Quotes from book
The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Name: The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Author: Baltasar Gracián

Baltasar GraciánOriginal title Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia (Spanish, 1647)

The Art of Worldly Wisdom is a book written in 1647 by Baltasar Gracián y Morales, better known as Baltasar Gracian. It is a collection of 300 maxims, each with a commentary, on various topics giving advice and guidance on how to live fully, advance socially, and be a better person, that became popular throughout Europe.

“Because the ignorant do not know themselves, they never know for what they are lacking. Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Como los ignorantes no se conocen, tampoco buscan lo que les falta. Serían sabios algunos si no creyessen que lo son.
Maxim 176 (p. 100)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

“To hear a prince's secrets is not a privilege but a burden. Many smash the mirror that reminds them of their ugliness. They cannot stand to see those who saw them.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

No es favor del Príncipe, sino pecho, el comunicarlo. Quiebran muchos el espejo porque les acuerda la fealdad. No puede ver al que le pudo ver.
Maxim 237 (p. 134)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

“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 Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Que el aviso haga antes viso de recuerdo de lo que olvidava que de luz de lo que no alcançó.
Maxim 7 (p. 4)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

“Many owe their greatness to their enemies. Flattery is fiercer than hatred, for hatred corrects the faults flattery had disguised.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Fabricáronles a muchos su grandeza sus malévolos. Más fiera es la lisonja que el odio, pues remedia éste eficazmente las tachas que aquélla disimula.
Maxim 84 (p. 47)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

“Trust the friends of today as though they will be the enemies of tomorrow.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Confiar de los amigos hoy como enemigos mañana.
Maxim 217 (p. 123)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

“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.

“Complaints will always discredit you.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Maxim 129 (p. 72)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)
Context: Complaints will always discredit you. Rather than compassion and consolation, they provoke passion and insolence, and encourage those who hear our complaints to behave like those we complain about. Once divulged to others, the offenses done to us seem to make others pardonable. Some complain of past offenses and give rise to future ones.