Quotes by Baltasar Gracian

About Baltasar Gracian:

Baltasar Gracián y Morales was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragon). His writings were lauded by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The most and best of us depend on others; we have to live either among friends or among enemies.

Baltasar Gracian

Rivalry discovers that courtesy overlooks.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

Harness the imagination: Sometimes curbing her, sometimes giving her rein, for she is the whole of happiness. She sets to rights even the understanding. She sinks to tyranny, not satisfied with mere faith, but demanding works. Thus she becomes the mi...

Baltasar Gracian

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.

Baltasar Gracian

Say farewell to luck when winning. It is the way of the gamblers of reputation. Quite as important as a gallant advance is a well-planned retreat. Lock up your winnings when they are enough, or when great. Continuous luck is always suspect; more secu...

Baltasar Gracian

There are rules to luck, not everything is chance for the wise; luck can be helped by skill.

Baltasar Gracian

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.

Baltasar Gracian

Nature and art: The material and the workmanship. There is no beauty unaided, no excellence that does not sink to the barbarous, unless saved by art: It redeems the bad and perfects the good. Because nature commonly forsakes us at her best, take refu...

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

Be first the master of yourself

Baltasar Gracian

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.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

The things we remember best are those better forgotten.

Baltasar Gracian

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

Baltasar Gracian

Author Bio

  • NameBaltasar Gracian
  • DescriptionSpanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher
  • AliasesBalthasar Gracian
  • BornJanuary 8, 1601
  • DiedDecember 6, 1658
  • CountrySpain
  • ProfessionWriter; Philosopher