Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
– Baltasar Gracian
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
– Baltasar Gracian
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
– Baltasar Gracian
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
– Baltasar Gracian
Don’t take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
– Baltasar Gracian
Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.
– Baltasar Gracian
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
– Baltasar Gracian
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
– Baltasar Gracian
Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
– Baltasar Gracian
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.
– Baltasar Gracian
Complaints will always discredit you.
– Baltasar Gracian
Honorable beginnings should serve to awaken curiosity, not to heighten people’s expectations. We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations, and something turns out better than we thought it would.
– Baltasar Gracian
Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing.
– Baltasar Gracian
Knowing how to keep a friend is more important than gaining a new one.
– Baltasar Gracian
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
– Baltasar Gracian
There is no wilderness like a life without friends.
– Baltasar Gracian
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
– Baltasar Gracian
It requires as much caution to tell the truth as to conceal it.
– Baltasar Gracian
Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
– Baltasar Gracian
Two kinds of people are good at foreseeing danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and the clever people who learn a great deal at the expense of others.
– Baltasar Gracian
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 a good fortune;to keep him is a blessing.
– Baltasar Gracian
When desire dies, fear is born.
– Baltasar Gracian
Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
– Baltasar Gracian
Do not enter where too much is anticipated. It is the misfortune of the over-celebrated that they cannot measure up to excessive expectations. The actual can never attain the imagined: for to think perfection is easy, but to embody it is most difficult. The imagination weds the wish, and together they always conjure up more than reality can furnish. For however great may be a person’s virtues, the will never measure up to what was imagined. When people see themselves cheated in their extravagant anticipations, they turn more quickly to disparagement than to praise. Hope is a great falsifier of the truth; the the intelligence put her right by seeing to it that the fruit is superior to its appetite. You will make a better exit when the actual transcends the imagined, and is more than was expected.
– Baltasar Gracian
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
– Baltasar Gracian
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
– Baltasar Gracian
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
– Baltasar Gracian
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
– Baltasar Gracian
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
– Baltasar Gracian
Politeness is the chief sign of culture.
– Baltasar Gracian
Never compete with someone who has nothing to lose.
– Baltasar Gracian
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
– Baltasar Gracian