Top 200 Baltasar Gracián Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Do not make mistakes about character. Better be cheated in the price than in the quality of goods.”

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

53. “Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.”

— Baltasar Gracián

54. “A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.”

— Baltasar Gracián

55. “Maturity of mind is best shown in slow belief.”

— Baltasar Gracián

56. “Never risk your reputation on a single shot, for if you miss the loss is irreparable.”

— Baltasar Gracián

57. “Attain and maintain a reputation, for it is the usufruct of fame. A stiff climb, for it is the issue of excellence, as rare as mediocrity is common.”

— Baltasar Gracián

58. “There is no need to show your ability before everyone.”

— Baltasar Gracián

59. “Friends provoked become the bitterest of enemies.”

— Baltasar Gracián

60. “Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.”

— Baltasar Gracián

61. “Wisdom is immortal. She can wait forever, but you cannot.”

— Baltasar Gracián

62. “When desire dies, fear is born.”

— Baltasar Gracián

63. “Knowledge without courage is sterile.”

— Baltasar Gracián

64. “Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture.”

— Baltasar Gracián

65. “A gilded No is more satisfactory than a dry Yes.”

— Baltasar Gracián

66. “Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.”

— Baltasar Gracián

67. “A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.”

— Baltasar Gracián

68. “Always act as if you were seen.”

— Baltasar Gracián

69. “Excellence resides in quality, not in quantity. The best is always few and rare; much lowers value.”

— Baltasar Gracián

70. “The crutch of Time accomplishes more than the club of Hercules.”

— Baltasar Gracián

71. “Keep to yourself the final touches of your art.”

— Baltasar Gracián

72. “The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected.”

— Baltasar Gracián

73. “Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls with double force on him that stands alone.”

— Baltasar Gracián

74. “Do pleasant things yourself, but unpleasant things through others.”

— Baltasar Gracián

75. “Hope is a great falsifier of truth.”

— Baltasar Gracián

76. “Nothing is good for him for whom nothing is bad.”

— Baltasar Gracián

77. “To keep is more important than to make friends.”

— Baltasar Gracián

78. “None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others.”

— Baltasar Gracián

79. “The greatest service you can render someone else is helping him help himself.”

— Baltasar Gracián

80. “Not he that adorns but he that adores makes a divinity.”

— Baltasar Gracián

81. “The greatest wisdom often consist in ignorance.”

— Baltasar Gracián

82. “He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other’s slave.”

— Baltasar Gracián

83. “To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.”

— Baltasar Gracián

84. “Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.”

— Baltasar Gracián

85. “There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness.”

— Baltasar Gracián

86. “I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.”

— Baltasar Gracián

87. “An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of cleverness.”

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

89. “Politeness is the chief sign of culture.”

— Baltasar Gracián

90. “Knowledge and courage take turns at greatness.”

— Baltasar Gracián

91. “Life is a warfare against the malice of others.”

— Baltasar Gracián

92. “The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.”

— Baltasar Gracián

93. “Treat your enemies with courtesy, and you’ll see how valuable it really is. It costs little but pays a nice dividend: those who honor are honored. Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing.”

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

97. “The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.”

— Baltasar Gracián

98. “Character and intelligence are the poles you talent spins on, displaying your gifts.”

— Baltasar Gracián

99. “You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century.”

— Baltasar Gracián

100. “Know the great men of your age.”

— Baltasar Gracián