Baltasar Gracian famous quotes

Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Dream #Long #Way

Know or listen to those who know.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Motivational #Knowledge #Belief

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Friendship #Relationship #Real Friends

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

#Inspirational #Wise #Knowledge

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

#Truth #Integrity #Lying

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

#Inspirational #Life #Doors

Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Wise #Wisdom #Mad

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

#Lying #Sleep #Emotion

Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Respect #Self Esteem #Ethics

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Wisdom #Courage #Fruit

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Happiness #Happy #Wish

Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Taken #Justice #Opponents

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Beauty #Beautiful #Mirrors

Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Light #Views #Talent

Know how to ask. There is nothing more difficult for some people, nor for others, easier.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Wisdom #People #Easier

Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Add #Littles #Said

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

#Excellence #Excellent #Teach

Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Appearance #Jackets #Judged

He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Water #Thirst #Satisfied

When desire dies, fear is born.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Anxiety #Desire #Born

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

#Reputation

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

#Writing #Use #Synonym

Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Quitting #Gamer #All The Best

Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Confidence #Fall #Achievement

There is no wilderness like a life without friends; friendship multiplies blessings and minimizes misfortunes; it is a unique remedy against adversity, and it soothes the soul.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Adversity #Blessing #Unique

We have more days to live through than pleasures. Be slow in enjoyment, quick at work, for men see work ended with pleasure, pleasure ended with regret.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Regret #Men #Pleasure

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

#Friends #Teacher #Pleasure

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

#Wise #Understanding #Sometimes

Begin with another's to end with your own.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Creativity #Originality #Ends

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

#Heart #Ambition #Fame

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

#Justice #Social Justice #Advantage

He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Solitude #Sage #Beast

Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Gratitude #Memories #Good Memories

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Inspirational #Motivational #Suicide

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

#Order #Envy #May

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

#Motivational #Wise #Wisdom

A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Truth #Men #Never Forget

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Anger #Temper

It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Business #Good Luck #Skills

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

#Sports #Hero #Heroic

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

#Jealousy #Winning #Envy

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 good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Friendship #Thankful #Real

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Wisdom #War #Anger

Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Giving #Enemy #Gains

He who laughs at everything is as big a fool as he who weeps at everything.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Laughter #Laughing #Fool

He who puts off nothing till tomorrow has done a great deal.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Procrastination #Done #Tomorrow

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

#Human Nature #Multitudes

Have Friends. 'Tis a second existence.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Real #Real Friends #Existence

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

#Real #Real Friends #Important

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

#Mean

Truth always lags behind, limping along on the arm of Time.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Time #Truth #Lag

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

#Dignity #Offensive #Attraction

Knowledge and courage take turns at greatness.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Knowledge #Greatness #Turns

The worthless usually live long.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Long #Worthless #Values

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

#Friendship #Wise #Men

A gilded No is more satisfactory than a dry Yes.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Dry

The path to greatness is along with others.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Teamwork #Greatness #Path

Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#School #Reflection #Self

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

#Writing #Letters #Chance

You can cultivate taste, as you can the intellect. Full understanding whets the appetite and desire, and, later, sharpens the enjoyment of possession.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Character #Understanding #Desire

The greatest wisdom often consist in ignorance.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Wise #Learning #Ignorance

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

#Sweet #Taken #Smell

Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Lying #Live For Today #Covering

Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#What Matters #People #Common

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

#Life #Mind #Brain

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

#Dog #Time #Men

Knowledge without wisdom is double folly.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Wisdom #Folly

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

#Fall #Giving #Weight

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

#Future #Deeds #Tomorrow

Beauty and folly are generally companions.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Beauty #Companion #Folly

Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Art #Giving #Recourse

To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Cost #Littles #Helping

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

#Business #Reality #Ease

One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Opportunity #Arriving

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Self Improvement #Obscure #Strive

Evil report carries further than any applause.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Evil #Applause

Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Office #Political #Dignity

Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Patience #Retiring

It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Too Much #Would Be #Littles

Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
-- Baltasar Gracian

#Wise #Fashion #Ignorance

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

#Reality #Secret #Slave