Gracian Quotes & Sayings

Be a combination of a dove and the serpent; not a monster, but a prodigy. — Baltasar Gracian

A man is judged by his friends, for the wise and the foolish have never agreed. — Baltasar Gracian

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. — Baltasar Gracian

If there is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear, an unhappy state of happiness. — Baltasar Gracian

Life is a warfare against the malice of others. — Baltasar Gracian

Know how to play the card of contempt. It is the most politic kind of revenge. For there are many of whom we should have known nothing if their distinguished opponents had taken no notice of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness. — Baltasar Gracian

Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste. — Baltasar Gracian

Nothing arouses ambition so much in the heart as the trumpet-clang of another's fame. — Baltasar Gracian

All victories breed, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal. — Baltasar Gracian

Take care to make things turn out well. Some people scruple more over pointing things in the right direction than over successfully reaching their goals. The disgrace of failure outweighs the diligence they showed. A winner is never asked for explanations. — Baltasar Gracian

Many pleasant things are better when they belong to someone else ... When things belong to others, we enjoy them twice as much, without the risk of losing them, and with the pleasure of novelty. — Baltasar Gracian

True friendshipmultiplies 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

What is not seen is as if it was not. Even the Right does not receive proper consideration if it does not seem right. — Baltasar Gracian

Harness the imagination: Sometimes curbing her, sometimes giving her rein, for she is the whole of happiness. She sets to rights even the understanding. She sinks to tyranny, not satisfied with mere faith, but demanding works. Thus she becomes the mistress of life itself. She does so with pleasure or with pain, according to the nonsense presented. She makes people contented or discontented with themselves. By dangling before some nothing but the specter of their eternal suffering, she becomes the scourge of these fools. To others she shows nothing but fortune and romance, while merrily laughing. Of all this she is capable if not held in check by the wisest of wills. — Baltasar Gracian

Be known for pleasing others, especially if you govern them. Ruling other has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else. — Baltasar Gracian

Truth is for the minority. — Baltasar Gracian

Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check. — Baltasar Gracian

There is no better remedy for disorder than to let it runs its course; it will then disappear on its own. — Baltasar Gracian

The truths that matter most to us come always half spoken. — Baltasar Gracian

What the multitude says, is so, or soon will be so. — Baltasar Gracian

It is impossible to live without brains, either one's own or borrowed. — Baltasar Gracian

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. — Baltasar Gracian

The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause. — Baltasar Gracian

Evil report carries further than any applause. — Baltasar Gracian

When you find Fortune favorable, stride boldly forward, for she favors the bold, and being a woman, the young. — Baltasar Gracian

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! — Baltasar Gracian

The wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increases impatience of folly. — Baltasar Gracian

Knowing how to keep a friend is more important than gaining a new one. — Baltasar Gracian

Self knowledge is the beginning of self improvement. — Baltasar Gracian

Hope is a great falsifier of truth. — Baltasar Gracian

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. — Baltasar Gracian

An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of cleverness. — Baltasar Gracian

Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding; better those who push forward, who employ their enterprise, who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck, and to effectively gain her favor. — Baltasar Gracian

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it. — Baltasar Gracian

Some marry the first information they receive, and turn what comes later into their concubine. Since deceit is always first to arrive, there is no room left for truth. — Baltasar Gracian

Memory is not only unruly, leaving us in the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well, putting its nose into places where it is not wanted. — Baltasar Gracian

Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand. — Baltasar Gracian

Mix a little mystery with everything, for mystery arouses veneration. — Baltasar Gracian

Work is the price which is paid for reputation. — Baltasar Gracian

Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies. — Baltasar Gracian

There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing. — Baltasar Gracian

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard. — Baltasar Gracian

Know or listen to those who know. — Baltasar Gracian

A person of your century: Great persons are of their time. Not all were born into a period worthy of them, and many so born failed to benefit by it. Some merited a better century, for all that is good does not always triumph. Fashions have their periods and even the greatest virtues, their styles. But the philosopher, being ageless, has one advantage: Should this not prove the right century, many to follow will. — Baltasar Gracian

Knowledge without wisdom is double folly. — Baltasar Gracian

You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century. — Baltasar Gracian

Everyone could have been pre-eminent at something, if they had been aware of their best quality. — Baltasar Gracian

Know the great men of your age. — Baltasar Gracian

Know how to choose. Most things in life depend on it. You need good taste and an upright judgement; intelligence and application are not enough. There is no perfection without discernment and selection. — Baltasar Gracian

To keep is more important than to make friends. — Baltasar Gracian

The wise persono would rather see others needing him than thanking him. — 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

Rate the intensive above the extensive. The perfect does not lie in quantity, but in quality. — Baltasar Gracian

Attain and maintain a reputation, for it is the usufruct of fame. A stiff climb, for it is the issue of excellence, as rare as mediocrity is common. — Baltasar Gracian

Superiority is always detested. — Baltasar Gracian

The sage never seems to know his own merits, for only by not noticing them can you call others' attention to them. — Baltasar Gracian

Never compete with someone who has nothing to lose. — Baltasar Gracian

One deceit needs many others, and so the whole house is built in the air and must soon come to the ground — Baltasar Gracian

He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave. — Baltasar Gracian

Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one. — Baltasar Gracian

A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity. — Baltasar Gracian

Not he that adorns but he that adores makes a divinity. — Baltasar Gracian

A wise prince must never take things easy in times of peace. — Baltasar Gracian

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. — Baltasar Gracian

It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you. — Baltasar Gracian

The hossanas of the multitude can never bring satisfaction to the discerning. Yet there exist those chamaleons of popularity who find their joy, not in the sweet breath of Apollo, but in the smell of the crowd. And not in mind: Do not be taken in by what are miracles to the populace, for the ignorant do not rise above marveling. Thus the stupidity of a crowd is lost in admiration, even as the brain of an individual uncovers the trick. — Baltasar Gracian

The wise does at once what the fool does at last. — Baltasar Gracian

Exaggeration is a branch of lying. — Baltasar Gracian

Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls with double force on him that stands alone. — Baltasar Gracian

If you cannot make knowledge your servant, make it your friend. — Baltasar Gracian

God Himself chasteneth not with a rod but with time. — Baltasar Gracian

For a thing to remain undone nothing more is needed than to think of it done. — Baltasar Gracian

Excellence resides in quality, not in quantity. The best is always few and rare; much lowers value. — Baltasar Gracian

Tis much to gain universal admiration; more, universal love. — Baltasar Gracian

Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains. — Baltasar Gracian

Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that is to be a slave, a slave to every man Above all, keep yourself free of commitments and obligations - they are the device of another to get you into his power — Baltasar Gracian

Don't express your ideas too clearly. Most people think little of what they understand, and venerate what they do not. — Baltasar Gracian

Man's life is militia against man's malice. — Baltasar Gracian

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. — Baltasar Gracian

Things have their time, even eminence bows to timeliness. — Baltasar Gracian

To overvalue something is a form of lying. — Baltasar Gracian

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. — Baltasar Gracian

The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected. — Baltasar Gracian

There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled. — Baltasar Gracian

Chance has something to say in everything, even how to write a good letter — Baltasar Gracian

It is a great deed to leave nothing for tomorrow. — Baltasar Gracian

The right kind of leisure is better than the wrong kind of work. — Baltasar Gracian

It takes more to make one sage today than it did to make the seven of Greece. And you need more resources to deal with a single person these days than with an entire nation in times past. — Baltasar Gracian

Yes and no are soon said, but give much to think over. — Baltasar Gracian

It is more offensive to outshine in dignity than in personal attractions. — Baltasar Gracian

Not all were born into a period worthy of them. — Baltasar Gracian

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. — Baltasar Gracian

When desire dies,fear is born — Baltasar Gracian

Audacious persons hope to make themselves eternally famous by setting fire to one of the wonders of the world and of the ages. The art of reproving scandal is to take no notice of it, to combat it damages our own case; even if credited it causes discredit, and is a source of satisfaction to our opponent, for this shadow of a stain dulls the lustre of our fame even if it cannot altogether deaden it. — Baltasar Gracian

Deceit comes in through the ears, but usually leaves through the eyes. — Baltasar Gracian

The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good. — Baltasar Gracian

If to talk to oneself when alone is folly, it must be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others. — Baltasar Gracian

Passion colors all that it touches in its own hues. — Baltasar Gracian

Nothing is good for him for whom nothing is bad. — Baltasar Gracian