Classic Audiobook Collection - The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian ~ Full Audiobook [philosophy]

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltazar Gassian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 1 To Mrs. G. H. Lewis Dear Mrs. Lewis, This little book were not worthy of being associated with your name, did it not offer an ideal of life at once refined and practical, cultured yet wisely energetic.

Starting point is 00:00:24 Grazian points to noble aims and proposes, on the whole, no ignoble means of it. of attaining to them. The Spanish Jesuit sees clear, but he looks upward. There is, however, one side of life to which he is entirely blind, as was perhaps natural in an ecclesiastic writing before the age of Salons. He nowhere makes mention in his pages of the gracious influence of woman as inspirer and consoler in the Battle of Life. Permit me to repair this omission by placing your name in the forefront of this English version of his maxims. To those honoured with your friendship, this will by itself suffice to recall all the ennobling associations connected with your

Starting point is 00:01:08 sex. Believe me, dear Mrs. Lewis, your most sincerely, Joseph Jacobs. Kilburn, 26th of October 1892. Preface My attention was first drawn to the Oraculo Manuel by Mr. Now Sir Monarchus. Stuart Grant Doff's admirable article on Baltazar Grasian in the fortnightly review of March 1877. I soon after obtained a copy of Schopenhauer's excellent version, and during a journey in Spain, I procured with some difficulty a villainously printed edition of Gassianne's work, Barcelona 1734, Paul Joseph Giralt, which contains the Oraculo Manuel towards the end of the first volume, pages 431 to 494.

Starting point is 00:01:59 I have translated from this last, referring in the many doubtful places of its text to the first Madrid edition of 1653, the earliest in the British Museum. I have throughout had Schopenhauer's version by my side, and have found it, as Sir Mon Stewart Grant Duff says, a most finished piece of work. Though I have pointed out in the notes a few cases where he has failed, in my opinion, to give Gracian's meaning completely or correctly. I have little doubt that I am a fellow sinner in this regard. I know no prose style that offers such difficulty to a translator as Gration's laconic and artificial epigrams. It is not without reason that he has been called the

Starting point is 00:02:41 introducible. The two earlier English versions miss his points time after time, and I found it useless to refer to them. On the other hand, I have ventured to adopt some of Sir Mount Stuart Grant's often very happy renderings in the extracts contained in his fortnightly article. I have endeavored to reproduce Graciane's leconism and cultismo in my version, and have even tried to retain his many paronomages and jingles of similar sound. I may have here and there introduced others of my own to redress the balance for cases where I found it impossible to produce the same effect in English. In such cases I generally give the original in the notes. Wherever possible, I have replaced Spanish proverbs and proverbial phrases

Starting point is 00:03:29 by English ones, and have throughout tried to preserve the characteristic rhythm and brevity of the proverb. In short, if I may venture to say so, I have approached my task rather in the spirit of Fitzgerald than of Bourne. The gem on the title representing a votive offering to Hermes, the God of worldly wisdom, is from a fine paste in the British Museum of the best period of Greek glyptic art. I have to thank Mr. Cecil Smith of that institution for kind advice in the selection. Let me conclude these prefatory words with a piece of advice as oracular as my original. When reading this little book for the first time, read only 50 maxims and then stop for the day. Joseph Jacobs

Starting point is 00:04:15 Testimonia He is so concis, so rompue, and so strangely-couped, that it seems that he has pried the obscurity at task. Also, the lector has been to end-divine the sense, and, often, when he has understood, he found that he set-etudied to make an enigma of a thing far common. F. F. F. F. F. Hans-Arsons Voyage of Spain

Starting point is 00:04:41 1667, page 2994. He has a lot of elevation, of subtility, of force, and even of good sense, but we know

Starting point is 00:04:52 the more often what he mean, and he know he not is he may be himself,

Starting point is 00:04:57 some of his works do seem be made that to not be intended. Boo-Worz

Starting point is 00:05:03 Entretien of Artists and DeGene 1671 page 203 Louisa de Padilla,

Starting point is 00:05:11 a lady of great learning and counters of was in like manner angry with the famous Grazian upon his publishing his treatise of the discreeto wherein she fancied that he had laid open those maxims to common readers which ought only to be reserved for the knowledge of the great. These objections are thought by many of so much weight that they often defend the above-mentioned authors by affirming they have affected such an

Starting point is 00:05:37 obscurity in their style and manner of writing that though everyone may read their works, there will be but very few who can comprehend their meaning. The Spectator Number 379, 1712 In searching always the energy and the sublime, he becomes tutored and sepair in the moor. Gracian is the good moralist what Don Quixote is the real hero.

Starting point is 00:06:03 They have l'in'n and the other a faux air of grandeur who on impose on so and who ferrir the sages. Abbe defante, 1745 What of Elogios

Starting point is 00:06:16 not be to bellows to bewn in medium of the antithesis, paranomassias and

Starting point is 00:06:23 all the metralla culta is one of the works most recommendables

Starting point is 00:06:28 of our literature for the felicit of the invention the inagotable requis

Starting point is 00:06:34 of imagination and of salels for the vivetta of his pictures and for the

Starting point is 00:06:40 Gracia, Sultura and Naturality of Style Don Manuel Silvella Biblioteca Selected of Literature Spanish 1819 If had gracian Proceded with more sobriety in the use of these

Starting point is 00:06:57 games and concepts What is the author of his time of tantos dothes and caudal nativ for the more fecundo and elegant sabiento,

Starting point is 00:07:08 how the manifesto, in where were the delicatres, this is the margot, the dulce, the salado of the language

Starting point is 00:07:19 Castellano. Don Antonio Cammani Teatro of the Eloquencia Españo 5 The Oracolo

Starting point is 00:07:28 Manual has been more used than any other of the author's works. It is intended to be a collection of

Starting point is 00:07:33 maxims of general utility, but it exhibits good and bad precepts, sound judgments and refined sophisms all confounded together. In this work, Gracian has not forgotten to inculcate his practical principles of Jesuitism to be all things to all men, hacerse at todos, nor to recommend his favorite maxim, to be common in nothing, and nada vulgar, which, in order to be valid, would require a totally different interpretation from that which he has given it.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Bauterick The person, however, who settled the character of cultismu, and in some respects gave it an air of philosophical pretension, was Balthasar Grazian, a Jesuit of Aragon, who lived between 1601 and 1658, exactly the period when the cultivated style took possession of Spanish prose and rose to its greatest consideration. G. Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature 3.22 In the two. Thereby is it the one of the art and

Starting point is 00:08:39 never an other's over the same given been written. Because only an

Starting point is 00:08:43 individual from the feinst all nations, the Spanician could it was trying. The

Starting point is 00:08:50 same, the kind of the people, and is there for every man. Especially

Starting point is 00:08:54 but it it's it's good the handbook of there to be in the

Starting point is 00:08:59 great world live, very but it with a one-mall and to fore-out the belearing give, that they are since just through longer experience are

Starting point is 00:09:11 A. Schopenhauer, Literarish Notice for his translation. 1831, published 1861. With a lot of espri, of instruction, and the facilit, he has

Starting point is 00:09:24 nothing produced who could today support the examine of the critique the most impartial. Puy Busk, is far compared to the literatures Spanish and

Starting point is 00:09:33 F. 1843. 1. Page 559. Gassianne had put an excellent an scriven if he had not wanted to become an extraordinary. Doughed an vast erudition, of an spirit fine,

Starting point is 00:09:50 of a talent profound of observation, he was made for eclare his cycle, but the vanity to be novete novice, corrompied his

Starting point is 00:09:58 go, in the porting to introduce in the prose this language precious, his expressions alambique that Gongora had introduced in the ver. A. DeBaca, Bibliotech of the Companion of Jesus. 1869. S. V. Gassian.

Starting point is 00:10:16 Asy, as the maxims of Antonio Perez were very populares between courtesanos or doctors or illustrators, as Spanioles, as strangers, for that delicatheza special of style, the father of Baltadargassian, alcalfa, the same esteem for this attildamiento in the decision,

Starting point is 00:10:39 attildamiento that had in see an inexplicable attractive, and that, although something participated, the general culturalism of the literature

Starting point is 00:10:49 Spanish, in a quite single, encirable, and serabresterable and lisongero for the that dector, that se profundisimos conceptos, presiaba with the force of his enrion acuelos.

Starting point is 00:11:05 Don Adolfo de Castro, Obras Excurgidus de Philosophy 1873, page 108. Taking the book as a guide, especially for those who intend to end the public life, I have never chance to meet with anything, which seemed to me even distantly to approach it. It would possibly be rather difficult to disprove the thesis, that the Spanish nation has produced the best maxims of practical wisdom, the best proverb, the best epitaph, and the best motto in the world. If I had to sustain it, I would point with reference to the first head to the oraculo Manuel. Sir M. E. Grant Duff on Baltazar

Starting point is 00:11:45 Grasian in Fortnightly Review, March 1877. Some have found light in the sayings of Baltazar Grasian, a spaniard who flourished at the end of the 17th century, I do not myself rank Grazian much of a companion, though some of his aphorisms give a neat turn to a commonplace. Jay Morley on aphorisms, Studies 1891, page 86. End of Section 1. Section 2 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltazar Grazian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. recording is in the public domain. Recording by Sandra Schmidt.

Starting point is 00:12:28 Introduction 1. Of Baltazar Grazian and his works. We may certainly say of Grazian, what Heine, by an amiable fiction, said of himself. He was one of the first man of his century. For he was born, on the 8th of January, 1601, NS at Belmont, a suburb of Kalatayud, in the Kingdom of Aragon. Calatayud, properly Calat Ayub, Job's town, is nearly on the site of the ancient Pilbillis, Marcial's birthplace. As its name indicates, it was one of the Moorish settlements, and nearly one of

Starting point is 00:13:07 the most northern. By Grazian's time, it had again been Christian and Spanish for many generations, and Grazian himself was of noble birth. For a spaniard of noble birth, only two careers were open, Arms and the church. In the 17th century, Arms had yielded to the Cassoc, and Balthazar and his three brothers all took orders. Philippi, his eldest, joined the order of St. Francis. The next brother, Pedro, became a Trinitarian during his short life, and the third, Raimundo, became a Carmelite. Barthazar himself tells us, Agudeza, Chapter 25, that he was brought up in the house of his uncle, the licentiate Antonio Grazian at Toledo, from which we may gather that both his father and his mother,

Starting point is 00:13:54 er Morales, died in his early youth. He joined the company of Jesus in 1619, when in its most flourishing state, after the organizing genius of Aquaviva had given solid form to the bold counterstroke of Loyola to the Protestant Revolution. The Racio Stuaiorum was just coming into full force, and Grathean was one of the earliest

Starting point is 00:14:17 man in Europe to be educated on the system which has dominated the secondary education of Europe, almost down to our own days. This point is of some importance, we shall see, in considering Grazian's chief work. Once enrolled among the ranks of the Jesuits, the individual disappears, the Jesuit alone remains. There is scarcely anything to record of Grathean's life, except that he was a Jesuit, and engaged in teaching what passes with the order for philosophy, and sacred literature, and became ultimately rector of the Jesuit college at Tarragona. His great friend was Don Vincencio Juan de Lastanoza, a dilettante of the period, who lived at Huesca and collected coins, medals, and other archaeological bric-a-brac.

Starting point is 00:15:06 Gracian appears to have shared his tastes, for Lastanoza mentions him in his description of his own cabinet. A long correspondence with him was once extant and seen by Latasa, who gives the dates and places where the letters were written. From these it would seem that Grazian moved about considerably from Madrid to Saragossa and thence to Tarragona. From another source, we learned that Philip III often had him to dinner to provide attic salt to the royal table.

Starting point is 00:15:35 He preached, and his sermons were popular. In short, a life of prudent prosperity came to an end when Balthazar Grazian, rector of the Jesuit college at Tarragona, died there on the 6th of December 1658, at the age of nearly 58 years. Of Gatian's works, there is perhaps more to say, even while leaving for separate consideration that one which is here presented to the English reader, and forms his chief claim to attention. Spanish literature was passing into its period of Swagger,

Starting point is 00:16:09 a period that came to all literatures of modern Europe after the training in classics had given a fresh descends of style, The characteristic of this period in the literature is suitably enough the appearance of conceits, or elaborate and far-fetched figures of speech. The process began with Antonio Guevara, author of El Libro Aureo, from which, according to some, the English form of the disease, known as euphuism, was derived. But it received a further impetus from the success of the Stilo-Culto of Gongora in poetry, Gongorism drove conceit to its farthest point.

Starting point is 00:16:51 Artificiality of diction could go no farther in verse. It was only left for Gretian to apply it to prose. He did this for the first time in 1630 in his first work, El Ere. This was published, like most of his other works, by his lifelong friend Lastanoza, and under the name of Lorenzo Gratian, a suppositious brother of Gretions, who, so far as can be assert,

Starting point is 00:17:16 never existed. The whole of El Erre exists in shortened form in the oraculu manual. The form, however, is so shortened that it would be difficult to recognize the original primores, as they are called, of El Erroi. Yet it is precisely in the curtness of the sentences that the peculiarity of the stilo-culture consists. Generally elaborate metaphor and far-fetched allusions go with long and involved sentences of the periodic type. But with Garthian, the aim is as much towards shortness as towards elaboration. The embroidery is rich, but the jacket is short, as he himself might have said. As for the subject matter, the extracts in the oracolo will suffice to give some notion of the lofty ideal or character

Starting point is 00:18:06 presented in El Ereouet, the ideal indeed associated in the popular mind with the term Hidalgo. A later book, El Discretto, first published in 1647, gives the counterpoise to El Ere, by drawing an ideal of the prudent courtier as contrasted with the proud and spotless Idalgo. This too is fully represented in the book before us, but a curtailment is still more marked than in the case of El Ereau. There is evidence that Grathian wrote a similar pair of contrasts, termed respectively El Galante and El Varon Atento, which were not published but were incorporated in the oraculo manual by Lastanoza. The consequences of this utilisation of contrasts will concern us later. Reverting to Grafeyan's works somewhat more in their order, his euloges of Ferdinand,

Starting point is 00:19:02 the Magus of Columbus's epoch, need not much detain us. It is stilted and conventional, and does not betray much historical insight. Grazance, Agudesa and Arte de Ingenio, is of more importance and interest as the formal exposition of the critical principles of cultismo. It is concerned more with verse than prose and represents the poetics of congerism. A curious collection of flowers of rhetoric,

Starting point is 00:19:30 in Spanish verse, could be made from it. Of still more restricted interest is the Comulgador, or sacred, meditations for Holy Communion. I do not profess to be a judge of this class of literature, if literature it can be called, but the fact that the book was deemed worthy of an English translation as lately as 1676 seems to show

Starting point is 00:19:53 that it still answers the devotional needs of the Catholics. It has a personal interest for Grafyan, as it was the only book of his that appeared under his own name. There remains only to be considered, besides the Oraculum Manuel, Grazance El Criticon, a work of considerable value and at least historic interest, which appeared in the three parts dealing with youth, maturity, and old age, respectively, during the years 1650 to 53. This is a kind of philosophic romance or allegory depicting the education of the human soul.

