Baltasar Gracian
Baltasar Gracian
Baltasar Gracián y Morales, SJ, formerly Anglicized as Baltazar Gracian, was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud. His writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth8 January 1601
CountrySpain
giving people want
You have to appear wiser and more prudent than is required by the people you are dealing with if you want to give a high opinion of yourself.
giving risk delight
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.
thinking giving yes-and-no
Yes and no are soon said, but give much to think over.
art giving recourse
Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.
giving enemy gains
Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.
fall giving woe
Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls with double force on him that stands alone.
door greater invariably lesser open spanish-philosopher
Never open the door to the lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
argument opponent side taken wrong
Don't take the wrong side in an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side
man spanish-philosopher
At 20 a man is a peacock, at 30 a lion, at 40 a camel, at 50 a serpent, at 60 a dog, at 70 an ape, and at 80 nothing.
harm spirit weak
A weak spirit does more harm than a weak body.
forty judgment thirty twenty
At twenty the will rules, At thirty the intellect, At forty the judgment
destroys integrity lie reputation single
A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity
fools half laughs
One half the world laughs at the other, and fools are they all
against cannot carry genius intelligence mark mental plot spirit stupidity though
Do not carry a spirit of contradiction, for it is to be freighted with stupidity and with peevishness, and your intelligence should plot against it; though it may well be the mark of mental genius to see objection, a wrangler about everything cannot