Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding; better those who push forward, who employ their enterprise, who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck, and to effectively gain her favor.

Baltasar Gracian

Categorized in : Wings Luck Bidding

Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.

Baltasar Gracian

dream long way

Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that is to be a slave, a slave to every man Above all, keep yourself free of commitments and obligations - they are the device of another to get you into his power

Baltasar Gracian

slave obligation commitment

The greatest service you can render someone else is helping him help himself.

Baltasar Gracian

helping

One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.

Baltasar Gracian

arrivals arriving opportunity

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

Baltasar Gracian

angry-feelings temper anger

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

Baltasar Gracian

true-friend relationship friendship

Keep the extent of your abilities unknown.The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honored at all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so great.

Baltasar Gracian

wise opportunity men

Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to any one. Even the most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn to lean. There are some that are incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible: They fall to ruin because none dares to extricate them. The highest should have the door open for friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.

Baltasar Gracian

should-have doors fall

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

Baltasar Gracian

awake-at-night sleep lying

To find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.

Baltasar Gracian

true-friend real friendship

Always act as if you were seen.

Baltasar Gracian

behavior ifs

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

light forgotten advice

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

Baltasar Gracian

doors inspirational life

Know how to play the card of contempt. It is the most politic kind of revenge. For there are many of whom we should have known nothing if their distinguished opponents had taken no notice of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness.

Baltasar Gracian

taken revenge should-have

He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.

Baltasar Gracian

slave secret reality

Know or listen to those who know.

Baltasar Gracian

belief motivational knowledge

Know what is evil, no matter how worshipped it may be. Let the man of sense not mistake it, even when clothed in brocade, or at times crowned in gold, because it cannot thereby hide its hypocrisy, for slavery does not lose its infamy, however noble the master.

Baltasar Gracian

evil mistake men

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

Baltasar Gracian

opponents taken justice

Know how to use evasion. That is how smart people get out of difficulties.

Baltasar Gracian

smart advice people

There are friendships merely for pleasure, some for the exchange of ideas. Rarest are those friends of one's inmost self.

Baltasar Gracian

friends self ideas