Starting point is 00:20:30 A Spaniard named Crittillo is wrecked on Centellana, and there finds a sort of Man Friday, whom he calls, calls Andrenio. Andrenio, after learning to communicate with Cretillo, gives him a highly elaborate autobiography of his soul from the age of three days or so. They then travel to Spain, where they meet truth, valor, falsehood, and other allegorical females and males, who are labeled by Critilo for Andrenio's benefit in the approved and frigid style of the allegorical teacher. incidentally, however, the ideals and aspirations of the spaniard of the 17th century are brought out, and from this point of view, the book derives the parallel with the pilgrim's progress,

Starting point is 00:21:14 which Tickner had made for it. It is certainly one of the most characteristic products of Spanish literature, both for style and subject matter. Nearly all these works of Grafyan were translated into most of the cultured languages of Europe, English not accepted. part of this ecumenical fame was doubtless due to the fact that Gathian was a Jesuit, and brethren of his order translated the works of one of whom the order was justly proud. But this explanation cannot altogether account for the widespread of Gareth's works,

Starting point is 00:21:47 and it remains a deposit of genuine ability and literary skill involved in most of the works I have briefly referred to, ability and skill of an entirely obsolete kind nowadays, but holding a rank of their own in the 17th and 18th centuries, when didacticism was all the rage. It is noteworthy that the testimonia I have collected for the most part pass over the oraculo, the only work at which a modern would care to cast a second glance,

Starting point is 00:22:17 and go into raptures over El Criticon and its fellows, or the reverse of raptures on Gratheon's style, which, after all, was the most striking thing about his works. that style reaches its greatest perfection in the oraculo manual, to which we might at once turn, but for a preliminary inquiry which it seems worthwhile to make. It is a book of maxims, as distinguished from a book of aphorisms, and it is worthwhile for several reasons inquiring into maxims in general, and maxim literature in particular, before dealing with what is probably the most remarkable specimen

Starting point is 00:22:55 of its class. before, however, doing this, we may close the section of our introductory remarks by putting in, as the lawyers say, the Latin inscription given by Latasa from the foot of the portrait of Grazian, which one stood in the Jesuit College at Kalatayut, a portrait of which, alas, no trace can now be found. The lines sum up in sufficiently forcible Latin, all that need be known of Baltada Grazian and his works. P. Balthasar, Grazian, that yam ab Oxtu eminered,

Starting point is 00:23:29 in Belomonte natus is, proper Bilbilim, confinis Martialis patria, proximus ingenio, ut profunderet at this Christianas Argutias Bilbilis, which poin'i exaustan

Starting point is 00:23:45 videobatur in ethnicis. Ergo, augen's natal, inginium in nato, acumenescripsit. artem in genii and arte facet skibile, what skibiles facet aches. Scribes it, item prudentier,

Starting point is 00:24:03 and ase I, sceptimps, artem, didicit. Scribes it oraculum, and voces sues sues sues, protulit. Scribett, and, as se Ipsum, describoret, and, as, as scribberet, Eruem, Eruem, patravit. Hec, and other eis scripta, Moecanates reges habuorund, judices admiration-lectoram mundum,

Starting point is 00:24:28 typographum eternity, Philipus Tres sepe Ilius Argutias, interprandium versabat, ne difficerensales rigi's dappibus. But whose plausus excitavarat, calam, diditus missionibus, excitavit planktus verb. excitaturus desiderium in morta, coeraptus fuet.

Starting point is 00:24:53 6 decambres, anno, 16.548, but aliquando extintus eternal lukeb it. 2. Of maxims. Many men have sought to give their views about man and about life in a pithy way. A few have tried to advise men in short sentences, what to do in the various emergencies of life. Deformer have written aphorisms, the latter maxims. Where the aphorism states a fact of human nature, a maxim advises a certain course of action.

Starting point is 00:25:29 The aphorism is written in the indicative, the maxim, in an imperative mood. Life is interesting, if not happy, is an aphorism of Professor Seles, I believe. A send a step to choose a friend, the send a step to choose a wife, is a maxim of Rabbi Meir, one of the doctors of the Talmud. Now it is indeed curious how few maxims have ever been written. Wisdom has been extolled on the house-tops, but her practical advice seems to have been kept secret. Taking our own literature, there are extremely few books of practical maxims, and not the single one of any great merit. Sir Walter Raleigh's Cabinet Council, Pence, Maxims, and Chesterfield's letters almost exhausts the list, and the last generally contains much more than mere maxims.

Starting point is 00:26:17 nor are they scattered with any profusion through books teeming with knowledge of life, the galaxy of English novels. During recent years, extracts of their beauties have been published in some profusion, wit and wisdom of Beaconsfield, wise, witty and tender sayings of George Eliot, extracts from Thackeray and the rest, but the crop of practical maxims to be found among them is extremely scanty. Aphorisms there are in plenty, especially in George Elliott, but he that is doubtful what cause to pursue in any weighty crisis would woefully waste his time if he sought for advice from the novelists. Nor are the moralists more instructive in this regard. Bacon's essays leave with one the impression of fullness of practical wisdom. Yet closely examined,

Starting point is 00:27:05 there is very little residue of practical advice left in his pregnant sayings. Even the source of most of this kind of writing, the biblical book of proverbs, fails to answer the particular kind of test I am at present applying. However shrewd some of them are, startling us with the consciousness, how little human nature has changed, it is knowledge of human nature that they mainly supply. When we ask for instruction how to apply that knowledge,

Starting point is 00:27:33 we only get variations of the theme, Fear the Lord. 2,000 years of experience have indeed shown that the fear or love of the Lord forms a very good foundation for practical wisdom, but it has to be supplemented by some such corollary as keep your powder dry before it becomes of direct service in the conduct of life. It is indeed because of the unpractical nature of practical maxims

Starting point is 00:27:58 that they have been so much neglected. You must act in the concrete, you can only maximize in general terms. Then again, maxims can only appeal to the mind, to the intellect, the motive force of action is the will, the temer. temperament. As Disraeli put it, The conduct of men depends on the temperament, not upon a bunch of musty maxims, Henrietta Temple. It is only very distantly that a maxim

Starting point is 00:28:26 can stir the vague desire that spurs an imitative will. True, at times we read of man whose whole life has been coloured by a single saying, but these have generally been more appeals to the imagination, like Newman's Securus Judicat Orbis Terrarum, or the Heu Fuge Kourdes-Therras Fuge Litus Avarum, which had so decisive an effort

Starting point is 00:28:50 on Savonarola's life. It is rare indeed that a man's whole life is tinged by a single practical maxim, like Sir Daniel Gooch, who was influenced by his father's advice, stick to one thing. Perhaps one of the reasons

Starting point is 00:29:05 that have led literary persons to neglect the maxim as a literary form has been their own ignorance of action, and still more, their exaggerated notions of its difficulties and complexities. Affairs are not conducted by aphorisms. War is waged by a different kind of maxims from those we are considering.

Starting point is 00:29:25 Yet, after all, there must be some general principles on which actions should be conducted, and one would think they could be determined. Probably the successful man of action are not sufficiently self-observant to know exactly on what their success depends, and if they did, they would in most cases try to keep it in the family, like their wealth or their trade secrets.

Starting point is 00:29:47 And perhaps, after all, they are right who declare that action has little to do with intellect, and much with character. To say the truth, one is not impressed with the intellectual powers of the millionaires one meets. The shadiest of journalists could often explain their own doings with more point than they. Yet there are surely intellectual qualifications required for affairs. The Suetz Canal must have required as great an amount of research, emendation, sense of order and organization as, say, the corpus inscriptionum latinarum. But there is no such punishment for slovenly scholarship in action as there is in letters. The Suetz Canal can be dug only once.

Starting point is 00:30:30 Lucretius or Latin inscriptions can be edited over and over again. Altogether, we need not be surprised if the man of action cannot put the principles of action, into pointed sentences or maxims. And if man of action cannot, it is not surprising that men of letters do not, for they cannot have the interest in action and its rewards which is required for worldly success, or else they would not be able to concentrate their thoughts on things

Starting point is 00:30:58 which they consider of higher import. To a man of letters, the world is the devil, or ought to be, if he is to have the touch of idealism which gives colour and weight to his words. How then is he to devote his attention to worldly wisdom and the maxims that are to teach it? It is characteristic in this connection that the weightiest writer of maxims in our language is Bacon, who attempted to combine a career of affairs and of thought, and spoiled both by so doing. It is perhaps due to the subtle and all-embracing influence of Christianity on modern civilization

Starting point is 00:31:34 that this divorce between idealism and the world has come about. the strenuous opposition to the world, among earnest Christians, has led to their practical withdrawal from it. Just as the celibacy of the clergy meant that the next generation was to be deprived of the hereditary influence of some of the purest spirits of the time, so the opposition of Christianity to the world has prodded about that the world has been unchristian. Only one serious attempt has been made to bridge the chasm. The Idé-E-Mere of just Jesuitism was to make the world Christian, by Christians, becoming worldly. It was doubtless due to the reaction against the over-spiritualization of Christianity,

Starting point is 00:32:19 pressed by the Protestant Reformation, but its practical result has been to make the Jesuit a worldly Christian. The control of the higher education of Europe by the Jesuits had tended, on the other hand, to make society more Christian. If then we were to look for an adequate presentation, of worldly wisdom, touched with sufficient idealism, to make it worthy of a man of letters, we should look for it from a Jesuit, or from one trained among the Jesuits. After all this elaborate explanation why so few maxims have been composed, it may seem contradictory to give as a further and final reason, because so many exist, under another form. For what are the majority of proverbs, but maxims under another name, or other,

Starting point is 00:33:08 maxims without a name of their author. We say of proverbs, indeed, that they arise among the people, but it is one definite individual among the people that gives them the piquant form that makes them proverbial. It was, we may be sure, a definite English geffer who first said, penny-wise, pound foolish. If we knew his name, we should call it a maxim. As his name is unknown, it ranks as a proverb. In this connection, the Talmudic proverbs and maxims are of great interest. Owing to the worthy rabbinic principle, say a thing in the name of the man who said it, we can in almost all cases trace Talmudic proverbs to their authors, or in other words, telmudic proverbs remain maxims. There is only one analogous case in English.

Starting point is 00:33:58 A few of Benjamin Franklin's maxims, e.g. three removes are as good as, a fire, have become proverbs. The abundance of proverbs is extraordinary. There is a whole bibliography devoted to the literature of proverbs. Duplassie, bibliography paremiologic, Paris, 1847, and this needs nowadays a supplement as large again as the original, partly supplied by the bibliographical appendix of Heller, Alt-Spanishish Sprichvorter, 1883. Indeed, in the multitude of proverbs, consist of the greatest proof of their uselessness as guides of action, for by this means we get proverbs at cross-purposes. Thus, take the one I have just referred to, penny-wise, pound foolish, which has a variant in the proverb, do not spoil the ship for a half-worth of tar.

Starting point is 00:34:51 A man who was hesitating as to the amount or expense he would incur in any undertaking would be prompted by these sayings to be lavish. But then, how about the proverb? Take care of the pens, and the pounds will take care of themselves. Between the two proverbs, he would come to the ground, and if he has the news to decide between them, he does not need the proverbs at all. Hence it is perhaps that the nation that is richest in proverbs is the one that has proved itself among European peoples the least wise in action. To the Spaniards has been well-applied to witticism about Charles II. They never said a foolish thing, and never did a voice. is one. Certainly if proverbs be a proof of wisdom, the Spaniards have given proofs in abundance.

Starting point is 00:35:40 Don Quixot is full of them, and the Spanish collections are extraordinarily rich. Now the nation that can produce good proverbs should be able to produce good maxims, hence we should expect the best book of maxims to emanate from a Spaniard. One characteristic of both these forms of practical wisdom is their artificiality. One has to think twice before the point of a proverb or a maxim is perfectly clear, the early bird catches the worm, seems at first sight as meaningless a proposition as, there are milestones on the Dover Road, hence it is when the literature is passing through its artificial stage that maxims would naturally appear, so that it was clearly preordained that when the book of maxims should appear,

Starting point is 00:36:28 it would be by a Jesuit, so as to be worldly, yet not too worldly. by a spaniard, so that it should have the proverbial ring, and during the prevalence of cultismo, so that it should have the quaintness to attract attention. 3. Of the Oraculo Manuel. Having thus proved our priorye that the ideal book of maxims was destined to be the oraculo manual of Balthazar Grazian, let us proceed to prove our proof, as schoolboys do with their sums. That it is the best book of maxims is a foregone conclusion, because there is none other. Schopenhauer, who translated the book, observes that there is nothing like it in German,

Starting point is 00:37:13 and there is certainly none approaching it in English, and if France or Italy can produce its superior, it is strange that its fame has remained so confined to its native country. Not that there are not books teaching the art of self-advancement, in almost all languages. The success of Dr. Smiles' volume on self-help is a sufficient instance of this. Curiously enough, Dr. Smiles' book has had its greatest success in Italy, where it has given rise to quite a literatura self-elpista, as the Italians themselves call it, or rather not curiously, for if you wish to find the most unromantic set of ideals nowadays, you must go search among the Romance nations.

Starting point is 00:37:55 Gratian does not, however, compete with Dr. Smiles. not deal with Broth Weissheit. He assumes that the vulgar question of bread and butter has been settled in favour of his reader. He may be worldly, but he is thinking of the great world. He writes for man with a position, and how to make the most of it. Nor is the aim he puts before such persons an entirely selfish one. The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good, is the only rational defense of ambition, and Gatianne employs it. Maxim 286. Indeed, the tone of the book is exceptionally high.

