Baltasar Gracián: Quotes about people

Baltasar Gracián was Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on people.
Baltasar Gracián: 62   quotes 3   likes

“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 book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Maxim 19 (p. 12)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)
Context: 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. This rule does not hold true for bad things: when an evil has been exaggerated, its reality makes people applaud. What was feared as ruinous comes to seem tolerable.

People , Reality

“Some people belong entirely to others … They have not a day, not an hour to call their own, so completely do they give themselves to others. This is true even in matters of understanding. Some people know everything for others and nothing for themselves.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Otros todos son ajenos, que la necedad siempre va por demasías, y aquí infeliz: no tienen día, ni aun hora suya, con tal exceso de ajenos, que alguno fue llamado “el de todos”.
Aun en el entendimiento, que para todos saben y para sí ignoran.
Maxim 252
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

People , Understanding

“The one rule for pleasing: whet the appetite, keep people hungry.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Única regla de agradar: coger el apetito picado con el hambre con que quedó.
Maxim 299 (p. 168)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

People