Baltasar Gracian Quotes
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One deceit needs many others, and so the whole house is built in the air and must soon come to the ground
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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.
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Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of time.
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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 tax
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One should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a Paradise or an Inferno.
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Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding; better those who push forward, who employ their enterprise, who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck, and to effectively gain her favor.
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Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool. The faultier a person's judgement the firmer their convictions.
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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.
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Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.
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Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste.
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Know how to choose well. Most of life depends thereon. It needs good taste and correct judgment, for which neither intellect nor study suffices.
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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.
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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.
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Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.
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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.
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You can cultivate taste, as you can the intellect. Full understanding whets the appetite and desire, and, later, sharpens the enjoyment of possession.
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Two kinds of people are good at foreseeing danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and the clever people who learn a great deal at the expense of others.
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Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing.
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We have more days to live through than pleasures. Be slow in enjoyment, quick at work, for men see work ended with pleasure, pleasure ended with regret.