Starting point is 00:38:35 It is impossible to accuse a man of any meanness, who is the author of such maxims as, One cannot praise a man too much, who speaks well of them, who speak ill of him. 162. Friends are a second existence. 111. When to change the conversation.

Starting point is 00:38:54 When they talk scandal. 250. In great crisis, there is no better companion than a bold heart. 167. The secret of long life? Lead a good life. 90. Be able to boast that if gallantry, generosity and fidelity were lost in the world,

Starting point is 00:39:17 man would be able to find them again in your own breast. 165. A man of honor. should never forget what he is, because he sees what others are. 280. And there are whole sections dealing with such topics as rectitude, 29, sympathy with great minds, 44, a genial disposition, 79, and the like. Not that he is without the more subtle devices of the worldly wise,

Starting point is 00:39:48 one could not wish to have anything more cynical or stinging than the following. Find out each man's thumb screw. 26. A shrewd man knows that others, when they seek him, do not seek him, but their advantage in him, and by him. 252. The truth, but not the whole truth. 181.

Starting point is 00:40:14 Keep to yourself the final touches of your art. 212. Do not take payment in politeness. 1191 Have a touch of the trader 232 Think with the few And speak with the many

Starting point is 00:40:31 43 Never have a companion Who casts you in the shade 152 Never become paradoxical In order to avoid the trite 143 Do not show your wounded finger

Starting point is 00:40:47 145 The characteristic of the book is this combination, or rather, contrast of high tone and shrewdness. Gratian is both wisely worldly, and worldly wise. After all, there does not seem to be any inherent impossibility in the combination. There does not seem any radical necessity why a good man should be a fool. One always has a certain grudge against Thackeray, for making his Colonel Newcomb so silly at times,

Starting point is 00:41:18 though perhaps the irony, the pathos, the church, tragedy of the book required it. As a matter of fact, the holiest of men have been some of the shrewdest, for their friends at least, if not for themselves. The explanation of the combination in Gratian is simple enough. He was a Jesuit, and the Jesuits have just that combination of high tone and worldly wisdom as their raison d'etre. And in the case of the oraculo, the mixture was easily affected by Grazian, or his friend Lastanoza. For Grazian had written at least two series of works, in which this contrast was represented by separate books.

Starting point is 00:41:57 Two of these describing the qualities of the hero and the prudent man, El Eroë and El Discretto, were published and are represented in the oraculo. Two others dealing with the gallant and the cautious men, El Galante and El Varonatento, are referred to by Lastanosa in the preface of El Gellucero. discreeto, and are also doubtless represented in the book before us. One may guess that a section on high-mindedness, 128, or on nobility of feeling, 131, comes from El Galante, while better mad with the rest of the world

Starting point is 00:42:33 than Wise alone, 133, smacks of El Varro-natento. At times, we get the two tones curiously intermingled. Choose an heroic ideal, 75, seems at first sight a noble sentiment, but Gration goes on to qualify it, by adding, but rather to emulate than to imitate. The modernness of the tone is the thing that will strike most readers, apart from these contrasts. Here and there one may be struck by an archaic note, never compete, would scarcely be the advice of a worldly teacher nowadays,

Starting point is 00:43:10 but on the whole, there is a tone of modern good society about the maxims, which one would scarcely find in contemporary English works like Pichems, or even in contemporary French authors like Charon. The reason is that modern society is permeated by influences which Gathean himself represented. The higher education of Europe for the last two and a half centuries has been in the hands of Jesuits, or in schools formed on the Rastio Studurum, and society in the stricter sense traces from the Hotel Rambouillé,

Starting point is 00:43:43 where one have to influence was Spanish. Grazian thus directly represents the tone of the two societies, which have set the tone of our society of today, and it is no wonder, therefore, if he is modern. Even in his style, there is something of a modern epigrammatic ring. At times there is the euphuistic quaintness, e.g. one must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.

Starting point is 00:44:11 but as rule the terseness and point of the maxim approximate to the modern epigram. El excuserce, antesse, is culparse. Might be both the source and the model of who's excuse, s'cuse, the terseness is indeed excessive and carried to tacitian extremes. A poco saber, Camino Real, Ultima Felicidad is philosophar. Arto presto, si bien.

Starting point is 00:44:42 Cassian jerks out four or five words, where a popular preacher would preach a sermon. Yet I cannot agree with the writers who call him obscure. He is one of the writers that make you think before you grasp his meaning, but the meaning is there, and put plainly enough, only tersely, and very often indirectly, after the manner of proverbs. There is indeed no doubt that he and his predecessors were influenced by the form of the Spanish proverb

Starting point is 00:45:09 in drawing up aphorisms and maxims. I say predecessors, for aphorismic literature at any rate, was no novelty in Spain. Among the long list of books on aphorisms, possessed by the late Sir William Sterling Maxwell, and still at Kier, there are fully a dozen Spanish ones who precede Gratian,

Starting point is 00:45:29 Hernando Diaz, Lopez de Correlas, and Melchior de Santa Cruz are the most important, though the latter is more full of Anectotage. Among them is a book of aphorismos by Antonio Peres, whose relations has been the chief means of blackening Philip II's character. The former are undoubtedly of the same style as Grazian, and probably influenced him, though as they are aphorisms and not maxims, I have not been able to quote parallels in the notes. Thus, one obra

Starting point is 00:46:01 vale milares de grazias Aphorismos 1198 has the same proverbial ring It is curious to see Littance The pen is mightier than the sort anticipated by Peres La Pluma Corta Maske Espades afiliadas

Starting point is 00:46:19 Ibidem 199 Or Voltaire's speech was given us to conceal Our thoughts In Perises Las Palabras Vestido de los Conceptos 2.130.

Starting point is 00:46:34 This last example has all Grazian's terseness, while Pereses, Amigos de Sestesiglo, Rostros-Umanos de Fierras, 271, has both thirstness and cynicism. Certainly the only other work in Spanish or any other literature preceding Gration

Starting point is 00:46:53 on anything like the same lines is this book of aphorismos by Antonio Perez. It is some of a question to my mind, how far Grazian was the author of the final form of the maxims, as we have them in the oraculo. Those taken from El Erewe and El Discretto differ from their originals with great advantage. They are terseer, more to the point, and less euphuistic. Now, the address to the reader has all these qualities, and we may assume was written by its signatory, Don Vincencio de la Stanoza. It is just possible that you,

Starting point is 00:47:29 we owe to him the extreme terseness and point of the majority of the maxims of the oraculum manual. It must not, however, be assumed that they are all as pointed and epigrammatic, as those I have quoted. Gratian seems advisedly to have embedded his jewels in a duller setting. At times, he vise with the leaders of the great sect of the platitudinarians, and he can be as banal as he is brilliant. Even as it is, his very brilliancy varies, and after 50 maxes or so, one longs for a more fruity wisdom, a more digressive discussion of life, like those learned, wise and witty essays of Mr. Stevenson, which may some day take higher rank as literature than even his novels. Perhaps, after all, the weariness to which I refer may be due to the cautious

Starting point is 00:48:18 tone of the book. To succeed, one must be prudent. That is the great moral of the book, and if so, does it seem worthwhile to succeed? If life is to be denuded of the alliotory element, is it worth living? Well, Grafyan meets you, when in that temper, too. It is indeed remarkable how frequently he refers to luck, how you are to trust your luck, weigh your luck, follow your luck, know your unlucky days, and so forth.

Starting point is 00:48:49 Is all this a confession that, after all life is too complex a game for any rules to be of much use? Granted, but there is one thing certain about life, and that is put by Goethe in the lines which I, following Schopenhauer, have placed at the head of my translation. One must be either hammer or anvil in this world, and too great in excess of idealism only means that the unideal people shall rule the world.

Starting point is 00:49:16 To guard against both extremes, we have the paradoxical advice I have heard attributed to Mr. Ruskin. fit yourself for the best society, and then never enter it. Whether any ideal person will learn to rule the world by studying Grazianz, or anyone else's maxims, is somewhat more doubtful, for reasons I have given above in discussing Proverbs. The man who can act on Maxims can act without them, and so does not need them, and there is the same amount of contradiction in Maxims as in Proverbs. Thus, to quote an example from the book before us, from Maxim 132, it would seem best to keep back an intended gift.

Starting point is 00:50:00 Long expected is highest prized, whereas from Maxim 236, we learn that the promptness of the gift obliges the more strongly. Which, maxim, are we to act upon? That depends on circumstances, and the judgment that can decide on the circumstances, can do without the maxims. I cannot therefore promise success in the world, to whomsoever may read this book. Otherwise, I should perhaps not have published it. But whether Graftian's maxims are true or useful, scarcely affects their value, to the student of literature as such, the flimsyest sentiment, or the merest paradox aptly put, is worth the sublimest truth, ill-expressed. And there can be little doubt that Gration puts his points well and vigorously. I cannot hope to have

Starting point is 00:50:50 reproduced adequately all the vigor and force of his style, the subtlety of his distinctions, or the shrewdness of his motherwit. But enough, I hope, has emerged during the process of translation, to convince the reader that Grazian's oraculo manual has much wisdom in small compass, and well put. End of Section 2. Section 3 of The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Balthazar Grazian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Sandra Schmidt.

Starting point is 00:51:32 To the reader. No laws for the just, no counsels for the wise. Yet no one ever knew as much as he had need. One thing you must forgive, another, thank me for. I have called this manual of worldly wisdom an oracle, for a dis-one, in curtness and sententiousness. On the other hand, I offer you in one, all the two, twelve works of Grazian. Each of these is so highly thought of that his prudent man had

Starting point is 00:52:01 scarcely appeared in Spain than it was enjoyed among the French, in whose language it was translated, and at whose court it was printed. May this be Wisdom's Bill of Fair at the banquet of her sages, in which she inscribes the items of the Feast of Reason, to be found in Gratheon's other works. Don Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa 1. Everything is at its acme, especially the art of making one's way in the world. There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man than formerly to make seven sages, and more is needed nowadays to deal with a single person than was required with a whole people in former times. 2. Character and intellect. The two poles of our capacity,

Starting point is 00:52:52 One without the other is but halfway to happiness. Intellect suffices not. Character is also needed. On the other hand, it is the fool's misfortune to fail in obtaining the position, the employment, the neighborhood, and the circle of friends that suit him. 3.

Starting point is 00:53:13 Keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements. It is both useless, and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position

Starting point is 00:53:33 makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of.

Starting point is 00:54:00 It only leaves room for criticism, and if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate. Besides, you imitate the divine way when you cause men to wander and watch. 4. Knowledge and courage are the elements of greatness. They give immortality, because they are immortal. Each is as much as he knows,

Starting point is 00:54:25 and a wise can do anything. A man without knowledge, a world without light. Wisdom and strength, eyes and hands. Knowledge without courage is sterile. Five. Create a feeling of dependence.

Starting point is 00:54:43 Not he that adorns, but he that adores, makes a divinity. The wise man would rather seem man needing him than thanking him. To keep them on the threshold of hope is diplomatic, to trust to their gratitude, boorish. Hope has a good memory, gratitude, a bad one. More is to be got from dependence than from courtesy. He that has satisfied his thirst, turns his back on the well, and the orange, once sucked, falls from the golden platter

Starting point is 00:55:15 into the waste basket. When dependence disappears, good behavior goes with it as well as respect. Let it be one of the chief lessons of experience to keep hope alive, without entirely satisfying it, by preserving it to make oneself always needed, even by a patron on the throne. But let not silence be carried to excess, lest you go wrong, nor let another's failing grow incurable, for the sake of your own advantage. 6. A man at his highest point.

Starting point is 00:55:52 We are not born perfect. Every day we develop in our personality and in our calling, till we reach the highest point of our completed being, to the full round of our accomplishments, of our excellences. This is known by the purity of our taste, the clearness of our thought, the maturity of our judgment,

Starting point is 00:56:13 and the firmness of our ownness of our own. will. Some never arrive at being complete. Some what is always wanting. Others ripen too late. The complete man, wise in speech, prudent in act, is admitted to the familiar intimacy of discrete persons, is even sought for by them. 7. Avoid victories over superiors. All victories breed hate, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal. Superiority is always detested, a fortiori, superiority over superiority. Caution can gloss over common advantages. For example, good looks may be cloaked by careless attire. There be some that will grant you precedence in good luck or good temper,

Starting point is 00:57:03 but none in good sense, least of all a prince. For good sense is a royal prerogative, any claim to that is a case of Les Maje Majestie. They are princes, and wish to be so in that most princely of qualities. They will allow a man to help them, but not to surpass them, and will have any advice tendered them, appear like a recollection of something they have forgotten, rather than as a guide to something they cannot find. The stars teach us this finesse with happy tact.

Starting point is 00:57:35 Though they are his children, and brilliant like him, they never rival the brilliancy of the sun. 8. To be without passions. Tis a privilege of the highest order of mind. Their very eminence redeems them from being affected by transient and low impulses. There is no higher rule than the one over oneself, over one's impulses. There is the triumph of free will. While passion rules the character, no aiming at high office,

Starting point is 00:58:07 the less the higher. It is the only refined way of avoiding scandals, nay, tis the shortest way, back to good repute. 9. Avoid the faults of your nation. Water shares the good or bad qualities of the strata through which it flows, and men those of the climate in which he is born. Some owe more than others to their native land, because there is a more favorable sky in the senith. There is not a nation even among the most civilized that has not some fault peculiar to itself, which other nations blame by way of boast or as a warning. Tis a triumph of cleverness to correct in oneself such national failings, or even to hide them. You get great credit for being unique

Starting point is 00:58:54 among your fellows, and as it is less expected of you, it is esteemed the more. There are also family failings as well as false of position, of office or of age. If these all meet in one person and are not carefully guarded against, they make an intolerable monster. 10. Fortune and fame. Where the one is fickle, the other is enduring. The first for life, the second afterwards. The one against envy, the other against oblivion. Fortune is desired, at times assisted. Fame is earned. The desire for fame springs from man's best part.

Starting point is 00:59:37 It was and is the sister of the giants. It always goes to extremes. Horrible monsters. Or brilliant prodigies. End of Section 3. Section 4 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom by Balthazar Gratian. Translated by Joseph Jacobs.

