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Quotes from The Art of Worldly Wisdom — Baltasar Gracián

1601–1658 Spain

← All quotes by Baltasar Gracián

29 quotes

Trust the friends of today as though they will be the enemies of tomorrow.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

To hear a prince's secrets is not a privilege but a burden. Many smash the mirror that reminds them of their ugliness. They cannot stand to see those who saw them.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Virtue alone is for real; all else is sham. Talent and greatness depend on virtue, not on fortune. Only virtue is sufficient unto herself. She makes us love the living and remember the dead.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Freedom is more precious than the gift that makes us lose it.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Readiness is the mother of luck.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Don't live by generalities, unless it be to act virtuously, and don't ask desire to follow precise laws, for you will have to drink tomorrow from the water you scorn today.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

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.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

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

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

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. This rule does not hold true for bad things: when an evil has been exaggerated, its reality makes people applaud. What was feared as ruinous comes to seem tolerable.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Baltasar Gracián (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.