A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens a truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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

Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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 Quote

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 Quote

Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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

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 Quote

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.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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

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

Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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

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

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

The things we remember best are those better forgotten.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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

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

To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.
- Baltasar Gracian Quote

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

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