Starting point is 01:00:02 This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Sandra Schmidt 11 Cultivate those who can teach you Let friendly intercourse be a school of knowledge and culture be taught through conversation Thus you make your friends your teachers And mingle the pleasures of conversation

Starting point is 01:00:21 With the advantages of instruction Sensible persons thus enjoy alternating pleasures They reap applause for what they say And gain instruction from what they hear We are always attracted to others by our own interest, but in this case it is of a higher kind. Wise men frequent the houses of great noblemen, not because they are temples of vanity, but as theatres of good breeding. There be gentlemen, who have the credit of worldly wisdom, because they are not only themselves

Starting point is 01:00:52 oracles of all nobleness by their example and their behaviour, but those who surround them form a well-bred academy of worldly wisdom of the best and noblest things. kind. 12. Nature and art. Material and workmanship. There is no beauty unadorned and no excellence that would not become barbaric if it were not supported by artifice. This remedies the evil and improves the good. Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best, for that we must have recourse to art. Without this, the best of natural dispositions is uncultured, and half is lacking to any excellence if training is absent. Everyone has something unpolished without artificial training,

Starting point is 01:01:39 and every kind of excellence needs some polish. 13. Act sometimes on second thoughts, sometimes on first impulse. Man's life is a warfare against the malice of men. Sagacity fights with strategic changes of intention. It never does what it threatens, it aims only at a sense. escaping notice. It aims in the air with dexterity and strikes home in an unexpected direction, always seeking to conceal its game. It lets a purpose appear in order to attract the opponent's

Starting point is 01:02:15 attention, but then turns round and conquers by the unexpected. But a penetrating intelligence anticipates this by watchfulness and lurks in ambush. It always understands the opposite of what the opponent wishes it to understand, and recognizes every fiend of guile. It lets the first impulse pass by, and waits for the second, or even the third. Sagacity now rises to higher flights on seeing its artifice foreseen, and tries to deceive by truth itself, changes its game in order to change its deceit, and cheats by not cheating, and founds deception on the greatest candor. But the opposing intelligence is on guard with increased watchfulness, and discovers the darkness concealed by the light, and deciphers every move, the more subtle, because more simple.

Starting point is 01:03:09 In this way, the guile of the python combats the far-douting rays of Apollo. Fourteen The thing itself, and the way it is done. Substance is not enough. Accident is also required, as the starvation. scholastics say. A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice. A good one supplies everything, gilds a know, sweetens truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself. The how plays a large part in affairs. A good manner steals into the affections. Fine behavior is a joy in

Starting point is 01:03:48 life, and a pleasant expression helps out of a difficulty in a remarkable way. 15 Keep ministering spirits It is a privilege of the mighty To surround themselves with the champions of intellect These extricate them from every fear of ignorance These worry out for them The mood points of every difficulty

Starting point is 01:04:10 Tis a rare greatness to make use of the wise And far exceeds the barbarous taste of Tigranes Who had a fancy for captive monarchs as his servants It is a novel kind of supremacy the best that life can offer. To have as servants by skill, those who by nature are our masters. It is a great thing to know,

Starting point is 01:04:33 little to live. No real life without knowledge. There is remarkable cleverness in studying without study, in getting much by means of many, and through them all, to become wise. Afterwards, you speak in the council chamber on behalf of many, and as many sages speak through your mouth, as were consulted beforehand.

Starting point is 01:04:55 You thus obtain the fame of an oracle, by others toil. Such ministering spirits distill the best books and serve up the quintessence of wisdom, but he that cannot have sages in service should have them for his friends. 16. Knowledge and good intentions. Together ensure continuance of success. A fine intellect wedded to a wicked will

Starting point is 01:05:20 was always an unnatural monster. A wicked will and venoms all excellences. Helped by knowledge, it only ruins with greater subtlety. It is a miserable superiority that only results in ruin. Knowledge without sense is double folly. 17. Vary the mode of action. Not always the same way, so as to distract attention, especially if there be a rival. Not always from first impulse, They will soon recognize the uniformity, and by anticipating, frustrate your designs. It is easy to kill a bird on the wing that flies straight, not so one that twists, nor always act on second thoughts. They can discern the plan the second time.

Starting point is 01:06:07 The enemy is on the watch. Great skill is required to circumvent him. The gamester never placed the cart the opponent expects. Still less that which he wants. 18 Application and ability There is no attaining eminence without both And where they unite there is the greatest eminence Mediocrity obtains more with application Than superiority without it

Starting point is 01:06:33 Work is the price which is paid for reputation What costs little is little worth Even for the highest posts It is only in some cases application that is wanting Rarely the talent To prefer moderate success in great things than eminence in a humble post has the excuse of a generous mind, but not so to be content with humble mediocrity when you could shine among the highest. Thus nature and art are both needed, and application sets on them the seal.

Starting point is 01:07:05 19. Arouse no exaggerated expectations on entering. It is the usual ill-luck of all celebrities, not to fulfil afterwards, the expectations beforehand formed of them. The real can never equal the imagined, for it is easy to form ideals, but very difficult to realize them. Imagination wedes hope, and gives birth to much more than things are in themselves.

Starting point is 01:07:33 However great the excellences, they never suffice to fulfill expectations, and as men find themselves disappointed with their exorbitant expectations, they are more ready to be disillusioned than to admire. Hope is a great falsifier of truth. Let skill guard against this by ensuring that fruition exceeds desire. A few creditable attempts at the beginning are sufficient to arouse curiosity without pledging one to the final object.

Starting point is 01:08:02 It is better that reality should surpass the design and is better than was thought. This rule does not apply to the wicked, for the same exaggeration is great aid to them. They are defeated amid general approach. and what seemed at first extreme ruin, comes to be thought quite bearable. 20. A man of the age. The rarest individuals depend on their age. It is not everyone that finds the age he deserves, and even when he finds it, he does not

Starting point is 01:08:34 always know how to utilise it. Some men have been worthy of a better century, for every species of good does not always triumph. Things have their period. even excellences are subject to fashion. The sage has one advantage. He is immortal. If this is not a century, many others will be.

Starting point is 01:08:57 End of Section 4. Section 5 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltazagrathian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Sandra Schmidt. 21. The art of being lucky. There are rules of luck.

Starting point is 01:09:23 It is not all chance with the wise. It can be assisted by care. Some content themselves with placing themselves confidently at the gate of fortune, waiting till she opens it. Others do better, and press forward and profit by their clever boldness, reaching the goddess and winning her favour on the wings of their virtue and valour. But on a true philosophy there is no other umpire. than virtue and insight, for there is no luck or ill luck, except wisdom and the reverse.

Starting point is 01:09:56 22. A man of knowledge to the point. Wise men arm themselves with tasteful and elegant erudition, a practical knowledge of what is going on, not of a common kind, but more like an expert. They possess a copious store of wise and witty sayings, and of noble deeds, and know how to employ them on fitting occasions. More is often taught by a jest than by the most serious teaching. Pet knowledge helps some more than the seven arts,

Starting point is 01:10:27 be they ever so liberal. 23. Be spotless. The indispensable condition of perfection. Few live without some weak point, either physical or moral, which they pamper because they could easily cure it. The keenness of others

Starting point is 01:10:44 often regrets to see a slight defect. attaching itself to a whole assembly of elevated qualities, and yet a single cloud can hide the whole of the sun. There are likewise patches on our reputation, which ill will soon finds out and is continually noticing. The highest skill is to transform them into ornament, so Caesar hid his natural defects with the laurel. 24.

Starting point is 01:11:12 Keep the imagination under control. Sometimes correcting, sometimes correcting, sometimes. assisting it, for it is all important for our happiness, and even sets the reason right, it can tyrannize, and is not content with looking on, but influences, and even often dominates life, causing it to be happy or burdensome, according to the folly to which it leads, for it makes us either contented or discontented with ourselves. Before some, it continually holds up the penalties of action, and becomes the mortifying lash of these fools. To others, it promises happiness and adventure with blissful delusion.

Starting point is 01:11:52 It can do all this, unless the most prudent self-control keeps it in subjection. Twenty-five. Know how to take a hint. T'was once the art of arts to be able to discourse. Now tis no longer sufficient. We must know how to take a hint, especially in disabusing ourselves. He cannot make himself understood who does not himself easily, understand. But on the other hand, there are pretended diviners of the heart and lynxes of the

Starting point is 01:12:23 intentions. The very truths which concern us most can only be half-spoken, but with attention we can grasp the whole meaning. When you hear anything favorable, keep a tight rein on your credulity. If unfavorable, give it the spur. Twenty-six. Find out each man's thumb-screw. "'Tis the art of setting their wills in action. "'It needs more skill than resolution. "'You must know where to get at anyone. "'Every volition has a special motive, "'which varies according to taste.

Starting point is 01:12:59 "'All men are idolaters, some of fame, "'others of self-interest, most of pleasure. "'Skill consists in knowing these idols "'in order to bring them into play. "'Kknowing any man's mainspring of motive, you have, as it were, the key to his will. Have resort to primary motors, which are not always the highest, but more often the lowest part of his nature. There are more dispositions badly organized than well.

Starting point is 01:13:28 First, guess a man's ruling passion, appeal to it by a word, set it in motion by temptation, and you will infallibly give checkmate to his freedom of will. 27. Price intensity more than extend. Excellence resides in quality, not in quantity. The best is always few and rare. Much lowers value. Even among men, giants are commonly the real dwarfs.

Starting point is 01:14:00 Some reckon books by the thickness as if they were written to try the brawn more than the brain. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity. it is the misfortune of universal geniuses that in attempting to be at home everywhere are so nowhere intensity gives eminence and rises to the heroic in matters sublime

Starting point is 01:14:22 twenty eight common in nothing first not in taste oh great and wise to be ill at ease when your deeds please the mob the excesses of popular applause never satisfy the sensible Some there are such

Starting point is 01:14:39 chameleons of popularity that they find enjoyment not in the sweet savers of Apollo but in the breath of the mob. Secondly, not in intelligence. Take no pleasure in the wonder of the mob for ignorance never gets beyond wonder. While vulgar folly wonders,

Starting point is 01:14:57 wisdom watches for the trick. 29 A man of rectitude clings to the sect of right with such tenacity of purpose that neither the passions of the mob nor the violence of the tyrant can ever cause him to transgress the bounds of right.

Starting point is 01:15:15 But who shall be such a phoenix of equity? What a scanty following has rectitude? Many praise it indeed, but for others. Others follow it till danger threatens. Then the faults deny it, the politic conceal it. For it cares not if it fights with friendship, power, or even self-interest. Then comes the danger of desertion.

Starting point is 01:15:39 Then astute men make plausible distinctions, so as not to stand in the way of their superiors, or of reasons of state, but the straightforward and constant regard dissimulation as a kind of treason, and set more store on tenacity than on sagacity. Such are always to be found on the side of truth, and if they desert a party,

Starting point is 01:16:01 they do not change from fickleness, but because the others have first deserted truth. 30. Have not to do with occupations of ill-reput, still less with feds that bring more notoriety than repute. There are many fanciful sects, and from all the prudent man has to flee. There are bizarre tastes that always take to their heart all that wise men repudiate. They live in love with singularity.

Starting point is 01:16:30 This may make them well known indeed, but more as objects of ridicule than of repute. A cautious man does not even make profession of his wisdom, still less of those matters that make their followers ridiculous. These need not be specified, for common contempt has sufficiently singled them out. End of Section 5 Section 6 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltazar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. This Librivox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 01:17:10 Recording by Sandra Schmidt. 31. Select the lucky and avoid the unlucky. Ill luck is generally the penalty of folly, and there is no disease so contagious to those who share in it. Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it. The greatest skill at cards is to know when to discard it.

Starting point is 01:17:38 The smallest of current trumps is worth more than the ace of trumps of the last game. When in doubt, follow the suit of the wise and the prudent. Sooner or later, they will win the odd trick. 32. Have the reputation of being gracious. Tis the chief glory of the high and mighty to be gracious, a prerogative of kings to conquer universal grecious. goodwill, that is the great advantage of a commanding position, to be able to do more good than

Starting point is 01:18:09 others. Those make friends who do friendly acts. On the other hand, there are some who lay themselves out for not being gracious, not on account of the difficulty, but from a bad disposition. In all things, they are the opposite of divine grace. 33. Know how to withdraw. If it is a great lesson in life to know a how to deny, it is still greater to know how to deny oneself as regards both affairs and persons. There are extraneous occupations which eat away precious time. To be occupied in what does not concern you is worse than doing nothing. It is not enough for a careful man not to interfere with others. He must see that they do not interfere with him. One is not obliged to belong so much to

Starting point is 01:19:00 all as not to belong at all to oneself. So with friends, their help should not be abused, or more demanded from them than they themselves will grant. All excess is a failing, but above all in personal intercourse. A wise moderation in this best preserves the goodwill and esteem of all, for by this means that precious boon of courtesy is not gradually worn away. Thus you preserve your genius, free to select the elect, and never sin against the unwritten laws of good taste. 34. Know your strongest point. Your pre-eminent gift. Cultivate that, and you will assist the rest. Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point.

Starting point is 01:19:49 Notice in what quality you surpass, and take charge of that. In some judgment excels, in others. valor, most the violence to their natural aptitude, and thus attains superiority in nothing, time disillusionizes us too late of what first flattered the passions. 35. Think over things, most over the most important. All fools come to grief from want of thought. They never see even the half of things, and as they do not observe their own loss or gain, still less do they apply any diligence to them. Some make much of what imports little, and little of much,

Starting point is 01:20:33 always weighing in the wrong scale. Many never lose their common sense, because they have none to lose. There are matters which should be observed with the closest attention of the mind, and thenceforth, kept in its lowest depths. The wise man thinks over everything, but with the difference, most profoundly where there is some profound difficulty, and thinks that perhaps there is more in it than he thinks. Thus his comprehension extends as far as his apprehension.

