Baltasar Gracian Quotes - Page 7

Cultivate those who can teach you.

Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.

Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages.

When everyone covets something, they are easily annoyed by it.

Maturity of mind is best shown in slow belief.

We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.

Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand.

Trust your heart, especially when it is a strong one.

Character and intelligence are the poles you talent spins on, displaying your gifts.

Yes and no are soon said, but give much to think over.

Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.

Harness the imagination, for she is the whole of happiness.

Fortune soon tires of carrying anyone long on her shoulders.

If to talk to oneself when alone is folly, it must be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others.

Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.

The passions are the humors of the mind, and the least excess sickens our judgment. If the disease spreads to the mouth, your reputation will be in danger.

Display startling novelty-rise afresh like the sun every day. Change too the scene on which you shine, so that you rloss may be felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins applause in the new.

He who laughs at everything is as big a fool as he who weeps at everything.

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

Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.

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

What is not seen is as if it was not. Even the Right does not receive proper consideration if it does not seem right.

Many of the things that bring delight should not be owned. They are more enjoyed if another's, than if yours; the first day they give pleasure to the owner, but in all the rest to the others: what belongs to another rejoices doubly, because it is without the risk of going stale and with the satisfaction of freshness. . . the possession of things not only diminishes their enjoyment, but augments their annoyance, whether shared or not shared.

To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.

Admiration is the basis of ignorance.