Baltasar Gracián Quotes

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

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

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.

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

Be first the master of yourself

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.

Knowledge without courage is sterile.

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.

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.

One should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a Paradise or an Inferno.

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

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

Respect yourself is you would have others respect you.

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

Rivalry discovers that courtesy overlooks.

Cautious silence is the refuge of good sense

For the advice in a joke is sometimes more useful than the most serious teaching.

Memory is not only unruly, leaving us in the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well, putting its nose into places where it is not wanted.

Never compete with someone who has nothing to lose.

Deal with people from whom you can learn

Though such authority and respect shouldn't be handed to all and sundry, have in caution's innermost room a confidant, a faithful mirror, whose correction you value when disillusionment is necessary.

Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself.

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