Starting point is 01:21:04 36. In acting or refraining, weigh your luck. More depends on that than on noticing your temperament. If he is a fool who at 40 applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he one who then applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck, even while waiting for it. For something is to be done with it by waiting, so as to use it at a proper moment, since it has periods and offers opportunities, though one cannot calculate its path,

Starting point is 01:21:38 its steps are so irregular. When you find fortune favourable, stride boldly forward, for she favours the bold, and, being a woman, the young. But if you have bad luck, keep retired so as not to redouble the influence of your unlucky star. 37. Keep a store of sarcasms and know how to use them. This is the point of greatest tact in human intercourse. Such sarcasms are often thrown out to test man's mood,

Starting point is 01:22:09 and by their means one often obtains the most subtle and penetrating touchstone of the heart. Other sarcasms are malicious, insolent, poisoned by envy or envenomed by passion, unexpected flashes, which destroy at once all favour and esteem. Struck by the slightest word of this kind, many fall away from the closest intimacy with superiors or inferiors, which could not be the slightest shaken by a whole conspiracy of popular insinuation or private malevolence. Other sarcasms, on the other hand, work favorably, confirming and assisting one's reputation. But the great great,

Starting point is 01:22:48 the skill with which they are launched, the greater the caution with which they should be received, and the foresight with which they should be foreseen, for here a knowledge of the evil is in itself a means of defence, and the shot foreseen always misses its mark. 38. Leave your luck while winning. All the best players do it. A fine retreat is as good as a gallant attack. Bring your exploits under cover when there are enough, or even when there are many of them. Luck long-lasting was ever suspicious. Interrupted seems safer, and is even sweeter to the taste for a little infusion of bittersweet. The higher the heap of luck, the greater the risk of a slip, and down comes all. Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favors, by the

Starting point is 01:23:43 shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying anyone long on her shoulders. 39. Recognize when things are ripe, and then enjoy them. The works of nature all reach a certain point of maturity. Up to that they improve. After that, they degenerate. Few works of art reach such a point that they cannot be improved. It is in a special privilege of good taste to enjoy everything at its ripest. Not all can do this, nor do all who can know this. There is a ripening point, too, for fruits of intellect. It is well to know this, both for their value in use and for their value in exchange. Forty. The goodwill of people. Tis much to gain universal admiration, more universal love. Something depends on natural disposition.

Starting point is 01:24:43 more on practice. The first founds, the second then builds on that foundation. Brilliant parts suffice not, though they are presupposed. Win good opinion, it is easy to win goodwill. Kindly acts besides are required to produce kindly feelings. Doing good with both hands, good words and better deeds, loving, so as to be loved. Courtesy is the politic wichery of great personages. First, lay hand on deeds, and then on pens. Words follow swords, for there is goodwill to be one among writers, and it is eternal. End of Section 6. Section 7 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Librevox.org.

Starting point is 01:25:49 Recorded by Linda Sonrisa, servision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltazar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 7. 41. Never exaggerate. It is an important object of attention

Starting point is 01:26:11 not to talk in superlatives, so is neither to neither to. offend against truth, nor to give a mean idea of one's understanding. Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment, which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste. Praise arouses lively curiosity, begets desire, and if afterwards the value does not correspond to the price, as generally happens, expectation revolts against the deception, and revenges itself by underestimating the thing recommended and the person recommending. A prudent man goes more cautiously to work, and prefers to err by omission than by commission.

Starting point is 01:26:56 Extraordinary things are rare, therefore moderate ordinary valuation. Exaggeration is a branch of lying, and you lose by it the credit of good taste, which is much and of good sense, which is more. 42. Born to command. It is a secret force of superiority not to have to get on by artful trickery, but by an inborn power of rule. I'll submit to it without knowing why,

Starting point is 01:27:28 recognizing the secret vigor of connatural authority. Such magisterial spirits are kings by merit and lions by innate privilege. By the esteem which they inspire. they hold the hearts and minds of the rest. If their other qualities permit, such men are born to be the prime motors of the state. They perform more by a gesture than others by a long harangue. 43. Think with the few and speak with the many. By swimming against the stream, it is impossible to remove error, easy to fall into danger, only as Socrates can undertake. it. To dissent from others' views is regarded as an insult because it is their condemnation.

Starting point is 01:28:18 Disgust is doubled on account of the thing blamed and of the person who praised it. Truth is for the few. Error is both common and vulgar. The wise man is not known by what he says on the housetops, for there he speaks not with his own voice, but with that of common folly. however much his inmost thoughts may gain say it. The prudent avoid being contradicted as much as contradicting, though they have their censure ready, they are not ready to publish it. Thought is free, force cannot and should not be used to it. The wise man therefore retires into silence,

Starting point is 01:28:58 and if he allows himself to come out of it, he does so in the shade and before few and fit persons. 44. Sympathy with great minds. It is an heroic quality to agree with heroes. Tis like a miracle of nature for mystery and for use. There is a natural kinship of hearts and minds. Its effects are such that vulgar ignorance sense witchcraft. As steam established, goodwill follows, which at times reaches affection.

Starting point is 01:29:34 It persuades without words and obtains without. earning. This sympathy is sometimes active, sometimes passive. Both are like Felicific. The more so, the more sublime. Tis a great art to recognize, to distinguish, and to utilize this gift. No amount of energy suffices without that favor of nature. 45. Use, but do not abuse cunning. One ought not to delight in it, still less, to boast of it. Everything artificial should be concealed, most of all cunning, which is hated. Deceit is much in use, therefore our caution has to be redoubled, but not so is to show itself, for it arouses distrust, causes much annoy, awakens revenge, and gives rise to more ills

Starting point is 01:30:28 than you would imagine. To go to work with caution is of great advantage in action, and there is no greater proof of wisdom. The greatest skill in any deed consists in the sure mastery with which it is executed. 46. Master your antipathies. We often allow ourselves to take dislikes and that before we know anything of a person. At times this innate yet vulgar aversion attaches itself to eminent personalities. Good sense masters this feeling, for there is nothing more discreditable than to dislike those better than ourselves. As sympathy with great men ennobles us, so dislike to them degrades us. 47. Avoid affairs of honor. One of the chiefest aims of prudence. In men of great ability, the extremes are kept far asunder so that there is a

Starting point is 01:31:31 long distance between them, and they always keep in the middle of their caution so that they take time to break through it. It is easier to avoid such affairs than to come well out of them. They test our judgment. It is better to avoid them than to conquer in them. One affair of honor leads to another, and may lead to an affair of dishonor. There are men so constituted by nature or by nation, that they easily enter upon such obligations. But for him that walks by the light of reason, such a matter requires long thinking over. There is more valor needed not to take up the affair than to conquer in it. When there is one fool ready for the occasion, one may excuse oneself from being the second. Forty-eight, be thorough. How much depends on the person.

Starting point is 01:32:26 The interior must be at least as much as the exterior. How much depends on the person. The interior must be at least as much as the exterior. There are natures all frontage, like houses, for want of means, have the portico of a palace, leading to the rooms of a cottage. It is no use boring into such persons, although they bore you, for conversation flags after the first salutation. They prance through the first compliments like. Sicilian barbs, but silence soon succeeds, for the flow of words soon ceases where there is no spring of thoughts. Others may be taken in by them because they themselves have but a view of the

Starting point is 01:33:09 surface, but not the prudent who look within them and find nothing there except material for scorn. Observation and judgment. A man with these rules things, not they him. He sounds at once the profoundest depths. He is a phrenologist by means of physiognomy. On scene a person he understands him, and judges of his inmost nature. From a few observations, he decifers the most hidden recesses of his nature. Keen observation, subtle insight, judicious inference,

Starting point is 01:33:49 with these he discovers, notices, grasps, and comprehends everything. 50. Never lose self-respect. Or be too familiar with oneself. Let your own right feeling be the true standard of your rectitude, and owe more to the strictness of your own self-judgment than to all external sanctions. Leave off anything unseemly, more from regard for your own self-rejudgment. And, respect than from fear of external authority. Pay regard to that, and there is no need of Seneca's imaginary tutor. End of Section 7. Section 8 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom.

Starting point is 01:34:42 This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrivox. Sirvision.org The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 8. 51.

Starting point is 01:35:09 Know how to choose well. Most of life depends thereon. It needs good taste and correct judgment, for which neither intellect nor study suffices. To be choice, you must choose, and for this two things are necessary. needed, to be able to choose at all, and then to choose the best. There are many men of fecund and subtle mind, of keen judgment, of much learning, and of great observation, who yet are at a loss when they

Starting point is 01:35:37 come to choose. They always take the worst, as if they had tried to go wrong. Thus, this is one of the greatest gifts from above. 52. Never be put out. Tis a great aim of prudence, never to be embarrassed. it is the sign of a real man of a noble heart for magnanimity is not easily put out the passions are the humours of the soul and every excess in them weakens prudence if they overflow through the mouth the reputation will be in danger let a man therefore be so much and so great a master over himself that neither in the most fortunate nor in the most adverse circumstances can anything cause his reputation injury by disturbing his self-possession, but rather enhance it by showing his superiority. 53. Diligent and intelligent. Diligence promptly executes what intelligence slowly excogitates.

Starting point is 01:36:40 Hurry is the failing of fools. They know not the crucial point and set to work without preparation. On the other hand, the wise more often fail from procrastination. Foresight begets deliberation and remissaction. often nullifies prompt judgment. Solarity is the mother of good fortune. He has done much who leaves nothing over till tomorrow. Festina Lente is a royal motto.

Starting point is 01:37:09 54. Know how to show your teeth. Even hairs can pull the mane of a dead lion. There is no joke about courage. Give way to the first and you must yield to the second and so on till the last, and to gain your point at last costs as much trouble as would have gained much more at first. Moral courage exceeds physical.

Starting point is 01:37:31 It should be like a sword kept ready for use in the scabbard of caution. It is the shield of great place. Moral cowardice lowers one more than physical. Many have had eminent qualities, yet, for want of a stout heart, they passed inanimate lives and found a tomb in their own sloth. wise nature has thoughtfully combined in the bee the sweetness of its honey with the sharpness of its sting. 55 Wait

Starting point is 01:38:02 It's a sign of a noble heart dowered with patience never to be in a hurry, never to be in a passion. First be master over yourself if you would be master over others. You must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity. A wise reserve seasons the aims and matures the means. Time's crutch affects more than the Iron Club of Hercules. God himself chastenedeth not with a rod, but with time. He spake a great word who said, Time and I against any two.

Starting point is 01:38:39 Charles V. Fortune herself rewards waiting with the first prize. 56. Have presence of mind. The child of a hand. happy promptitude of spirit. Owing to this vivacity and wide-awakness, there is no fear of danger or mischance. Many reflect much only to go wrong in the end. Others attain their aim without thinking of it beforehand. There are natures of antiparastasis who work best in an emergency. They are like

Starting point is 01:39:12 monsters who succeed in all they do offhand, but fail in aught they think over. A thing occurs to them at once or never. For them there is no court of appeal. Solarity wins applause because it proves remarkable capacity, subtlety of judgment, prudence in action. Fifty-seven. Slow and sure. Early enough if well, quickly done can be quickly undone. To last an eternity requires an eternity of preparation. Only excellence counts, only achievement endures. Profound is the only foundation for immortality. Worth much, costs much. The precious metals are the heaviest.

Starting point is 01:39:58 58. Adapt yourself to your company. There is no need to show your ability before everyone. Employ no more force than is necessary. Let there be no unnecessary expenditure either of knowledge or of power. The skillful falconer only flies enough birds to serve for the chase. If there is too much display today, there will be nothing to show tomorrow. Always have some novelty wherewith to dazzle, to show something fresh each day keeps expectation alive and conceals the limits of capacity.

Starting point is 01:40:35 59. Finish off well. In the House of Fortune, if you enter by the gate of pleasure, you must leave by that of sorrow and vice versa. You ought, therefore, to think of the finish, and attach to the finish, and attach to the house of fortune. more importance to a graceful exit than to applause on entrance. Tis the common lot of the unlucky to have a very fortunate outset and a very tragic end. The important point is not the vulgar applause on entrance. That comes to nearly all, but the general feeling at exit. Few in life are felt a deserve an encore. Fortune rarely accompanies anyone to the door. Warmly as she may welcome

Starting point is 01:41:15 the coming, she speeds but coldly the partying. guest. 60. A sound judgment. Some are born wise, and with this natural advantage, enter upon their studies, with a moiety already mastered. With age and experience, their reason ripens, and thus they attain a sound judgment. They abhor everything whimsical as leading prudence astray, especially in matters of state, where certainty is so necessary owing to the importance of the affairs involved. Such men deserve to stand by the helm of state, either as pilots or as men at the wheel. End of Section 8. The Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Librevox.org. Recording by

Starting point is 01:42:18 Linda Sonrisa Servision.org The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian Section 9 61 To excel in what is excellent

Starting point is 01:42:36 A great rarity among excellences You cannot have a great man without something pre-eminent Mediocrates never win applause Eminence in some distinguished post distinguishes one from the vulgar mob and ranks us with the elect. To be distinguished in a small post is to be great in little.

Starting point is 01:43:00 The more comfort, the less glory. The highest eminence in great affairs has the royal characteristic of exciting admiration and winning goodwill. 62. Use good instruments. Some would have the subtlety of their wits proven by the meanness of their instruments. Tis a dangerous satisfaction and deserves a fatal punishment. The excellence of a minister never diminished the greatness of his lord. All the glory of exploits reverts to the principal actor, also all the blame. Fame only does business with principles. She does not say, This had good that had bad servants.

Starting point is 01:43:46 But this was a good artist, that a bad one. Let your assistants be selected and tested, therefore, for you have to trust to them for an immortality of fame. 63. To be the first of the kind is an excellence. And to be eminent in it as well, a double one. to have the first move is a great advantage when the players are equal.

Starting point is 01:44:14 Many a man would have been a veritable phoenix if he had been the first of the sort. Those who come first are the heirs of fame. The others get only a younger brother's allowance. Whatever they do, they cannot persuade the world they are anything more than parrots. The skill of prodigies may find a new path to eminence, but prudence accompanies them all the way, By the novelty of their enterprises, Sage write their names in the golden book of heroes. Some prefer to be first in things of minor import

Starting point is 01:44:48 than second in greater exploits. 64. Avoid worry. Such prudence brings its own reward. It escapes much and is thus the midwife of comfort and so of happiness. Neither give nor take bad news. unless it can help. Some men's ears are stuffed with the sweets of flattery, others with the bitters of scandal, while some cannot live without a daily annoyance, no more than Mithridates

Starting point is 01:45:21 could without poison. It is no rule of life to prepare for yourself lifelong trouble in order to give a temporary enjoyment to another, however near and dear. You never ought to spoil your own chances to please another who advises and keeps out of the affair, And in all cases, where to oblige another involves disobliging yourself, tis a standing rule that it is better he should suffer now than you afterwards, and in vain. 65. Elevated taste. You can train it like the intellect.

Starting point is 01:45:58 Full knowledge wets desire and increases enjoyment. You may know a noble spirit by the elevation of his taste. It must be a great thing that can satisfy a great mind. Big bites for big mouths, lofty things for lofty spirits. Before their judgment, the bravest tremble, the most perfect, lose confidence. Things of the first importance are few. Let appreciation be rare. Taste can be imparted by intercourse.

