twice: he neither believes nor is believed.Collection: Liars
The wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increases impatience of folly.Collection: Wise
If you are wise, live as you can; if you cannot, live as you would.Collection: Wise
Treat your enemies with courtesy, and you'll see how valuable it really is. It costs little but pays a nice dividend: those who honor are honored. Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing.Collection: Nice
There are friendships merely for pleasure, some for the exchange of ideas. Rarest are those friends of one's inmost self.Collection: Friends
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.Collection: Revenge
It is profound philosophy to sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character. Men must be studied as deeply as books.Collection: Philosophy
Do pleasant things yourself, but unpleasant things through others.Collection: Pleasure
Hurry is the weakness of fools.Collection: Weakness
Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it.Collection: Mediocrity
Politeness is the chief sign of culture.Collection: Culture
The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.Collection: Letting Go
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.Collection: Integrity
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 powerCollection: Commitment