Top 200 Baltasar Gracián Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “The wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increases impatience of folly.”

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

153. “Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.”

— Baltasar Gracián

154. “It is more offensive to outshine in dignity than in personal attractions.”

— Baltasar Gracián

155. “To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.”

— Baltasar Gracián

156. “Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it.”

— Baltasar Gracián

157. “Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can’t be good, be careful.”

— Baltasar Gracián

158. “Truth is for the minority.”

— Baltasar Gracián

159. “The wise person finds enemies more useful than the fool does friends .”

— Baltasar Gracián

160. “Deceit comes in through the ears, but usually leaves through the eyes.”

— Baltasar Gracián

161. “If to talk to oneself when alone is folly, it must be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others.”

— Baltasar Gracián

162. “Many get the repute of being witty but thereby lose the credit of being sensible. Jest has its little hour, seriousness should have all the rest.”

— Baltasar Gracián

163. “Fortune soon tires of carrying anyone long on her shoulders.”

— Baltasar Gracián

164. “All victories breed, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal.”

— Baltasar Gracián

165. “Beauty and folly are generally companions.”

— Baltasar Gracián

166. “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 Gracián

167. “It is a great deed to leave nothing for tomorrow.”

— Baltasar Gracián

168. “Honorable beginnings should serve to awaken curiosity, not to heighten people’s expectations. We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations, and something turns out better than we thought it would.”

— Baltasar Gracián

169. “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.”

— Baltasar Gracián

170. “Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages.”

— Baltasar Gracián

171. “Tis by no means the least of life’s rules: To let things alone.”

— Baltasar Gracián

172. “Superiority is always detested.”

— Baltasar Gracián

173. “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.”

— Baltasar Gracián

174. “Peacemakers not only live, they rule life.”

— Baltasar Gracián

175. “Begin with another’s to end with your own.”

— Baltasar Gracián

176. “No one demands more caution than a spy, and when someone has the skeleton key to minds, counter him by leaving the key of caution inside, on the other side of the keyhole.”

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

178. “Maturity is the slowness in which a man believes.”

— Baltasar Gracián

179. “You should avoid making yourself too clear even in your explanations.”

— Baltasar Gracián

180. “Harness the imagination, for she is the whole of happiness.”

— Baltasar Gracián

181. “The worthless usually live long.”

— Baltasar Gracián

182. “The passions are the humors of the mind, and the least excess sickens our judgment. If the disease spreads to the mouth, your reputation will be in danger.”

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

184. “One who was adored by all in prosperity is abhorred by all in adversity.”

— Baltasar Gracián

185. “The truest wild beasts live in the most populous places.”

— Baltasar Gracián

186. “Chance has something to say in everything, even how to write a good letter.”

— Baltasar Gracián

187. “The best remedy for disturbances is to let them run their course, for so they quiet down.”

— Baltasar Gracián

188. “The happy are an exception who enjoy innocently their simple happiness.”

— Baltasar Gracián

189. “To be at ease is better than to be at business.”

— Baltasar Gracián

190. “Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.”

— Baltasar Gracián

191. “Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand.”

— Baltasar Gracián

192. “Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction.”

— Baltasar Gracián

193. “Know how to choose well. Most of life depends thereon. It needs good taste and correct judgment, for which neither intellect nor study suffices.”

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Baltasar Gracián

195. “It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.”

— Baltasar Gracián

196. “It takes more to make one sage today than it did to make the seven of Greece. And you need more resources to deal with a single person these days than with an entire nation in times past.”

— Baltasar Gracián

197. “Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool. The faultier a person’s judgement the firmer their convictions.”

— Baltasar Gracián

198. “He who laughs at everything is as big a fool as he who weeps at everything.”

— Baltasar Gracián

199. “Few are the friends of a mans self, most those of his circumstances.”

— Baltasar Gracián

200. “There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.”

— Baltasar Gracián