Starting point is 01:46:30 Great good luck to associate with the highest taste. But do not affect to be dissatisfied. with everything, tis the extreme of folly, and more odious if from affectation than if from quixotry. Some would have God create another world and other ideals to satisfy their fantastic imagination. 66. See that things end well. Some regard more the rigor of the game than the winning of it, but to the world the discredit of the final failure does away with ever. recognition of the previous care. The victor need not explain. The world does not notice the details of the measures employed, but only the good or ill result. You lose nothing if you gain

Starting point is 01:47:20 your end. A good end gilds everything, however unsatisfactory, the means. Thus at times it is part of the art of life to transgress the rules of the art if you cannot end well otherwise. 67 prefer callings and evidence most things depend on the satisfaction of others esteem is to excellence what the zephyr is to flowers the breath of life there are some callings which gain universal esteem while others more important are without credit the former pursued before the eyes of all obtained the universal favor the others though they are rarer and more valuable remain obscure and unperceived, honored, but not applauded. Among princes, conquerors are the most celebrated, and therefore the kings of Aragon earned such applause as warriors, conquerors, and great men. An able man will prefer callings and evidence, which all men know of and utilize, and he thus becomes immortalized by universal suffrage.

Starting point is 01:48:33 68 It is better to help with intelligence than with memory. The more as the latter needs only recollection, the former v. Many persons omit the apropos because it does not occur to them. A friend's advice on such occasions may enable them to see the advantages. Tis one of the greatest gifts of mind to be able to offer what is needed at the moment. For want of that, many things fail to be performed. Share the light of your intelligence when you have any, and ask for it when you have it not,

Starting point is 01:49:09 the first cautiously, the last anxiously. Give no more than a hint. This finesse is especially needful when it touches the interest of him whose attention you awaken. You should give but a taste at first, and then pass on to more when that is not sufficient. If he thinks of no, go in search of yes. therein lies the cleverness, for most things are not obtained, simply because they are not attempted. He is a great man who never allows himself to be influenced by the impressions of others. Self-reflection is the school of wisdom, to know one's disposition and to allow for it,

Starting point is 01:49:54 even going to the other extreme so as to find the just milieu between nature and art. knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement. There be some whose humors are so monstrous that they are always under the influence of one or the other of them and put them in place of their real inclinations. They are torn asunder by such disharmony and get involved in contradictory obligations. Such excesses not only destroy firmness of will, all power of judgment gets lost, desire and knowledge pulling in opposite directions. 70. Know how to refuse. One ought not to give way in everything, nor to everybody. To know how to refuse is therefore as important as to know how to consent. This is especially the case with men of position. All depends on the how. Some men's no is thought of more than the yes of others, for a gilded no is more satisfactory than a dry yes. some who always have no on their lips, whereby they make everything tistasteful. No always comes first with

Starting point is 01:51:08 them, and when sometimes they give way after all, it does them no good on account of the unpleasing Harold. Your refusal need not be point-blank. Let the disappointment come by degrees, nor let the refusal be final. That would be to destroy dependence. Let some spice of hope remain to soften the rejection. Let politeness compensate and fine words supply the place of deeds. Yes and no are soon said, but give much to think over. End of Section 9. Section 10 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org.

Starting point is 01:52:06 recording by linda sonrisa survision.org The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 10. 71. Do not vacillate. Let not your actions be abnormal, either from disposition or affectation. An able man is always the same in his best qualities. He gets the credit of trustworthiness. If he changes, he does so for good reason or good consideration.

Starting point is 01:52:40 In matters of conduct, change is hateful. There are some who are different every day. Their intelligence varies, still more their will, and with this their fortune. Yesterday's white is today's black. Today's no was yesterday's yes. They always give the lie to their own credit and destroy their credit with others.

Starting point is 01:53:02 72. Be resolute. Bad execution of your designs does less harm than irresolution in forming them. Streams do less harm flowing than when damned up. There are some men so infirm of purpose that they always require direction from others, and this not on account of any perplexity, for they judge clearly, but from sheer incapacity for action. It needs some skill to find out difficulties, but more to find a way out of them. There are others who are never in straits.

Starting point is 01:53:35 Their clear judgment and determined character fit them for the highest callings. Their intelligence tells them where to insert the thin end of the wedge, their resolution, how to drive it home. They soon get through anything. As soon as they have done with one sphere of action, they are ready for another. A fiance to fortune, they make themselves sure of success. 73. Utilize slips.

Starting point is 01:54:03 That is how smart people get out of difficulties. they extricate themselves from the most intricate labyrinth by some witty application of a bright remark. They get out of a serious contention, by an airy nothing, or by raising a smile. Most of the great leaders are well-grounded in this art. When you have to refuse, it is often the polite way to talk of something else. Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand. 74. Do not be unsociable. The truest wild beasts live in the most populous places.

Starting point is 01:54:40 To be inaccessible is the fault of those who distrust themselves, whose honors change their manners. It is no way of earning people's goodwill by being ill-tempered with them. It is a sight to see one of those unsociable monsters who make a point of being proudly impertinent. Their dependents, who have the misfortune to be obliged to speak with them, enter as if prepared for a fight with a tiger, armed with patience and with fear. To obtain their post, these persons must have ingratiated themselves with everyone, but having once obtained it, they seek to indemnify themselves by disobliging all. It is a condition of their position that they should be accessible to all,

Starting point is 01:55:20 yet from pride or spleen they are so to none. Tis a civil way to punish such men by letting them alone, and depriving them of opportunities of improvement by granting them no opportunity of intercourse. 75. Choose an heroic ideal. But rather to emulate than to imitate, there are exemplars of greatness, living texts of honor. Let everyone have before his mind the chief of his calling not so much to follow him as to spur himself on. Alexander wept, not on account of Achilles' dead and buried, but over him.

Starting point is 01:55:57 himself because his fame had not yet spread throughout the world. Nothing arouses ambition so much in the heart as the trumpet clang of another's fame. The same thing that sharpens envy nourishes a generous spirit. 76. Do not always be jesting. Wisdom is shown in serious matters and is more appreciated than mere wit. He that is always ready for jests is never ready for serious things. They It resemble liars in that men never believe either, always expecting a lie in one, a joke in the other. One never knows when you speak with judgment, which is the same as if you had none. A continual jest soon loses all zest. Many get the rapture of being witty, but thereby lose the credit of being sensible.

Starting point is 01:56:47 Just has its little hour. Seriousness should have all the rest. 77 Be all things to all men. A discrete proteus, learned with the learned, saintly with the sainted. It is the great art to gain everyone's suffrages. Their goodwill gains general agreement. Notice men's moods and adapt yourself to each,

Starting point is 01:57:10 genial or serious as the case may be. Follow their lead, glossing over the changes as cunningly as possible. This is an indispensable art for dependent persons. But this Savoy-Faire calls for great cleverness. He only will find no difficulty who has a universal genius in his knowledge and universal ingenuity in his wit. 78

Starting point is 01:57:34 The Art of Undertaking Things Fools rush in through the door for folly is always bold. The same simplicity, which robs them of all attention to precautions, deprives them of all sense of shame at failure. But prudence enters with more deliberation. Its forerunners are caution

Starting point is 01:57:54 and care. They advance and discover whether you can also advance without danger. Every rush forward is freed from danger by caution, while fortune sometimes helps in such cases. Step cautiously where you suspect depth. Sagacity goes cautiously forward, while precaution covers the ground. Nowadays, there are unsuspected depths in human intercourse. You must therefore cast the lead at every step. A genial disposition If, with moderation, is an accomplishment, not a defect. A grain of gaiety seasons all. The greatest men join in the fun at times, and it makes them liked by all.

Starting point is 01:58:40 But they should always, on such occasions, preserve their dignity, nor go beyond the bounds of decorum. Others, again, get themselves out of difficulty quickest by a joke, for there are things you must take in fun, though others perhaps mean them in earnest. You show a sense of placability, which acts as a magnet on all hearts. 80.

Starting point is 01:59:04 Take care to get information. We live by information, not by sight. We exist by faith in others. The ear is the area gate of truth, but the front door of lies. The truth is generally seen, rarely heard. Seldom she comes in elemental purity, especially from afar, there is always some admixture of the moods of those through whom she has

Starting point is 01:59:28 passed. The passions tinge her with their colors, wherever they touch her, sometimes favorably, sometimes the reverse. She always brings out the disposition, therefore receive her with caution from him that praises, with more caution from him that blames. Pay attention to the intention of the speaker. You should know beforehand on what footing he comes. Let reflection, assay falsity, and exaggeration. End of Section 10. Section 11 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is the Librevox recording.

Starting point is 02:00:11 All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Bust Valtesar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. 81. Renew your brilliance. Tis the privilege of the Phoenix.

Starting point is 02:00:40 Ability is wanted to grow old, and with it, fame. The staleness of custom weakens admiration, and a mediocrity that's new, often eclipses the highest excellence, grown old. Try, therefore, to be born again, in valor, in genius, in fortune, in all. Display startling novelties. Rise afresh like the sun every day. Change to the scene on which you shine so that your loss may be felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins you applause in the new. 82. Drain nothing to the dregs, neither good nor ill. A sage once reduced all virtue to the golden mean. Push right to the extreme, and it becomes wrong. Press all the

Starting point is 02:01:26 juice from an orange, and it becomes bitter. Even in enjoyment, never go to extremes. Thought too subtle is dull. If you milk a cow too much, you draw blood, not milk. Eighty-three. Allow yourself some venial fault. Some such carelessness is often the greatest recommendation of talent, for envy exercises ostracism, most envenomed when most polite. It counts to perfection as a a failing that it has no faults. For being perfect in all, it condemns it in all. It becomes an argus, all eyes for imperfection, tis its only consolation. Blame is like the lightning. It hits the highest. Let Homer nod now and then and affect some negligence and valor, or in intellect, not in prudence, so as to disarm malevolence, or at least to prevent its bursting with its own

Starting point is 02:02:24 venom. You thus leave your cloak on the horns of envy in order to save your immortal parts. 84. Make use of your enemies. You should learn to seize things not by the blade which cuts, but by the handle, which saves you from harm. Especially is this the rule with the doings of your enemies. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Their ill will often levels mountains of difficulties which one would otherwise not face. Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies. Flattery is more dangerous than hatred

Starting point is 02:03:03 because it covers the stains which the other causes to be wiped out. The wise will turn ill will into a mirror more faithful than that of kindness and remove or improve the faults referred to. Caution thrives well when rivalry and ill will are next-door neighbors. 85 Do not play Manville It is a fault of excellence That being so much in use

Starting point is 02:03:30 It is liable to abuse Because all covet it All are vexed by it It is a great misfortune To be of use to nobody Scarcely less to be of use to everybody The people who reach this stage Lose by gaining

Starting point is 02:03:44 And at last bore those who desired them before These Manils wear away all kinds of excellence. Losing the earlier esteem of the few, they obtain discredit among the vulgar. The remedy against this extreme is to moderate your brilliance. Be extraordinary in your excellence if you like, but be ordinary in your display of it.

Starting point is 02:04:07 The more light a torch gives, the more it burns away, and the nearer tis to going out. Show yourself less, and you will be rewarded by being esteemed more. Eighty-six. Prevent Scandal

Starting point is 02:04:22 Many heads go to make the mob And in each of them are eyes for malice to use And a tongue for detraction to wag If a single ill report spread It casts a blemish on your fair fame And if it clings to you with a nickname Your reputation is in danger Generally it is some salient defect

Starting point is 02:04:42 Or ridiculous trait that gives rise to the rumors At times these are malicious additions Of private envy to general destruction trust, for there are wicked tongues that ruin a great reputation more easily by a witty sneer than by a direct accusation. It is easy to get into bad repute, because it is easy to believe evil of anyone. It is not easy to clear yourself. The wise, accordingly, avoid these mischances, guarding against vulgar scandal with sedulous vigilance. It is far easier to prevent than to rectify. Culture and elegance

Starting point is 02:05:23 Man is a born barbarian and only raises himself above the beast by culture. Culture therefore makes the man, the more a man, the higher. Thanks to it, Greece could call the rest of the world barbarians. Ignorance is very raw. Nothing contributes so much to culture as knowledge, but even knowledge is coarse, if without elegance. Not alone must our intelligence be elegant, but our desires, and above all are conversation.

Starting point is 02:05:52 Some men are naturally elegant in internal and external qualities, in their thoughts, in their address, in their dress, which is the rind of the soul, and in their talents, which is its fruit. There are others, on the other hand, so gauche, that everything about them, even their very excellencies, is tarnished by an intolerable and barbaric want of neatness. 88. Let your behavior be fine and nice.

Starting point is 02:06:19 noble. A great man ought not to be little in his behavior. He ought never to pry too minutely into things, least of all in unpleasant matters. For though it is important to know all, it is not necessary to know all about all. One ought to act in such cases, with the generosity of a gentleman, conduct worthy of a gallant man. To overlook forms a large part of the work of ruling. Most things must be left unnoticed among relatives and friends, and even among enemies. All superfluity is annoying, especially in things that annoy. To keep hovering around the object of your annoyance is a kind of mania. Generally speaking, every man behaves according to his heart and his understanding. 89. Know yourself. In talents and capacity, in judgment and inclination. You cannot master

Starting point is 02:07:18 yourself unless you know yourself. There are mirrors for the face, but none for the mind. Let careful thought about yourself serve as a substitute. When the outer image is forgotten, keep the inner one to improve and perfect. Learn the force of your intellect and capacity for affairs. Test the force of your courage in order to apply it, and keep your foundations secure and your head clear for everything. 80. The secret of long life. lead a good life two things bring life speedily to an end

Starting point is 02:07:54 folly and immorality some lose their life because they have not the intelligence to keep it others because they have not the will just as virtue is its own reward so is vice its own punishment he who lives a fast life

Starting point is 02:08:10 runs through life in a double sense a virtuous life never dies the firmness of the soul is communicated to the body, and a good life is long, not only in intention, but also in extension. End of Section 11. Section 12 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org.

Starting point is 02:08:50 Recording by Linda Sonrisa. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 12. 91. Never set to work at anything if you have any doubts of its prudence. A suspicion of failure in the mind of the doer is proof positive of it in that of the onlooker, especially if he is a rival. If in the heat of action your judgment feels scruples, it will afterwards, in cool reflection, condemn it as a piece of folly. Action is dangerous where prudence is in doubt. Better leave such things alone. Wisdom does not trust to probabilities. It always marches in the midday light of reason. How can an enterprise succeed, which the judgment condemns as soon as conceived?

