Quotes by Baltasar Gracian

"It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you."

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

"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."

"Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one."

"A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are."

"Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment."

"Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness."

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

"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."

"Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent."

"We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend."

"At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all."

"A beautiful woman should break her mirror early."

"A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity."

"True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing."

"Work is the price which is paid for reputation."

"Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching."

"Respect yourself if you would have others respect you."

"Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself."

"The wise does at once what the fool does at last."