The 75 best famous phrases of Baltasar Gracian

Baltasar Gracián y Morales was a famous Spanish writer born in the town of Belmonte de Gracián, during the year 1601.

The philosophical writings of this author are still highly recommended today, but without a doubt his most famous work is the one known as "El Criticón", one of the best novels of Spanish literature comparable according to some people with "El Quixote" by Cervantes or "La Celestina" by Fernando de Reds.

• It may interest you: "The 70 best phrases of Miguel de Cervantes"

Phrases and reflections of Baltasar Gracián

Broadly speaking, Gracián is a writer whose way of writing and intelligence has allowed him to be able to transcend beyond his time, giving us great writings that even today all of us can enjoy.

Next We present a selection with the 75 best phrases of Baltasar Gracián, who is probably one of the best writers of all time.

1. Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.

Debating certain information with ourselves will undoubtedly make us retain all the interesting aspects of that particular subject much more.

2. Every fool is convinced; and all convinced are fools. The more flawed a person's judgment, the firmer his convictions.

Life is more complicated than we often think, something that the most foolish will never understand in the course of their lives.

3. Listen, look and be silent.

Observation and patience will always be the key to success for an efficient scientific study.

4. The best service you can give another person is to help them help themselves.

If you give a man the tools to solve his problems, this man will never need your help again.

5. Self-knowledge is the beginning of personal improvement.

Knowing our mistakes will be something that will give us the opportunity to correct them.

6. Don't express your ideas too clearly. Most people think little of what they understand and revere what they don't.

Certain topics are not considered interesting within certain environments. As intelligent people we must adapt our conversation to the place and the people we meet.

7. He always acts like you are seen.

By acting in this way, we can be completely sure that nobody will be able to blame us afterwards.

8. Never do anything when you are in a bad mood, because you will do everything wrong.

If we get carried away by our emotions, we will undoubtedly make many more mistakes than we should.

9. Keep range of your unknown abilities. The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded in the background, if he wishes to be honored at all. He allows you to know them but not understand them. No one should know the extent of your abilities, lest you be disappointed. No one has the opportunity to fully understand it. Because conjectures and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than exact knowledge of them, be so great.

We should never show all our cards prematurely, in social relationships we can always need to have an ace up our sleeve.

10. Do not commit yourself to anyone or anything, for that is being a slave, a slave to every man. Above all, stay free of commitments and obligations: they are someone else's device to get you into his power.

Keeping ourselves completely free of obligations, in the long run, will surely be something that ends up making us much happier people.

11. It is better to sleep on things beforehand than to lie awake on them afterwards.

Credits and loans can end up ruining our personal economy, which is why we must learn to never buy anything that is not really within our reach.

12. Never open the door to a lesser evil, since others and greater ones invariably get behind it.

No evil should ever be welcome, since evils, as this quote tells us, usually act normally in groups.

13. Dreams won't get you anywhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.

If we don't act today to improve our future, that future we so desire will never end up becoming a reality.

14. Don't lie, but don't tell the whole truth.

Lies should never be used, for this reason it is best not to start certain conversations that we know will end up forcing us to lie.

15. Put a grain of boldness in everything you do.

As they say, luck favors the bold, we must be more courageous if we want to be able to succeed in all our personal goals.

16. One must go through the circumference of time before reaching the center of opportunity.

Great achievements will always take time, which is why we must learn never to rush our actions.

17. He who communicates his secret to another becomes that other's slave.

Whoever knows our secrets can end up harming us, a lesson that shows us that perhaps some aspects of our private lives will be much better if nobody knows them.

18. Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.

He who has nothing to lose, he will always be willing to do anything in order to win. These are the dangerous men someone can fight against.

19. Finding a true friend in life is good fortune; keeping it is a blessing.

In life we ​​will only keep real friends and over time we will be able to discover that these are actually much fewer than we expected.

20. Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

Our friendships can help us live a much fuller life, we must make sure that they always feel loved by us.

21. A wise man takes more advantage of his enemies than a fool of his friends.

Trying to take advantage of our friends in the end will be something that will end up taking its toll on us, because we will probably end up losing our friend and also everything that he gave us.

22. He who has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.

A phrase that gives us what is undoubtedly a great lesson, we should never trust ourselves in any situation, because if we ever do, we may be seriously harmed.

23. Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

We must always be on the side of the truth, regardless of who is the speaker who defends it.

24. When a man's knowledge is deep, he speaks well of an enemy. Instead of seeking revenge, he extends unexpected generosity. Turn insult into humor... and he astonishes his adversary, who finds no reason not to trust him.

Much more is achieved with good words than with insults, as Abraham Lincoln said. Do I not defeat my enemies when I turn them into my friends?

