Baltasar Gracián

We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.

Know how to choose. Most things in life depend on it. You need good taste and an upright judgement; intelligence and application are not enough. There is no perfection without discernment and selection.

There is no wilderness like a life without friends.

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.

Not all were born into a period worthy of them.

Be open to suggestion, no one is so perfect that they may not need advice from time to time.

Avoid outshining the master. All superiority is odious, but the superiority of a subject over his prince is not only stupid, it is fatal. This is a lesson that the stars in the sky teach us - they may be related to the sun, and just as brilliant, but they never appear in her company.

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

We have eyelids but not earlids, for the ears are the portals of learning, and Nature wanted to keep them wide open.

At 20 a man is a peacock, at 30 a lion, at 40 a camel, at 50 a serpent, at 60 a dog, at 70 an ape, and at 80 nothing.

Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.

It requires as much caution to tell the truth as to conceal it.

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.

Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool. The faultier a person's judgement the firmer their convictions.

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

The truths that matter most to us come always half spoken.

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

When desire dies, fear is born.

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

Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can’t be good, be careful.

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

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

Knowledge without courage is sterile.

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 a good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.

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

The great art of giving consists in this the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.

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

Oh life, you should never had begun, but since you did, you should never end.

Life is a warfare against the malice of others.