Baltasar Gracian Quotes
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Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external percepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority.
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The best remedy for disturbances is to let them run their course, for so they quiet down.
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Leave your luck while still winning.
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Keep to yourself the final touches of your art.
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The path to greatness is along with others.
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Know what is evil, no matter how worshipped it may be. Let the man of sense not mistake it, even when clothed in brocade, or at times crowned in gold, because it cannot thereby hide its hypocrisy, for slavery does not lose its infamy, however noble the master.
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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.
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Beauty and folly are generally companions.
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If there is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear, an unhappy state of happiness.
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A wise prince must never take things easy in times of peace.
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The wise person finds enemies more useful than the fool does friends .
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Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
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There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
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Two kinds of people are good at foreseeing danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and the clever people who learn a great deal at the expense of others.
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Keep expectation alive. Keep stirring it up. Let much promise more, and great deeds herald greater.
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Friendship multiplies blessings and...soothes the soul.
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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.
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Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
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Know the great men of your age.
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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.
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Many of the things that bring delight should not be owned. They are more enjoyed if another's, than if yours; the first day they give pleasure to the owner, but in all the rest to the others: what belongs to another rejoices doubly, because it is without the risk of going stale and with the satisfaction of freshness. . . the possession of things not only diminishes their enjoyment, but augments their annoyance, whether shared or not shared.
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Nothing is good for him for whom nothing is bad.
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A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him, than what it has denied.
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One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
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What the multitude says, is so, or soon will be so.
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Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to any one. Even the most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn to lean. There are some that are incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible: They fall to ruin because none dares to extricate them. The highest should have the door open for friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.
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Deceit comes in through the ears, but usually leaves through the eyes.
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Do not make Mistakes about Character. That is the worst and yet easiest error. Better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods. In dealing with men, more than with other things, it is necessary to look within. To know men is different from knowing things. It is profound philosophy to sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character. Men must be studied as deeply as books.
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The greatest fool is he who thinks he is not one and all others are.
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The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
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