Baltasar Gracian Quotes

"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."

"A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity."

"A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends."

"Know or listen to those who know."

"A beautiful woman should break her mirror early."

"Respect yourself if you would have others respect you."

"The wise does at once what the fool does at last."

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

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

"Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose."

"The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause."

"Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching."

"Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong."

"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."

"Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do."

"Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone."

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

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

"Never have a companion that casts you in the shade."

"Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favors by the shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders."

"Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil."

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

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

"One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity."

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

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

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

"The things we remember best are those better forgotten."

"He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave."

"Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check."