Starting point is 02:09:47 and if resolutions passed Nam Khan by inner court often turn out unfortunately, what can we expect of those undertaken by a doubting reason and a vacillating judgment? 92. Transcendant Wisdom I mean in everything. The first and highest rule of all deed and speech, the more necessary to be followed the higher and more numerous our posts is, An ounce of wisdom is worth more than tons of cleverness. It is the only sure way, though it may not gain so much applause. The reputation of wisdom is the last triumph of fame.

Starting point is 02:10:31 It is enough if you satisfy the wise, for their judgment is the touchstone of true success. 93. Versatility A man of many excellences equals many men. By imparting his own enjoyment of life to his circle, he enriches their life. Variety in excellences is the delight of life. It is a great art to profit by all that is good, and since nature has made man in his highest development an abstract of herself,

Starting point is 02:11:05 so let art create in him a true microcosm by training his taste and intellect. 94. 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 by 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.

Starting point is 02:11:49 95. Keep expectation alive. Keep stirring it up. Let much promise more and great deeds herald greater. Do not rest your whole fortune on a single cast of the die. It requires great skill to moderate your forces so as to keep expectation from being dissipated. 96. The highest discretion. It is the throne of reason, the foundation of prudence, by its means success is gained at little cost. It is a gift from above and should be prayed for as the

Starting point is 02:12:27 first and best quality. Tis the main piece of the panoply, and so important that its absence makes a man imperfect, whereas with other qualities it is merely a question of more or less. all the actions of life depend on its application all require its assistance for everything needs intelligence discretion consists in a natural tendency to the most rational course combined with a liking for the surest ninety seven obtain and preserve a reputation it is the use of fact of fame it is expensive to obtain a reputation for it only attaches to distinguished ability which are as rare as mediocrities are common. Once obtained, it is easily preserved. It confers many an obligation, but it does more.

Starting point is 02:13:20 When it is owing to elevated powers or lofty spheres of action, it rises to a kind of veneration and yields a sort of majesty. But it is only a well-founded reputation that lasts permanently. 98. Write your intentions in size. The passions are the gates of the soul. The most practical knowledge consists in disguising them. He that plays with cards exposed runs a risk of losing the stakes. The reserve of caution should combat the curiosity of inquirers. Adopt the policy of the cuttlefish. Do not even let your

Starting point is 02:14:01 tastes be known, lest others utilize them, either by running counter to them or by flattering them. 99. Reality and appearance. Things pass for what they seem, not for what they are. Few see inside. Many take to the outside. It is not enough to be right, if right seem false and ill.

Starting point is 02:14:26 100. A man without illusions, a wise Christian, a philosophic courtier. Be all these, not merely seem to be them, still less a fact to be them. Philosophy is nowadays discredited, but yet it was always the chiefest concern of the wise. The art of thinking has lost all its former repute. Senaka introduced it at Rome. It went to court for some time, but now it is considered out of place there. And yet the discovery of deceit was always thought the true nourishment of a thoughtful mind, the true delight of a virtuous soul.

Starting point is 02:15:06 section 12. Section 13. The Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Libravox.org. Recorded by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org.

Starting point is 02:15:35 The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Balthasar Gracian. Translated by Joseph. Jacobs. Section 13. 101. One half of the world laughs at the other, and fools are they all. Everything is good or everything is bad according to the votes they gain. What one pursues and other persecutes. He is an insufferable ass that would regulate everything according to his ideas. Excellences do not depend on a single man's pleasure. So many men, so many tastes, all different. There is no defect which is not affected by some, nor need we lose heart, if things please not some, for others will appreciate them, nor need their applause turn our head,

Starting point is 02:16:24 for there will be surely others to condemn. The real test of praise is the approbation of famous men and of experts in the matter. You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century. Be able to stomach big slices of luck. In the body of wisdom, not the least important organ is a big stomach, for great capacity implies great parts. Big bits of luck do not embarrass one who can digest still bigger ones. What is a surfeit for one may be hunger for another. Many are troubled, as it were, with weak digestion, owing to their small capacity, being neither born nor trained for great employment.

Starting point is 02:17:10 Their actions turn sour, and the humors that arise from their undeserved honors turn their head, and they incur great risks in high place. They do not find their proper place, for luck finds no proper place in them. A man of talent, therefore, should know that he has more room for even greater enterprises, and above all, avoid showing signs of a little heart. 103. Let each keep up his dignity. let each deed of a man in its degree, though he be not a king, be worthy of a prince,

Starting point is 02:17:47 and let his action be princely within due limits. Sublime in action, lofty in thought, in all things like a king, at least in merit, if not in might. For true kingship lies in spotless rectitude, and he need not envy greatness, who can serve as a model of it. especially should those near the throne aim at true superiority and prefer to share the true qualities of royalty rather than take parts in its mere ceremonies, yet without affecting its imperfections, but sharing in its true dignity. 104 Try your hand at office

Starting point is 02:18:29 It requires varied qualities and to know which is needed taxes attention and calls for masterly discernment. Some demand courage, others tact. Those that merely require rectitude are the easiest. The most difficult those requiring cleverness. For the former all that is necessary is character. For the latter, all one's attention and zeal may not suffice. Tis a troublesome business to rule men. Still more fools or blockheads.

Starting point is 02:19:01 Double sense is needed with those who have none. It is intolerable when an office engrosses a man with fixed hours and a settled routine. Those are better that leave a man free to follow his own devices, combining variety with importance, for the change refreshes the mind. The most in repute are those that have least or most distant dependence on others. The worst is that which worries us, both here and hereafter. Don't be a bore. The man of one business or of one topic is apt to be heavy. Brevity flatters and does better business. It gains by courtesy what it loses by curtness.

Starting point is 02:19:47 Good things, when short, are twice as good. The quintessence of the matter is more effective than a whole farago of details. It is a well-known truth that talkative folk rarely have much sense, whether in dealing with the matter itself or its formal treatment. There are that serve more for stumbling stones than centerpieces, useless lumber in everyone's way. The wise avoid being bores, especially to the great, who are fully occupied. It is worse to disturb one of them than all the rest. Well said is soon said. 106. Do not parade your position. To outshine indignity is more offensive than in personal attractions. To pose as a personage is to be hated. Envy is surely enough.

Starting point is 02:20:39 The more you seek esteem, the less you obtain it, for it depends on the opinion of others. You cannot take it, but must earn and receive it from others. Great positions require an amount of authority sufficient to make them efficient. Without it, they cannot be adequately filled. preserve therefore enough dignity to carry on the duties of the office. Do not enforce respect, but try and create it. Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it, and that it is too much for them.

Starting point is 02:21:14 If you wish to be valued, be valued for your talents, not for anything adventitious. Even kings prefer to be honored for their personal qualifications rather than for their station. 107. Show no self-satisfaction. You must neither be discontented with yourself, and that were poor-spirited, nor self-satisfied, and that is folly. Self-satisfaction arises mostly from ignorance. It would be a happy ignorance, not without its advantages, if it did not injure our credit. Because a man cannot achieve

Starting point is 02:21:53 the superlative perfections of others, he contends himself with any mediocre talent of his own. Distrust is wise, and even useful, either to evade mishaps or to afford consolation when they come, for a misfortune cannot surprise a man who has already feared it. Even Homer nods at times, and Alexander fell from his lofty state and out of his illusions. Things depend on many circumstances. What constitutes triumphs, in one set may cause a defeat in another in the midst of all incorrigible folly remains the same with empty self-satisfaction blossoming flowering and running all to seed one o eight the path to greatness is along with others intercourse works well manners and taste are shared good

Starting point is 02:22:46 sense and even talent grow insensibly let the sanguine man then make a comrade of the lymphatic, and so with the other temperaments, so that without any forcing the golden mean is obtained. It is a great art to agree with others. The alternation of contraries beautifies and sustains the world. If it can cause harmony in the physical world, still more can it do so in the moral. Adopt this policy in the choice of friends and defendants. By joining extremes, the more effective middle way is found. Be not sensorious. There are men of gloomy character who regard everything as faulty,

Starting point is 02:23:31 not from any evil motive, but because it is their nature to. They condemn all, these for what they have done, those for what they will do. This indicates a nature worse than cruel, vile, indeed. They accuse with such exaggeration that they make out of moats, beams wherewith to force out the eyes. They are always taskmasters who could turn a paradise into a prison. If passion intervenes, they drive matters to the extreme. A noble nature, on the contrary, always knows how to find an excuse for failings, if not in the intention, at least from oversight. 1.10. Do not wait till you are a sinking sun. Tis a maxim of the wise to leave things before

Starting point is 02:24:19 things leave them. One should be able to snatch a triumph at the end, just as the sun, even at its brightest, often retires behind a cloud, so as not to be seen sinking, and to leave in doubt whether he has sunk or no. Wisely withdraw from the chance of mishaps, lest you have to do so from the reality. Do not wait till they turn you the cold shoulder, and carry you to the grave alive in feeling but dead in esteem. Wise trainers put racers to grass before they aroused derision by falling on the course.

Starting point is 02:24:55 A beauty should break her mirror early lest she do so later with open eyes. End of Section 13. Section 14 The Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Librevox.org.

Starting point is 02:25:26 Recording by Linda Sonrisa, Survision.org The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian. Section 14 111-11 Have Friends Tis a second existence. Every friend is good and wise for his friend. Among them all, everything turns to.

Starting point is 02:25:50 good. Everyone is as others wish him, that they may wish him well. He must win their hearts and so their tongues. There is no magic like a good turn, and the way to gain friendly feelings is to do friendly acts. The most and best of us depend on others. We have to live either among friends or among enemies. Seek someone every day to be a well-wisher, if not a friend. By and by after trial, some of these will become intimate. 1.12. Gain goodwill. For thus the first and highest cause foresees and furthers the greatest objects. By gaining their goodwill, you gain men's good opinion.

Starting point is 02:26:37 Some trust so much to merit that they neglect grace, but wise men know that service road without a lift from favor is a long way indeed. Goodwill facilitates and supplies everything. It supposes gifts or even supplies them as courage, zeal, knowledge, or even discretion, whereas defects it will not see because it does not search for them. It arises from some common interest, either material as disposition, nationality, relationship, fatherland, office, or formal, which is a higher kind of communion, incapacity, obligation, reputation, or merit. The whole difficulty is to gain goodwill.

Starting point is 02:27:21 To keep it is easy. It has, however, to be sought for, and when found, to be utilized. 113. In prosperity, prepare for adversity. It is both wiser and easier to collect winter stores in summer. In prosperity, favors are cheap,

Starting point is 02:27:41 and friends are many. Tis well, therefore, to keep them for more unlucky days, for adversity costs dear and has no helpers. Retain a store of friendly and obliged persons. The day may come when their price will go up. Low minds never have friends. In luck, they will not recognize them. In misfortune, they will not be recognized by them. 14. Never compete. Every competition does. damages the credit. Our rival seize occasion to obscure us so as to outshine us. Few wage

Starting point is 02:28:19 honorable war. Rivalry discloses faults which courtesy would hide. Many have lived in good repute while they had no rivals. The heat of conflict gives life or even new life to dead scandals and digs up long

Starting point is 02:28:35 buried skeletons. Competition begins with the belittling and seeks aid wherever it can, not only where it ought. And when the weapons of abuse do not affect their purpose, as often or mostly happens, our opponents use them for revenge, and use them at least for beating away the dust of oblivion

Starting point is 02:28:55 from anything to our discredit. Men of goodwill are always at peace. Men of good repute and dignity are men of goodwill. 15. Get used to the failings of your familiars. as you do to ugly faces, it is indispensable if they depend on us or we on them. There are wretched characters with whom one cannot live, yet not without them. Therefore, clever folks get used to them as to ugly faces,

Starting point is 02:29:26 so that they are not obliged to do so suddenly under the pressure of necessity. At first, they arouse disgust, but gradually they lose this influence, and reflection provides for disgust, or puts up with it. 16. Only act with honorable men. You can trust them and they you. Their honor is the best surety of their behavior, even in misunderstandings, for they always act having regard to what they are. Hence tis better to have a dispute with honorable people than to have a victory over dishonorable ones. You cannot treat with the ruined, for they have no hostages for rectitude. With them there is no true friendship, and their agreements are not binding, however stringent they may appear, because they have no feeling of honor.

Starting point is 02:30:20 Never have to do with such men, for if honor does not restrain a man, virtue will not, since honor is the throne of rectitude. 17. Never talk of yourself. You must either praise yourself, which is vain, or blame yourself, which is little-minded. it ill beseems him that speaks, and ill pleases him that hears. And if you should avoid this an ordinary conversation how much more in official matters, and above all in public speaking, where every appearance of unwisdom really is unwise. The same want of tact lies in speaking of a man in his presence owing to the danger of going to one of two extremes, flattery or censure.

Starting point is 02:31:08 18. Acquire the reputation of courtesy, for it is enough to make you liked. Politeness is the main ingredient of culture, a kind of witchery that winch the regard of all as surely as discurtesy gains their disfavor and opposition. If this latter springs from pride, it is abominable, and if from bad breeding it is despicable. Better too much courtesy than too little. provided it be not the same for all, which degenerates into injustice. Between opponents, it is especially due as a proof of valor. It costs little and helps much. Everyone is honored who gives honor. Politeness and honor have this advantage that they remain with him who displays them to

Starting point is 02:31:59 others. Nineteen. Avoid becoming disliked. There is no occasion to see. dislike. It comes without seeking, quickly enough. There are many who hate of their own accord without knowing the why or the how. Their ill will outruns our readiness to please. Their ill nature is more prone to do others harm than their cupidity is eager to gain advantage for themselves. Some manage to be on bad terms with all, because they always either produce or experience vexation of spirit. Once hate, has taken root, it is, like bad repute, difficult to eradicate.

Starting point is 02:32:43 Wise men are feared, the malevolent are abhorred, the arrogant are regarded with disdain, buffoons with contempt, eccentrics with neglect. Therefore, pay respect that you may be respected, and know that to be esteemed

Starting point is 02:32:59 you must show esteem. 1.20. Live practically. Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not it is wise to affect ignorance. Thought and taste change with the times. Do not be old-fashioned in your ways of thinking, and let your taste be in the modern style. In everything, the taste of the many carries the votes. For the time being, one must follow it in the hope of leading it to higher things.

