“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.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“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
“A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“The wise does at once what the fool does at last.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“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
“Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“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
“Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Know or listen to those who know.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Don’t take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“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.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Evil report carries further than any applause.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other’s slave.”
― 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
“It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Quit while you’re ahead. All the best gamblers do.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“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.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“When desire dies, fear is born.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“The things we remember best are those better forgotten.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“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
“Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Have friends. ‘Tis a second existence.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Begin with another’s to end with your own.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Work is the price which is paid for reputation.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.”
― Baltasar Gracian
“Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.”
― Baltasar Gracian
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