Baltasar Gracian Quotes

Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.

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

Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.

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.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

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

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

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

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

Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.

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

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

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

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

All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.

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.

Do pleasant things yourself, but unpleasant things through others.

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

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

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

At 20 a man is a peacock, at 30 a lion, at 40 a camel, at 50 a serpent, at 60 a dog, at 70 an ape, and at 80 nothing.

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.

Know how to ask. There is nothing more difficult for some people, nor for others, easier.

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Begin with another's to end with your own.

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

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

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.

Evil report carries further than any applause.

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.

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.

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

When desire dies, fear is born.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.

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.