True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Knowledge
Never open the door to the least of evils, for many other, greater ones lurk outside.
—Baltasar Gracian
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Action
The sage has one advantage: He is immortal. If this is not his century, many others will be.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Wisdom
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.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Age, Aging
Beauty and folly are generally companions.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Beauty
A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him, than what it has denied.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation
Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Luck
Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Heroism, Heroes/Heroism, Heroes
Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Anger
Put a grain of boldness into everything you do.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Boldness
A man is judged by his friends, for the wise and the foolish have never agreed.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Friendship
Good things, when short, are twice as good.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Brevity
The things we remember best are those best forgotten.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Memory
When everyone covets something, they are easily annoyed by it.
—Baltasar Gracian
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.
—Baltasar Gracian
There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Excellence
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Wisdom
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other ones invariably slink in after it.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Evil
It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.
—Baltasar Gracian
One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Opportunity
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Leadership, Losers, Fighting, Losing, Fight, Loss
Friends are a second existence.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Friendship
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Fashion
A gilded No is more satisfactory than a dry Yes.
—Baltasar Gracian
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Jokes, Humor
True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides it’s 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 good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Friends, Friendship
Begin with another’s to end with your own.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Originality, Innovation
It is a great deed to leave nothing for tomorrow.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Future
Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding; better those who push forward, and who employ their enterprise, who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck and effectively to gain her favor.
—Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Fortune, Luck
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Rene Descartes French Mathematician, Philosopher
- Thomas Aquinas Italian Catholic Priest
- Pope John Paul II Polish Catholic Religious Leader
- Blaise Pascal French Philosopher, Scientist
- Francis of Assisi Italian Monk
- Sigrid Undset Norwegian Novelist
- Miguel de Unamuno Spanish Philosopher, Writer
- George Santayana Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
- Baruch Spinoza Dutch Philosopher
- Thomas Hobbes English Political Philosopher
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