Baltasar Gracián

The wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increases impatience of folly.

You may be obliged to wage war, but not to use poisoned arrows.

It is a great misfortune to be of use to nobody; scarcely less to be of use to everybody.

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

Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of Time.

God Himself chasteneth not with a rod but with time.

There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.

To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.

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

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

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

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.

Begin with another’s to end with your own.

A brand new mediocrity is thought more of than accustomed excellence.

The sage never seems to know his own merits, for only by not noticing them can you call others’ attention to them.

A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself.

Man’s life is a warfare against the malice of men.

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

A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity.

’Tis much to gain universal admiration; more, universal love.

To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.

Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.

Hope is a great falsifier of truth.

Nothing is good for him for whom nothing is bad.

Good things, when short, are twice as good.

Friends provoked become the bitterest of enemies.

Few are the friends of a man's self, most those of his circumstances.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. Tis the sole remedy against misfortune, the very ventilation of the soul.

When you find Fortune favorable, stride boldly forward, for she favors the bold, and being a woman, the young.

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.

Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect. '

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

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

Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture.

Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages.

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