Baltasar Gracian Quotes

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Baltasar Gracian

Profession : Philosopher

Birth : January 8, 1601

Evil report carries further than any applause.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.

Baltasar Gracian

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

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

Baltasar Gracian

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

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

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.

Baltasar Gracian

The things we remember best are those better forgotten.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.

Baltasar Gracian

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

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

Baltasar Gracian

When desire dies, fear is born.

Baltasar Gracian

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