Baltasar Gracian Quotes

#1. Respect yourself is you would have others respect you.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

#3. Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.

Baltasar Gracian

#4. No' and 'Yes' are words quickly said, but they need a great amount of thought before you utter them.

Baltasar Gracian

#5. One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.

Baltasar Gracian

#6. If to talk to oneself when alone is folly, it must be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others.

Baltasar Gracian

#7. Know how to choose. Most things in life depend on it. You need good taste and an upright judgement; intelligence and application are not enough. There is no perfection without discernment and selection.

Baltasar Gracian

#8. There is no desert like being friendless.

Baltasar Gracian

#9. Avoid outshining the master. All superiority is odious, but the superiority of a subject over his prince is not only stupid, it is fatal. This is a lesson that the stars in the sky teach us - they may be related to the sun, and just as brilliant, but they never appear in her company.

Baltasar Gracian

#10. The worthless usually live long.

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

Baltasar Gracian

#12. Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand.

Baltasar Gracian

#13. 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.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

#15. Few are the friends of a mans self, most those of his circumstances.

Baltasar Gracian

#16. Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.

Baltasar Gracian

#17. It is a great deed to leave nothing for tomorrow.

Baltasar Gracian

#18. Fools rush in through the door; for folly is always bold.

Baltasar Gracian

#19. Everyone could have been pre-eminent at something, if they had been aware of their best quality.

Baltasar Gracian

#20. If there is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear, an unhappy state of happiness.

Baltasar Gracian

#21. Most do violence to their natural aptitude, and thus attain superiority in nothing.

Baltasar Gracian

#22. Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to
live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what
looks like cunning.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

#24. Friends provoked become the bitterest of enemies.

Baltasar Gracian

#25. A wise prince must never take things easy in times of peace.

Baltasar Gracian

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

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#27. Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.

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#28. It is profound philosophy to sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character. Men must be studied as deeply as books.

Baltasar Gracian

#29. The best remedy for disturbances is to let them run their course, for so they quiet down.

Baltasar Gracian

#30. The happy are an exception who enjoy innocently their simple happiness.

Baltasar Gracian

#31. 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.

Baltasar Gracian

#32. Knowledge without courage is sterile.

Baltasar Gracian

#33. Knowledge and courage take turns at greatness.

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#34. I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

Baltasar Gracian

#35. There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.

Baltasar Gracian

#36. 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.

Baltasar Gracian

#37. Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool. The faultier a person's judgement the firmer their convictions.

Baltasar Gracian

#38. It is therefore an excellent device to acquire knowledge from everybody.

Baltasar Gracian

#39. He who puts off nothing till tomorrow has done a great deal.

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#40. God Himself chasteneth not with a rod but with time.

Baltasar Gracian

#41. There are friendships merely for pleasure, some for the exchange of ideas. Rarest are those friends of one's inmost self.

Baltasar Gracian

#42. Diligence removes impossibilities.

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#43. Friendship multiplies blessings and ... soothes the soul.

Baltasar Gracian

#44. Put a grain of boldness into everything you do.

Baltasar Gracian

#45. Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it.

Baltasar Gracian

#46. Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.

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#47. Cautious silence is the refuge of good sense

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

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

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#50. Words are feminine; deeds are masculine.

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#51. Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.

Baltasar Gracian

#52. Self knowledge is the beginning of self improvement.

Baltasar Gracian

#53. The more pains you take with a thing, the more should you conceal them, so that it may appear to arise spontaneously from your own natural character.

Baltasar Gracian

#54. An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of cleverness.

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

Baltasar Gracian

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

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#57. Admiration is the basis of ignorance.

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#58. Many would be wise if they did not think themselves wise.

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#59. Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls with double force on him that stands alone.

Baltasar Gracian

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

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#61. For the advice in a joke is sometimes more useful than the most serious teaching.

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#62. Not all were born into a period worthy of them.

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#63. Know or listen to those who know.

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

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#65. There is no beauty unaided, no excellence that does not sink to the barbarous, unless saved by art.

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#66. Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.

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#67. Cultivate those who can teach you.

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#68. Man's life is militia against man's malice.

Baltasar Gracian

#69. 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.

Baltasar Gracian

#70. We live by information, not by sight.

Baltasar Gracian

#71. True friendshipmultiplies 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 a good fortune;to keep him is a blessing

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

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#73. A man is judged by his friends, for the wise and the foolish have never agreed.

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#74. Don't lie, but don't tell the whole truth.

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

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#76. Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains.

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#77. Tis by no means the least of life's rules: To let things alone.

Baltasar Gracian

#78. You can cultivate taste, as you can the intellect. Full understanding whets the appetite and desire, and, later, sharpens the enjoyment of possession.

Baltasar Gracian

#79. There must be something good in a thing that pleases so many; even if it cannot be explained, it is certainly enjoyed.

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#80. Be first the master of yourself

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#81. The path to greatness is along with others.

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

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#83. A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.

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#84. Keep expectation alive. Keep stirring it up. Let much promise more, and great deeds herald greater.

Baltasar Gracian

#85. Be extraordinary in your excellence, if you like, but be ordinary in your display of it.

Baltasar Gracian

#86. 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.

Baltasar Gracian

#87. A gilded No is more satisfactory than a dry Yes.

Baltasar Gracian

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

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#89. Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

Baltasar Gracian

#90. To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.

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#91. What is not seen is as if it was not. Even the Right does not receive proper consideration if it does not seem right.

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#92. Even monarchs have need of authors, and fear their pens more than ugly women the painter's pencil.

Baltasar Gracian

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

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#94. We have eyelids but not earlids, for the ears are the portals of learning, and Nature wanted to keep them wide open.

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#95. 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.

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

Baltasar Gracian

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

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#98. Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste.

Baltasar Gracian

#99. There's no greater absurdity than taking everything seriously.

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#100. Hurry is the weakness of fools.

Baltasar Gracian