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Baltasar Gracián



  • Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand.



  • Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.



  • Surfeits of happiness are fatal.



  • A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.



  • The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected.



  • Superiority is always detested.



  • Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may no fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.



  • The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.



  • Friends are a second existence.



  • A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance.



  • Nothing arouses ambition so much as the trumpet clang of another's fame.



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



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



  • A sage has one advantage; he is immortal. If this is not his century, many others will be.



  • It is great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck, even while waiting for it.



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



  • Good things, when short, are twice as good.



  • A wise gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.



  • There is no wilderness like a life without friends; friendship multiplies blessing and minimizes misfortunes; it is a unique remedy against adversity, and it soothes the soul.



  • If you are wise, live as you can; if you cannot, live as you would.



  • Words are feminine; deeds are masculine.



  • Even knowledge has to be in fashion and where it is not it is wise to affect ignorance.



  • 'No' and 'Yes' are words quickly said, but they need a great amount of thought before you utter them.



  • At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty, nothing at all.



  • Do not show your wounded finger, for everything will knock up against it.



  • Begin with another's to end with your own.



  • Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.



  • He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold.



  • A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him, than what it has denied.



  • The greatest wisdom often consists in ignorance.



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



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