25. The wise are always impatient, because whoever increases knowledge increases the impatience of madness.

The time of life that we have is limited, we must not waste a single second of our lives.

26. Mental maturity shows itself best in slow beliefs.

Anyone who finds it hard to believe in something shows that they have a minimum of intelligence, since they will have shown us that they have taken their time to analyze the subject that was being discussed.

27. Know what is bad, no matter how adored. Let the sensible man not confuse him, even when he is clad in brocade, or sometimes crowned with gold, because he cannot hide his hypocrisy, because slavery does not lose its infamy, no matter how noble the teacher.

We must learn to clearly differentiate evil from good, as evil may try to disguise itself on more than one occasion.

28. Respect yourself if you want others to respect you.

If we don't respect ourselves in the first instance, others will never consider doing so.

29. Character and intelligence are the poles on which your talent revolves, showing your gifts.

Without character or intelligence, a man will never become relevant, because these two great qualities have always been totally essential to achieve success.

30. A golden “no” is more satisfying than a dry “yes”.

The forms can sometimes hide the content, we should never let good words distract us from the real background of a conversation.

31. Treat your enemies with courtesy, and you will see how valuable you really are. It costs little but pays a handsome dividend: those who honor are honored. Courtesy and a sense of honor have this advantage: we give them to others without losing anything.

Courtesy can be very beneficial when used correctly, perhaps even thanks to it we can turn an enemy into a friend.

32. Rate intensive over extensive. The perfect does not lie in the quantity, but in the quality.

When something is scarce or short, it will undoubtedly be much more valuable, because as we all know when something is scarce in the world its price necessarily tends to rise.

33. The sage would rather see others in need than thank you.

Helping will always benefit us spiritually, even if those we help never thank us.

34. It always leaves something to be desired; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.

Those who have everything in life often feel extremely miserable, as the constant boredom in their lives ends up becoming the worst of their nightmares.

35. Success rarely brings satisfaction.

Hard work can give us much more satisfaction than success, because as in people's lives, the important thing is not the end but the path.

36. It's a great skill to know how to guide your luck even while you're expecting it.

Luck will never come to us if we don't look for it first, we must be proactive in our lives if we want to be able to achieve all our goals.

37. Courtesy is the main sign of culture.

Courtesy will always demonstrate our education to others and thanks to it we can all establish new relationships that may be useful to us in the future.

38. Better mad at the rest of the world than just wise.

The more aware we are of reality, the more unhappy we are likely to be. Something that shows us that ignorance may actually be the best door to happiness.

39. Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.

Acting with caution is a tactic that will help us achieve success, since rushing is always the fastest path to error.

40. The wise man does at the same time what the fool does.

The mistakes of others can point us the way to success, a very useful trick in the life of any person that many do not usually use.

41. Forcing people often costs little and helps a lot.

Using the work of others can give us a tremendous boost in our professional career, something that every great entrepreneur should have done at least once in his life.

42. He who can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the wise man in much, and God in everything.

Loneliness can help us find ourselves, often putting us back in touch with emotions that one day we thought we had lost.

43. Try easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in one case, trust may not fall asleep, in the other, let it not be dismayed.

Only by being brave will we make our dreams come true and even if we fail in our attempt, maybe tomorrow we can try again.

44. Never participate in the secrets of those above you; you think you share the fruit and you share the stones: a prince's trust is not a grant, but a tax.

Knowing certain information can be dangerous for us, ignorance in these cases is actually the best of blessings.

45. Many of the things that bring delight should not be owned. They are enjoyed more if they belong to another, than if they are yours; the first day they give pleasure to the owner, but on the rest to the others: what belongs to another rejoices doubly, because it is without the risk of becoming rancid and with the satisfaction of freshness.. Possession of things not only decreases your enjoyment, it increases your annoyance, whether shared or not.

Sometimes something is enjoyed much more when it is not our property, because it seems that when we enjoy everything that belongs to someone else, enjoyment tends to multiply.

46. Take advantage of the imagination, because she is all happiness.

Imagination is one of the most powerful weapons that humanity possesses, since today's society as we know it simply would not be possible without it.

47. The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.

Sometimes in life it is better to get rid of everything we don't really need, happiness As we will all discover one day, it is not found in any material good or in any third party. person.

48. Overestimating something is a form of lying.

We must be honest with ourselves, valuing each good that we possess in its fair measure, because acting in this way, honesty will always be in charge of representing us in society.

49. Things do not happen for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.

A book should never be judged by its cover, because things often end up not being what they initially seemed.

