Baltasar Gracian Quotes
Baltasar Gracian Quotes
- 1
A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens a truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself.
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- 2
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
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- 3
A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
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- 4
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
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- 5
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
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- 6
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
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- 7
Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
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- 8
Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.
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- 9
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.
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- 10
At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.
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- 11
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.
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- 12
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
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- 13
Begin with another's to end with your own.
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- 14
Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
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- 15
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.
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- 16
Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
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- 17
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.
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- 18
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
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- 19
Evil report carries further than any applause.
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- 20
Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave.
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- 21
Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favors by the shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders.
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- 22
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
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- 23
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
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- 24
Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.
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- 25
He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
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- 26
He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.
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- 27
He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
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- 28
Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
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- 29
Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.
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- 30
I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.
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- 31
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
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- 32
It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.
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- 33
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
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- 34
It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.
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- 35
Know or listen to those who know.
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- 36
Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.
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- 37
Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.
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- 38
Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
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- 39
Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
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- 40
Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.
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- 41
Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.
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- 42
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
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- 43
Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
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- 44
Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
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- 45
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
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- 46
Never open the door to the lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
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- 47
One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
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- 48
Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
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- 49
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
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- 50
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
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- 51
The things we remember best are those better forgotten.
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- 52
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
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- 53
There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
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- 54
There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
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- 55
Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
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- 56
Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
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- 57
To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.
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- 58
To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
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- 59
To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.
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- 60
True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island..to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
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- 61
True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
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- 62
We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.
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- 63
When desire dies, fear is born.
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- 64
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
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- 65
Work is the price which is paid for reputation.
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