Baltasar Gracián Quotes

The more pains you take with a thing, the more should you conceal them, so that it may appear to arise spontaneously from your own natural character.

Be first the master of yourself

The most and best of us depend on others; we have to live either among friends or among enemies.

Many people spend time studying the properties of animals or herbs; how much more important it would be to study those of people, with whom we must live or die!

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.

Everything has its time; even what's outstanding is subject to changing taste.

Some people belong entirely to others ... They have not a day, not an hour to call their own, so completely do they give themselves to others. This is true even in matters of understanding. Some people know everything for others and nothing for themselves.

Because the ignorant do not know themselves, they never know for what they are lacking. Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.

Más preciosa es la libertad que la dádiva, porque se pierde.

This is the single advantage of power, that it enables the holder to do more good.

Quanto que el no creer es indicio del mentir; porque el mentiroso tiene dos males, que ni cree ni es creído.

Avoid outshining the master. All superiority is odious, but the superiority of a subject over his prince is not only stupid, it is fatal. This is a lesson that the stars in the sky teach us - they may be related to the sun, and just as brilliant, but they never appear in her company.

Otros todos son ajenos, que la necedad siempre va por demasías, y aquí infeliz: no tienen día, ni aun hora suya, con tal exceso de ajenos, que alguno fue llamado “el de todos”. Aun en el entendimiento, que para todos saben y para sí ignoran.

You will never belong entirely to someone else nor they to you. Neither ties of blood, nor friendship, nor the most pressing obligation are sufficient for this, for there's a big difference between opening your heart and surrendering your will. Even the greatest intimacy has its limits, and the laws of courtesy are not offended by this. A friend always keeps some secret to himself and a son conceals something from his father...

Be extraordinary in your excellence, if you like, but be ordinary in your display of it.