Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Baltasar Gracian (Spanish Philosopher, Prose Writer)

Baltasar Gracián (1601–58,) fully Baltasar Jerónimo Gracián y Morales, was a Spanish baroque moralist, Jesuit scholar, and philosophical novelist. Considered one of the greatest prose masters of Spain’s Golden Age, he was the foremost Spanish exponent of conceptism (“conceptismo,”) a literary style that employs terse and subtle displays of exaggerated wit.

Born in Belmonte de Calatayud, Spain, Gracián studied at Calatayud and Zaragoza. He entered the Jesuit order at the age of 18 and became rector of the Jesuit College at Tarragona.

Gracián’s initial works—El héroe (1637; ‘The Hero,’) El discreto (1646; ‘The Compleat Gentleman,’) and El oráculo manual y arte de prudencia (1647; ‘The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle’)—were predominantly efforts to instruct people in the ethics of worldly life. His literary style of conceptism was first presented in Agudeza y arte de ingenio (1642, ‘Subtlety and the Art of Genius.’)

Gracián published pseudonymously El criticón (1651, 1653, 1657; The Critick, 1781,) a three-part philosophical novel that portrays a pessimistic allegorical vision of human life. Arthur Schopenhauer considered it one of the best books ever written.

Gracián’s works influenced Francois de La Rochefoucauld, and later Voltaire, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jorge Luis Borges. Arthur Schopenhauer considered El criterión one of the best books ever written.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Baltasar Gracian

Friends are a second existence.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Friendship

Work is the price which is paid for reputation.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Work, Reputation

Begin with another’s to end with your own.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Innovation, Originality

Mediocrity obtains more with application than superiority without it.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Perseverance

The things we remember best are those best forgotten.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Memory

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 Gracian
Topics: Courtesy, Manners

Don’t take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Arguments

He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Courage, Boldness

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Knowledge

When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Advice

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

To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Service

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Loss, Losing, Losers, Leadership, Fighting, Fight

Surfeits of happiness are fatal.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Happiness, Blessings

Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Insanity

Nothing arouses ambition so much in the heart as the trumpet-clang of another’s fame.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Role models, Ambition

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Ability

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other ones invariably slink in after it.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Evil

To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Imitation

Good things, when short, are twice as good.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Brevity

The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Getting Going, Procrastination, Action, Inaction, Wisdom

Work is the price that is paid for reputation.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Work

Do something well, and that is quickly enough.
Baltasar Gracian

Most do violence to their natural aptitude, and this attain superiority in nothing.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Ability

Quit while you’re ahead. All the best gamblers do.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Work

The things we remember the best are those better forgotten.
Baltasar Gracian

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Wishes

He who laughs at everything is as big a fool as he who weeps at everything.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Fools, Laughter

It is more offensive to outshine in dignity than in personal attractions.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Dignity

Silence is the sanctuary of prudence.
Baltasar Gracian
Topics: Silence, One liners

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