THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM by Baltasar Gracian

• There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man than formerly to make Seven Sages, and more is needed nowadays to deal with a single person than was required with a whole people in former times.
• Intellect sufficeth not, character is also needed.
• Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse.
• Knowledge without courage is sterile.
• The complete man, wise in speech, prudent in act, is admitted to the familiar intimacy of discreet persons, is even sought for by them.
• Avoid Victories over Superiors. All victories breed hate, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal.
• There is no higher rule than that over oneself, over one’s impulses: there is the triumph of free will.
• Every one has something unpolished without artificial training, and every kind of excellence needs some polish.
• Fine behaviour is a joy in life, and a pleasant expression helps out of a difficulty in a remarkable way.
• Knowledge and Good Intentions together ensure continuance of success.
• Knowledge without sense is double folly.
• Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it. Work is the price which is paid for reputation. What costs little is little worth.
• The real can never equal the imagined, for it is easy to form ideals but very difficult to realise them.
• There are rules of luck: it is not all chance with the wise: it can be assisted by care.
• Wise men arm themselves with tasteful and elegant erudition; a practical knowledge of what is going on not of a common kind but more like an expert. They possess a copious store of wise and witty sayings, and of noble deeds, and know how to employ them on fitting occasions.
• More is often taught by a jest than by the most serious teaching.
• Few live without some weak point, either physical or moral, which they pamper because they could easily cure it.
• All men are idolaters, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure. Skill consists in knowing these idols in order to bring them into play. Knowing any man’s mainspring of motive you have as it were the key to his will.
• Excellence resides in quality not in quantity. The best is always few and rare: much lowers value.
• Ill-luck is generally the penalty of folly, and there is no disease so contagious to those who share in it.
• Those make friends who do friendly acts.
• To be occupied in what does not concern you is worse than doing nothing.
• It is not enough for a careful man not to interfere with others, he must see that they do not interfere with him.
• Know your strongest Point-- your pre-eminent gift; cultivate that and you will assist the rest.
• When you find Fortune favourable, stride boldly forward, for she favours the bold and, being a woman, the young. But if you have bad luck, keep retired so as not to redouble the influence of your unlucky star.
• A prudent man goes more cautiously to work, and prefers to err by omission than by commission.
• The greatest skill in any deed consists in the sure mastery with which it is executed.
• Let your own right feeling be the true standard of your rectitude, and owe more to the strictness of your own self-judgment than to all external sanctions.
• Moral courage exceeds physical; it should be like a sword kept ready for use in the scabbard of caution. It Is the shield of great place; moral cowardice lowers one more than physical.
• It’s a sign of a noble heart dowered with patience, never to be in a hurry, never to be in a passion.
• First be master over yourself if you would be master over others.
• Quickly done can be quickly undone. To last an eternity requires an eternity of preparation. Only excellence counts; only achievement endures.
• Profound intelligence is the only foundation for immortality.
• There is no need to show your ability before every one. Employ no more force than is necessary. Let there be no unnecessary expenditure either of knowledge or of power.
• Always have some novelty wherewith to dazzle. To show something fresh each day keeps expectation alive and conceals the limits of capacity.
• Most things depend on the satisfaction of others.
• Do not give way to every common Impulse.
• He is a great man who never allows himself to be influenced by the impressions of others.
• Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.
• One ought not to give way in everything nor to everybody. To know how to refuse is therefore as important as to know how to consent.
• Let not your actions be abnormal either from disposition or affectation. An able man is always the same in his best qualities; he gets the credit of trustworthiness. If he changes, he does so for good reason or good consideration.
• Bad execution of your designs does less harm than irresolution in forming them.
• Notice men’s moods and adapt yourself to each, genial or serious as the case may be. Follow their lead, glossing over the changes as cunningly as possible. This is an indispensable art for dependent persons.
• Fools rush in through the door; for folly is always bold. The same simplicity which robs them of all attention to precautions deprives them of all sense of shame at failure. But prudence enters with more deliberation. Its forerunners are caution and care; they advance and discover whether you can also advance without danger.
• Be extraordinary in your excellence, if you like, but be ordinary in your display of it. The more light a torch gives, the more it burns away and the nearer ‘tis to going out. Show yourself less and you will be rewarded by being esteemed more.
• It is easy to get into bad repute, because it is easy to believe evil of any one: it is not easy to clear yourself.
• Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture. Culture therefore makes the man; the more a man, the higher.
• Ignorance is very raw; nothing contributes so much to culture as knowledge. But even knowledge is coarse If without elegance.
• Know Yourself --in talents and capacity, in judgment and inclination. You cannot master yourself unless you know yourself.
• There are mirrors for the face but none for the mind. Let careful thought about yourself serve as a substitute.
• Keep the extent of your Abilities unknown.
