Baltasar Gracian quotes:
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True friendship multiplies 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 good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
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The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
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Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
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Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
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Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
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Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
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Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
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True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
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He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
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One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
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Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.
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Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
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Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
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Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
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It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.
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Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.
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Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.
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Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.
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Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect.
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He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold.
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I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.
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Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
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Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.
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There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
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Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
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Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
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Mix a little mystery with everything, for mystery arouses veneration.
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Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning. Be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives you may at any moment be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire to the damage of your own fingers.
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A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him, than what it has denied.
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It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.
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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.
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To be at ease is better than to be at business.
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There is no desert like being friendless.
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Nothing is good for him for whom nothing is bad.
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To find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
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Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.
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The greatest wisdom often consist in ignorance.
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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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A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
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Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
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Keep to yourself the final touches of your art.
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No one demands more caution than a spy, and when someone has the skeleton key to minds, counter him by leaving the key of caution inside, on the other side of the keyhole.
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Know or listen to those who know.
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A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
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Know how to play the card of contempt. It is the most politic kind of revenge. For there are many of whom we should have known nothing if their distinguished opponents had taken no notice of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness.
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There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness.
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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.
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Be known for pleasing others, especially if you govern them. Ruling other has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else.
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There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing.
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Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.
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Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external percepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority.
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A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
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Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side
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For the advice in a joke is sometimes more useful than the most serious teaching.
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Knowledge without courage is sterile.
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A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.
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Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself.
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Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
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He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
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Be first the master of yourself
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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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Self knowledge is the beginning of self improvement.
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The happy are an exception who enjoy innocently their simple happiness.
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Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
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To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
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Even monarchs have need of authors, and fear their pens more than ugly women the painter's pencil.
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It is profound philosophy to sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character. Men must be studied as deeply as books.
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Tis much to gain universal admiration; more, universal love.
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It is a great misfortune to be of use to nobody; scarcely less to be of use to everybody.
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It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
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Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages.
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Yes and no are soon said, but give much to think over.
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Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
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Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
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Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
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He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.
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To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.
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There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
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Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
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Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
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Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to any one. Even the most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn to lean. There are some that are incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible: They fall to ruin because none dares to extricate them. The highest should have the door open for friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.
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Friendship multiplies blessings and...soothes the soul.
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Keep the extent of your abilities unknown.The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honored at all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so great.
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There are friendships merely for pleasure, some for the exchange of ideas. Rarest are those friends of one's inmost self.
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Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that is to be a slave, a slave to every man Above all, keep yourself free of commitments and obligations - they are the device of another to get you into his power
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Character and intelligence are the poles you talent spins on, displaying your gifts.
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It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
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Always act as if you were seen.
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Know how to use evasion. That is how smart people get out of difficulties.
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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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Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
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Many pleasant things are better when they belong to someone else. ... When things belong to others, we enjoy them twice as much, without the risk of losing them, and with the pleasure of novelty.
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Hurry is the weakness of fools.
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Life is a warfare against the malice of others.
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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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Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains.
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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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Excellence resides in quality, not in quantity. The best is always few and rare; much lowers value.
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Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.
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The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.
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Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.
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When desire dies, fear is born.
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The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good.
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Rate the intensive above the extensive. The perfect does not lie in quantity, but in quality.
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Maturity is the slowness in which a man believes.
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They make the greatest show of what they have done, who have done least.
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Keep expectation alive. Keep stirring it up. Let much promise more, and great deeds herald greater.
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The liar suffers twice: he neither believes nor is believed.
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An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of cleverness.
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To keep is more important than to make friends.
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He who puts off nothing till tomorrow has done a great deal.
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Many people who pretend to be very busy have the least to do.
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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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All victories breed, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal.
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Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls with double force on him that stands alone.