Baltasar Gracian Quotes - Page 3

Take care to make things turn out well. Some people scruple more over pointing things in the right direction than over successfully reaching their goals. The disgrace of failure outweighs the diligence they showed. A winner is never asked for explanations.

Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.

To overvalue something is a form of lying.

He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.

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.

The liar suffers twice: he neither believes nor is believed.

Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

The wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increases impatience of folly.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

The great art of giving consists in this the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.

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.

Excellence resides in quality, not in quantity. The best is always few and rare; much lowers value.

The things we remember best are those better forgotten.

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.

There are friendships merely for pleasure, some for the exchange of ideas. Rarest are those friends of one's inmost self.

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.

You can cultivate taste, as you can the intellect. Full understanding whets the appetite and desire, and, later, sharpens the enjoyment of possession.

Treat your enemies with courtesy, and you'll see how valuable it really is. It costs little but pays a nice dividend: those who honor are honored. Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing.

Words are feminine; deeds are masculine.

There are rules to luck, not everything is chance for the wise; luck can be helped by skill.

Know or listen to those who know.

Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.

Politeness is the chief sign of culture.