• Do not even let your tastes be known, lest others utilise them either by running counter to them or by flattering them.
• One half of the World laughs at the other, and Fools are they all.
• You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century.
• A man of talent therefore should show that he has more room for even greater enterprises, and above all avoid showing signs of a little heart.
• The most in repute are those that have least or most distant dependence on others; the worst is that which worries us both here and hereafter.
• Good things, when short, are twice as good. The quintessence of the matter is more effective than a whole farrago of details.
• The more you seek esteem the less you obtain it, for it depends on the opinion of others. You cannot take it, but must earn and receive it from others.
• If you wish to be valued, be valued for your talents, not for anything adventitious.
• ‘Tis a maxim of the wise to leave things before things leave them.
• Politeness and honour have this advantage, that they remain with him who displays them to others.
• Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not it is wise to affect ignorance. Thought and taste change with the times. Do not be old-fashioned in your ways of thinking, and let your taste be in the modern style.
• Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is done; if a man does not live chastely, he must live cautiously.
• Never complain. To complain always brings discredit.
• Do and be seen Doing. Things do not pass for what they are but for what they seem. To be of use and to know how to show yourself of use, is to be twice as useful. What is not seen is as if it was not.
• One has to live with others, and others are mostly ignorant.
• Post Yourself in the Centre of Things. So you feel the pulse of affairs.
• The best remedy for disturbances is to let them run their course, for so they quiet down.
• The attention you pay to yourself you probably owe to others.
• None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others.
• Even the most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel.
• Most go with the crowd, and go because they see others go.
• The greatest foresight consists in determining beforehand the time of trouble.
• Maturity of mind is best shown in slow belief.
• In dealing with men, more than with other things, it is necessary to look within.
• Men must be studied as deeply as books.
• The first great rule of life, according to Epictetus, is to put up with things: he makes that the moiety of wisdom.
• Be careful in Speaking.
• Distinguish the Man of Words from the Man of Deeds.
• One cannot dine off words, which are wind, nor off politeness, which is but polite deceit.
• Without intelligence, either one’s own or another’s, true life is impossible. But many do not know that they do not know, and many think they know when they know nothing.
• A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity.
• To promise everything is to promise nothing: promises are the pitfalls of fools.
• To live, let live. Peacemakers not only live: they rule life. Hear, see, and be silent.
• There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
• Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good. Fools depreciate all men, not recognising the good and selecting the bad.
• The true road to respect is through merit, and if industry accompany merit the path becomes shorter.
• One should speak well and act honourably: the one is an excellence of the head, the other of the heart, and both arise from nobility of soul.
• Speech is easy, action hard. Actions are the stuff of life, words its frippery.
• Attempt easy Tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy.
• For a thing to remain undone nothing more is needed than to think it done. On the other hand, patient industry overcomes impossibilities. Great undertakings are not to be brooded over, lest their difficulty when seen causes despair.
• The wise generally die after they have lost their reason: fools before they have found it.
• To keep a reserve is a great rule for life and for success, especially for those in high place.
• Life should not be all thought: there should be action as well. Very wise folk are generally easily deceived, for while they know out-of-the-way things they do not know the ordinary things of life, which are much more needful.
• Of what use is knowledge if it is not practical, and to know how to live is nowadays the true knowledge.
• Never share the Secrets of your Superiors.
• To know more than is necessary blunts your weapons, for fine points generally bend or break. Common-sense truth is the surest.
• To be well liked one must dress in the skin of the simplest of animals.
• Nothing is easier than to deceive an honest man.
• Original and out-of-the-way Views are signs of superior ability.
• Do Good a little at a time, but often.
• One should never give beyond the possibility of return.
• Arrows pierce the body, insults the soul.
• The Wise do at once what the Fool does at last. Both do the same thing; the only difference lies in the time they do it: the one at the right time, the other at the wrong.
• To know little and yet seek danger is nothing else than to seek ruin.
• Merit is not enough unless supported by grace, which is the sole thing that gives general acceptance, and the most practical means of rule over others.
• He who makes a fool of himself in public will not be regarded as discreet in private life.
• Avoid Notoriety in all Things.
• If the accustomed presence diminishes fame, absence augments it.
• There is great caution needed in helping the drowning without danger to oneself.
• Do not become responsible for all or for every one, otherwise you become a slave and the slave of all.
• Freedom is more precious than any gifts for which you may be tempted to give it up.
• Nothing depreciates a Man more than to show he is a Man like other Men.
• Generally one dare not be liked if one would be respected.
• The greater your exploits the less you need affect them: content yourself with doing, leave the talking to others.
• Noble qualities make noblemen: a single one of them is worth more than a multitude of mediocre ones.
• Always act as if your Acts were seen.
• In one word, be a Saint.
• Virtue is the link of all perfections, the centre of all the felicities.