Baltasar Gracian
Superiority is always detested.Collection: Superiority
Never participate in the secrets of those above you; you think you share the fruit, and you share the stones - the confidence of a prince is not a grant, but a taxCollection: Confidence
Always act as if you were seen.Collection: Behavior
Silence is the sanctuary of prudence.Collection: Silence
To find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.Collection: Friendship
All men are idolators, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure.Collection: Men
Be first the master of yourselfCollection: Wisdom
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.Collection: Wise
The wise persono would rather see others needing him than thanking him.Collection: Wise
You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century.Collection: Fashion
Take care to make things turn out well. Some people scruple more over pointing things in the right direction than over successfully reaching their goals. The disgrace of failure outweighs the diligence they showed. A winner is never asked for explanations.Collection: Success
Peacemakers not only live, they rule life.Collection: Peace
There is no beauty unaided, no excellence that does not sink to the barbarous, unless saved by art.Collection: Beauty
Tis much to gain universal admiration; more, universal love.Collection: Love
Not he that adorns but he that adores makes a divinity.Collection: Divinity
It is therefore an excellent device to acquire knowledge from everybody.Collection: Excellent
Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.Collection: Wisdom
It is a novel kind of supremacy, the best that life can offer, to have as servants by skill those who by nature are our masters.Collection: Work
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.]Collection: Gratitude
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.Collection: Reality
Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.Collection: Giving
Attain and maintain a reputation, for it is the usufruct of fame. A stiff climb, for it is the issue of excellence, as rare as mediocrity is common.Collection: Issues
Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages.Collection: Courtesy
Character and intelligence are the poles you talent spins on, displaying your gifts.Collection: Art
Harness the imagination, for she is the whole of happiness.Collection: Imagination
He who laughs at everything is as big a fool as he who weeps at everything.Collection: Laughter
Cultivate those who can teach you.Collection: Teamwork
Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.Collection: Wise
Beauty and folly are generally companions.Collection: Beauty
What is not seen is as if it was not. Even the Right does not receive proper consideration if it does not seem right.Collection: Doe
Many of the things that bring delight should not be owned. They are more enjoyed if another's, than if yours; the first day they give pleasure to the owner, but in all the rest to the others: what belongs to another rejoices doubly, because it is without the risk of going stale and with the satisfaction of freshness. . . the possession of things not only diminishes their enjoyment, but augments their annoyance, whether shared or not shared.Collection: Giving
Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.Collection: Friends
If to talk to oneself when alone is folly, it must be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others.Collection: Conversation
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.Collection: Winning
The wise person finds enemies more useful than the fool does friends .Collection: Wise
The passions are the humors of the mind, and the least excess sickens our judgment. If the disease spreads to the mouth, your reputation will be in danger.Collection: Passion
It is a great misfortune to be of use to nobody; scarcely less to be of use to everybody.Collection: Use
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.Collection: Skeletons
Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture.Collection: Men
The sage never seems to know his own merits, for only by not noticing them can you call others' attention to them.Collection: Attention
Rate the intensive above the extensive. The perfect does not lie in quantity, but in quality.Collection: Lying
Friends provoked become the bitterest of enemies.Collection: Friendship
It is impossible to live without brains, either one's own or borrowed.Collection: Life
The hossanas of the multitude can never bring satisfaction to the discerning. Yet there exist those chamaleons of popularity who find their joy, not in the sweet breath of Apollo, but in the smell of the crowd. And not in mind: Do not be taken in by what are miracles to the populace, for the ignorant do not rise above marveling. Thus the stupidity of a crowd is lost in admiration, even as the brain of an individual uncovers the trick.Collection: Sweet
Exaggeration is a branch of lying.Collection: Lying
You should avoid making yourself too clear even in your explanations.Collection: Political
Surfeits of happiness are fatal.Collection: Happiness
The best remedy for disturbances is to let them run their course, for so they quiet down.Collection: Running