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
perfect afar made
Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect.
helping-others perspective matter
Help others solve their problems; standing farther away, you can often see matters more clearly than they do. . . The greatest service you can render someone else is helping him or her help themselves.
knowing important
Knowing how to keep a friend is more important than gaining a new one.
loss missing risk
Never risk your reputation on a single shot, for if you miss the loss is irreparable.
littles mystery veneration
Mix a little mystery with everything, for mystery arouses veneration.
inspirational pleasing-others ruling
Be known for pleasing others, especially if you govern them. Ruling other has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else.
imitation equal predecessors
To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
truth minorities truth-is
Truth is for the minority.
integrity self judgment
Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external percepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority.
fashion independent vote
You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century.
telling-the-truth caution
It requires as much caution to tell the truth as to conceal it.
wise respect men
Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.
lying exaggeration-is branches
Exaggeration is a branch of lying.
favors sides should
He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold.