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Portrait of Baltasar Gracian

Baltasar Gracian

288 quotes in 879 categories

Baltasar Gracian’s maxims cut straight to human nature. In this compact yet potent set you’ll find the sharp, often paradoxical observations that have guided thinkers for centuries.

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Baltasar Gracián y Morales, better known as Baltasar Gracián, was a Spanish Jesuit priest and Baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragón). His writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

Quick Facts About Baltasar Gracian

Notable works: El criticón

About Baltasar Gracian

Baltasar Gracián y Morales, better known as Baltasar Gracián, was a Spanish Jesuit priest and Baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragón). His writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. He is best known for his book The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), but his novel El Criticón (1651-57) is considered his greatest work.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Baltasar Gracian

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.

Baltasar Gracian

Knowing

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Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.

Baltasar Gracian

Reflection

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Maturity of mind is best shown in slow belief.

Baltasar Gracian

Aging

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Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.

Baltasar Gracian

Gratitude

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Success rarely brings satisfaction.

Baltasar Gracian

Inspirational

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The worthless usually live long.

Baltasar Gracian

Long

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The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious.

Baltasar Gracian

Envied

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Know the great men of your age.

Baltasar Gracian

Age

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It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.

Baltasar Gracian

Awake

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“Freedom is more precious than any gifts for which you may be tempted to give it up.”

Baltasar Gracián

Freedom

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Harness the imagination, for she is the whole of happiness.

Baltasar Gracian

Creativity

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Do not show your wounded finger for everything will knock up against it.

Baltasar Gracian

Finger

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Not he that adorns but he that adores makes a divinity.

Baltasar Gracian

Adore

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When everyone covets something, they are easily annoyed by it.

Baltasar Gracian

Annoyed

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

Baltasar Gracian

Curious

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Tis by no means the least of life's rules: To let things alone.

Baltasar Gracian

Life

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Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.

Baltasar Gracian

Advantage

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Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect.

Baltasar Gracian

Afar

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Many pleasant things are better when they belong to someone else. When things belong to others, we enjoy them twice as much,…

Baltasar Gracian

Belong

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When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was…

Baltasar Gracian

Advice

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The great art of giving consists in this the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it…

Baltasar Gracian

Appreciated

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It takes more to make one sage today than it did to make the seven of Greece. And you need more resources…

Baltasar Gracian

Art

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To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which you have even…

Baltasar Gracian

Business

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Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that…

Baltasar Gracian

Common

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Do not carry a spirit of contradiction, for it is to be freighted with stupidity and with peevishness, and your intelligence should…

Baltasar Gracian

Contradiction

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Honorable beginnings should serve to awaken curiosity, not to heighten people's expectations. We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations,…

Baltasar Gracian

Beginnings

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Know how to keep anticipation alive: always strive to feed it, by letting the much promise more, and the one achievement be…

Baltasar Gracian

Achievement

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Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning. Be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and…

Baltasar Gracian

Affair

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Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the…

Baltasar Gracian

Be careful

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“Look beneath the surface. Things are usually very different from how they initially appeared, and ignorance, which didn't look beneath the surface,…

Baltasar Gracián

Appearance

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“Do not live by certain fixed rules, except those that relate to the cardinal virtues. Nor let your will subscribe fixed conditions,…

Baltasar Gracián

Water

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Take care to make things turn out well. Some people scruple more over pointing things in the right direction than over successfully…

Baltasar Gracian

Care

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Many of the things that bring delight should not be owned. They are more enjoyed if another's, than if yours; the first…

Baltasar Gracian

Annoyance

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“Recognize things when they are at their best, in their season, and know how to enjoy them then. The works of nature…

Baltasar Gracián

Art

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“Nature and art: The material and the workmanship. There is no beauty unaided, no excellence that does not sink to the barbarous,…

Baltasar Gracián

Art

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“Never exaggerate. It is a matter of great importance to forego superlatives, in part to avoid offending the truth, and in part…

Baltasar Gracián

Exaggerate

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“Harness the imagination: Sometimes curbing her, sometimes giving her rein, for she is the whole of happiness. She sets to rights even…

Baltasar Gracián

Happiness

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“41 Never exaggerate. It isn’t wise to use superlatives. They offend the truth and cast doubt on your judgment. By exaggerating, you…

Baltasar Gracián

Exaggerate

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Do not make Mistakes about Character. That is the worst and yet easiest error. Better be cheated in the price than in…

Baltasar Gracian

Book

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“Say farewell to luck when winning. It is the way of the gamblers of reputation. Quite as important as a gallant advance…

Baltasar Gracián

Fortune

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Baltasar Gracian by topic

Inspirational (49) Love (26) Wisdom (24) Friendship (19) Wise (18) Time (18) Truth (17) Men (15) Should (14) Ifs (14) Life (13) Friend (13) Knowledge (11) Advice (11) People (10) Needs (9) Knows (9) Greatness (9) Fool (9) Doe (9) Art (9) Nature (8) May (8)