50. The hosannas of the multitude can never bring satisfaction to the demanding. However, there are those chameleons of popularity who find their joy, not in the sweet breath of Apollo, but in the smell of the crowd. And not in mind: do not be fooled by what are miracles for the population, because the ignorant do not rise above the wonder. Thus the stupidity of a crowd is lost in admiration, even when the brain of an individual discovers the trick.

We should not worry about the opinions of others, our opinion should be the only one that really has relevance in our lives.

51. Do pleasant things yourself, but unpleasant things through others.

Delegating is a very interesting tactic that will surely allow us to live in a much more pleasant way, because not everything in life, no matter how hard we try, we can always do it ourselves.

52. Hope has a good memory, gratitude is bad.

We should always be grateful for the help that our friends and family have given us, because thanks to them we are possibly where we are today.

53. Maintaining is more important than making friends.

Those great friends should always be kept, because as we all discover throughout our lives, friends are not as abundant as some of us would like.

54. The envious die not once, but as often as the envied win applause.

Envy will never get us anywhere, it will only make us much more unhappy over time.

55. Men must be studied as deeply as books.

To get to know a man in depth we always need to take our time, as all of them are similar to books although some will certainly have more pages than others.

56. Excellence lies in quality, not quantity. The best is always little and rare; greatly decreases the value.

What is very scarce will always be very valuable, supply and demand is the law in charge of making this happen in this way.

57. Whoever finds fortune on his side must move on quickly, for she will only favor the brave.

If we do not take certain risks, we will never take advantage of life to its fullest, because the great achievements are only achieved by those men and women who have risked going in their search.

58. Knowledge without wisdom is double folly.

A great misapplied knowledge can be very harmful for its possessor and also for everyone else.

59. Don't brag every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be something new. The person who shows a little more every day meets expectations, and no one discovers the limits of his talent.

We should never tell the secret of all our tricks and in the same way third parties should never know everything about us.

60. The liar suffers twice: neither believes nor is believed.

The lie will sooner or later turn us into totally unwanted people within our society, a status that when the time comes no one wants to have to carry.

61. Two types of people are good at anticipating danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and intelligent people who learn a lot at the expense of others.

Learning from the mistakes of others can help us a lot in our lives, because as some people rightly think, information is undoubtedly power.

62. Great skill develops and reveals itself more and more with each new task.

Experience over time will make us great professionals, something that shows us that if we are patient and persevering, the secure future will end up being beneficial for us.

63. Man is born a barbarian, and he only rises above the beast by culture.

Thanks to education, all human beings can try to become the best possible version of ourselves, a great opportunity that no one should miss.

64. All victories are reproduced, and that about your superior is foolish or fatal.

Respect for our superiors must always be impeccable, otherwise they will end up taking severe measures against us.

65. God himself does not punish with a rod but with time.

Time in the end puts everyone in their place, if we lead an unseemly life in the end we will undoubtedly end up being harmed by it.

66. Being at ease is better than being in business. In reality, nothing belongs to us more than time, which you have even if you have nothing else.

Time is the most valuable asset we have, which is why we must make sure that we live every second as if it were perhaps the last.

67. Some are content to stand politely before the portals of fortune and await your offer; better those who push forward, who employ their company, who on the wings of their courage and seek to embrace luck and effectively win their favor.

If we do not take risks, we will never fulfill our dreams, because as they say, fortune always favors the bold.

68. Possession hinders enjoyment. It simply gives you the right to keep things for or from others, thus making you more enemies than friends.

We must learn to get rid of everything we don't really need, material goods will never be the ones that bring us true happiness.

69. Share weight and affliction, because misfortune falls with double force on the one who is alone.

People are much stronger when we act in a group, which is why our friends and family will always be the greatest support we have.

70. If there is nothing left to be desired, there is everything to fear, a sad state of happiness.

All human beings want to be happy in our lives, which is why a society full of unhappy people will always be more dangerous.

71. You may be bound to make war, but not to use poisoned arrows.

Certain attitudes in the end will always be counterproductive to us, honesty should always be a rule from which we create our lives.

72. The biggest fool is the one who thinks he's not one and everyone else is.

The fool is rarely able to see his own ignorance, which is why the fool always tends to think he is more intelligent than others.

73. Silence is the sanctuary of prudence.

In social relations, one word less is always better than one more, because as you well know, once we have said something, we cannot go back in time.

74. It requires both telling the truth and hiding it.

We must be astute men and women if we are to succeed in today's society.

75. Don't make mistakes about the character. That is the worst and easiest mistake. Better to be cheated on the price than on the quality of the goods. When dealing with men, more than anything else, it is necessary to look within. Knowing men is different from knowing things. It is a deep philosophy to sound the depths of feelings and distinguish character traits.

Knowing a person well will always take our time, but once we do, we will be able to judge most of their actions in a much more proportionate way.