Quotes from Baltasar Gracian

All men are idolators, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure.

Maturity is the slowness in which a man believes.

Know the great men of your age.

Even monarchs have need of authors, and fear their pens more than ugly women the painter's pencil.

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.

To be at ease is better than to be at business.

Work is the price which is paid for reputation.

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

It is a novel kind of supremacy, the best that life can offer, to have as servants by skill those who by nature are our masters.

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

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

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

Nature often lets us down when we most need her; let us turn to art.

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

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

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.

Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.

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

Chance has something to say, even how to write a good letter.

Never participate in the secrets of those above you; you think you share the fruit, and you share the stones - the confidence of a prince is not a grant, but a tax

He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead for she is wont to favor the bold.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

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.

Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.