Starting point is 02:33:32 In the adornment of the body as of the mind, adapt yourself to the present, even though the past appear better. But this rule does not apply to kindness, for goodness is for all time. It is neglected nowadays and seems out of date. Truth speaking, keeping your word, and so too good people seem to come from the good old times. Yet they are liked for all that,

Starting point is 02:33:58 but in such a way that even when they all exist, they are not in the fashion and are not imitated. What a misfortune for our age, that it regards virtue as a stranger, and vice as a matter of course. If you are wise, live as you can. If you cannot, live as you would. Think more highly of what fate has given you than of what it has denied. End of Section 14.

Starting point is 02:34:32 Section 15 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, Survision.org The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Grasian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 15. 121. Do not make a business of what is no business.

Starting point is 02:35:08 As some make gossip out of everything, so others' business. They always talk big, take everything in earnest, and turn it into a dispute or secret. Troublesome things must not be taken too seriously if they can be avoided. It is preposterous to take to heart that which you should throw over your shoulders. Much that would be something has become nothing by being left alone, and what was nothing has become of consequence, by being made much of. At the outset, things can be easily settled, but not afterwards. Often the remedy causes the disease. Tis by no means the least of life's rules. To let things alone.

Starting point is 02:35:56 122. Distinction in speech and action. By this you gain a position in many places and carry a steam beforehand. It shows itself in everything. in talk, in look, even in gait. It is a great victory to conquer men's hearts. It does not arise from any foolish presumption or pompous talk,

Starting point is 02:36:19 but in a becoming tone of authority, born of superior talent combined with true merit. 123. Avoid affectation. The more merit, the less affectation, which gives a vulgar flavor to all. It is wearisome to others and troublesome to the one affected, for he becomes a martyr to care and tortures himself with attention.

Starting point is 02:36:46 The most eminent merits lose most by it, for they appear proud and artificial, instead of being the product of nature, and the natural is always more pleasing than the artificial. One always feels sure that the man who affects a virtue has it not. The more pains you take with the thing, the more should you conceal them, so that it may appear to arise spontaneously from your own natural character. Do not, however, in avoiding affectation, fall into it by affecting to be

Starting point is 02:37:18 unaffected. The sage never seems to know his own merits, for only by not noticing them can you call others' attention to them. He is twice great, who has all the perfections in the opinions of all except of himself. He attains applause by two opposite paths. 124. Get yourself missed. Few reach such favor with the many. If with the wise, tis the height of happiness. When one has finished one's work, coldness is the general rule, but there are ways of earning this reward of goodwill. The sure way is to excel in your office and talents. Add to this agreeable manner, and you reach the point where you become necessary to your office, not your office to you. Some do honor to their post. With others, tis the other way. It is no great

Starting point is 02:38:15 gain if a poor successor makes the predecessor seem good, for this does not imply that the one is missed, but that the other is wished away. 125. Do not be a blacklist. It is a subject. It is a of having a tarnished name to concern oneself with the ill fame of others. Some wish to hide their own stains with those of others, or at least wash them away, or they seek consolation therein, tis the consolation of fools. They must have bad breath who form the sewers of scandal for the whole town. The more one grubs about in such matters, the more one befoules oneself. There are few without stain somewhere or other, but it is of little known people

Starting point is 02:39:03 that the failings are little known. Be careful then to avoid being a registrar of faults. That is to be an abominable thing, a man that lives without a heart. 126. Folly consists not in committing folly, but in not hiding it when committed. You should keep your desires sealed up,

Starting point is 02:39:27 still more your defects. All go wrong sometimes, but the wise try to hide the errors, but fools boast of them. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is done. If a man does not live chastely, he must live cautiously. The errors of great men are like the eclipses of the greater lights. Even in friendship, it is rare to expose one's failings to one's friend. Nay, one should conceal them from oneself if one can. But here one can help with that other great rule of life. Learn to forget. 127. Grace in everything. Tis the life of talents, the breath of speech, the soul of action, and the ornament of ornament. Perfections are the adornment of our nature, but this is the adornment of perfection itself.

Starting point is 02:40:27 It shows itself even in the thoughts. Tis most a gift of nature and owes least to education. It even triumphs over training. It is more than ease, approaches the free and easy, gets over embarrassment, and adds the finishing touch to perfection. Without it, beauty is lifeless, graciousness, ungraceful. It surpasses valor, discretion, prudence, even majesty itself. Tis a short way to dispatch and an easy escape from embarrassment.

Starting point is 02:41:01 128. High-mindedness One of the principal qualifications for a gentleman, for it spurs on to all kinds of nobility. It improves the taste, ennobles the heart, elevates the mind, refines the feelings, and intensifies dignity. It raises him in whom it is found,

Starting point is 02:41:23 and at times remedies the bad turns of fortune, which only raises by striking. It can find full scope in the will when it cannot be exercised in act. Magnanimity, generosity, and all heroic qualities recognized in it their source. 129. Never complain. To complain always brings discredit.

Starting point is 02:41:50 Better be a model of self-reliance, opposed to the passion of others than an object of their compassion. For it opens the way for the hearer to what we are complaining of, and to disclose one insult forms an excuse for another. By complaining of past offenses we give occasion for future ones, and in seeking aid or counsel we only obtain indifference or contempt. It is much more politic to praise one man's favors, so that others may feel obliged to follow suit,

Starting point is 02:42:22 To recount the favors we owe the absent is to demand similar ones from the present, and thus we sell our credit with the one to the other. The shrewd will therefore never publish to the world his failures or his defects, but only those marks of consideration which serve to keep friendship alive and enmity silent. 130 Do and be seen doing. Things do not pass for what. what they are, but for what they seem. To be of use and to know how to show yourself of use is to be twice as useful. What is not seen is as if it was not. Even the right does not receive

Starting point is 02:43:06 proper consideration if it does not seem right. The observant are far fewer in number than those who are deceived by appearances. Deceit rules the roast and things are judged by their jackets and many things are other than they seem. A good exterior is the best recommendation of the inner perfection. End of Section 15. Section 16 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 02:43:48 For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. The Art of Wildly Wisdom by Balthasar Grazian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 16 131. Nobility of Feeling There is a certain distinction of the soul, a high-mindedness prompting to gallant acts, that gives an air of grace to the whole character. It is not found often, for it presupposes great magnanimous.

Starting point is 02:44:24 Its chief characteristic is to speak well of an enemy and to act even better towards him. It shines brightest when a chance comes of revenge. Not alone does it let the occasion pass, but it improves it by using a complete victory in order to display unexpected generosity. Tis a fine stroke of policy, nay, the very acme of statecraft. It makes no pretense to victory, for it pretends to nothing, and while obtaining its deserts its merits. 132. Revise your judgments. To appeal to an inner court of revision makes things safe. Especially when the course of action is not clear, you gain time either to confirm or

Starting point is 02:45:22 improve your decision. It affords new grounds for strengthening or corroborating your judgment. And if it is a matter of giving, the gift is the more valued from its being evidently well considered than for being promptly bestowed. Long expected is highest prized. And if you have to deny, you gain time to decide how and when to mature the know that it may be. And it may, be made palatable. Besides, after the first heat of desire is passed, the repulse of refusal is felt less keenly in cold blood. But especially when men press for a reply, is it best to defer it, for as often as not that is only a feint to disarm a tension. than wise alone. So say politicians. If all are so, one is no worse off than the rest,

Starting point is 02:46:31 whereas solitary wisdom passes for folly. So important is it to sail with the stream. The greatest wisdom often consists in ignorance or the pretense of it. One has to live with others and others are mostly ignorant. To live with others. To live, live entirely alone, one must be very like a god or quite like a wild beast. But I would turn the aphorism by saying, Better be wise with the many than a fool all alone. There may be some too who seek to be original by seeking chimeras. 134.

Starting point is 02:47:17 Double your resources. You thereby double your life. One must not depend on one thing or trust to only one resource, however preeminent. Everything should be kept double, especially the causes of success, of favour or of esteem. The moon's mutability transcends everything and gives a limit to all existence, especially of things dependent on human will, the most brittle of all things. To guard against this inconstancy should be the sages care, and for this the chief rule of life is to keep a double store of good and useful qualities. Thus, as nature gives us in a duplicate the most important of our limbs and those most exposed to risk,

Starting point is 02:48:13 so art should deal with the qualities on which we depend for success. 135. Do not nourish the spirit of contradiction. It only proves you foolish or peevish, and prudence should guard against this strenuously. To find difficulties in everything may prove you clever, but such wrangling writes you down a fool. Such folk make a mimic war out of the most pleasant conversation, and in this way act as enemies towards their associates rather than towards those with whom they do not consort. Grit grates most in delicacies, and so does contradiction in amusement. They are both foolish and cruel who yoke together the wild beast and the tame. 136. Post yourself in the same.

Starting point is 02:49:18 center of things. So you feel the pulse of affairs. Many lose their way, either in the ramifications of useless discussion, or in the brushwood of wearisome verbosity without ever realizing the real matter at issue. They go over a single point a hundred times wearing themselves and others, and yet never touch the all-important center or affairs. This comes from a confusion of mind from which they cannot extricate themselves. They waste time and patience on matters they should leave alone and cannot spare them afterwards for what they have left alone. 137.

Starting point is 02:50:09 The sage should be self-sufficing. He that was all in all to himself carried all with him when he carried himself. If a universal friend can represent to us Rome and the rest of the world, let a man be his own universal friend and then he is in a position to live alone. Whom could such a man want if there is no clearer intellect or finer taste than his own? He would then depend on himself alone, which is the highest happiness and like, like the supreme being. He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.

Starting point is 02:51:02 138. The art of letting things alone. The more so the wilder the waves of public or of private life. There are hurricanes in human affairs, tempests of passion, when it is wise to retire to a harbor and ride at anchor. Remedies often make diseases worse. In such cases, one has to leave them to their natural course and the moral suasion of time. It takes a wise doctor to know when not to prescribe, and at times the greater skill consists in not applying remedies. The proper way to still the storm of the vulgar is to hold your hand and let them calm down of themselves. To give way now is to conquer by and by. A fountain gets muddy with but little stirring up and does not get clear by our meddling with it, but by our

Starting point is 02:52:08 leaving it alone. The best remedy for disturbances is to let them run their course for so they quiet down. 139. Recognize unlucky days. They exist. Nothing goes well on them, even though the game may be changed, the ill luck remains. Two tries should be enough to tell if one is in luck today or not. Everything is in process of change, even the mind, and no one is always wise. Chance has some something to say, even how to write a good letter. All perfection turns on the time, even beauty has its hours. Even wisdom fails at times by doing too much or too little. To turn out well, a thing must be done on its own day. This is why, with some, everything turns out ill, With others all goes well, even with less trouble. They find everything ready, their wit prompt, their presiding genius favorable, their lucky star in the ascendant.

Starting point is 02:53:28 At such times one must seize the occasion and not throw away the slightest chance. But a shrewd person will not decide on the day's luck by a single piece of good or bad fortune, For the one may be only a lucky chance, and the other only a slight annoyance. 140. Find the good in a thing at once. Tis the advantage of good taste. The bee goes to the honey for her comb, the serpent to the gall for its venom. So with taste. Some seek the good, others the ill. There is nothing that has no good in it, especially in books, as giving food for thought.

Starting point is 02:54:21 But many have such a scent that amid a thousand excellences they fix upon a single defect and single it out for blame as if they were the scavengers of men's minds and hearts. So they draw up a balance sheet of defects which does more credit to their bad, taste than to their intelligence. They lead a sad life, nourishing themselves on bitters and battening on garbage. They have the luckier taste, who, midst a thousand defects, seize upon a single beauty they may have hit upon by chance. End of Section 16. Section 17 of The Art of Worldly Wisdom. is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to

Starting point is 02:55:23 volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Read by Wayne Cook. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Paldesar Grazion, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 17. Number 141, do not listen to yourself. It is no use pleasing yourself if you do not please others. and, as a rule, general contempt is the punishment for self-satisfaction. The attention you pay to yourself you probably owe to others. To speak and at the same time listen to yourself cannot turn out well. If to talk to oneself when alone is folly, it must be doubly unwise to listen to oneself in the presence of others.

Starting point is 02:56:12 It is a weakness of the great to talk with the recurrent, as I was saying, and, huh, which bewilders their hearers. At every sentence they look for applause or flattery, taxing the patient of the wise. So too the pompous speak with an echo, and as their talk can only totter on with the aid of stilts, at every word they need the support of a stupid bravo.

Starting point is 02:56:39 Number 142. Never from obstinacy take the wrong side because your opponent has anticipated you in taking the right one. You begin the fight already beaten and must soon take to flight and disgrace. With bad weapons, one can never win.

Starting point is 02:56:57 It was astute in the opponent to seize the better side first. It would be folly to come lagging after with the worst. Such obstinacy is more dangerous in actions than in words for action encounters more risk than talk. Tis the common

Starting point is 02:57:13 feeling of the obstinate that they lose the true by contradicting it, and the useful by quarreling with it. The sage never places himself on the side of passion, but espouses the cause of right, either discovering it first or improving it later. If the enemy is a fool, he will, in such a case, turn round to follow the opposite and worse way. Thus, the only way to drive him from the better course is to take it yourself, for his folly will cause him to desert it, and his obstinacy be punished for so doing. Number 143. Never become paradoxical in order to avoid the trite.

Starting point is 02:57:59 Both extremes damage our reputation. Every undertaking which differs from the reasonable approaches foolishness. The paradox is a cheat. It wins applause at first by its novelty and but afterwards it becomes discredited when the deceit is foreseen and its emptiness becomes apparent. It is a species of jugglery, and in matters political would be the ruin of states. Those who cannot or dare not reach great deeds on the direct road of excellence go around by way of paradox, admired by fools, but making wise men true prophets. It argues an unbalanced judgment, and if it is not altogether based on the false, it is certainly founded on the uncertain and risks the weightier matters of life.

Starting point is 02:58:54 Number 144. Begin another's to end with your own. Tis apolitic means to your end. Even in heavenly matters, Christian teachers lay stress on this holy cunning. It is a weightier piece of dissimulation, for the foreseen advantages serve as a lure to influence the others will. His affair seems to be entrain when it is really only leading the way for another's. One should never advance unless undercover, especially where the ground is dangerous.

Starting point is 02:59:27 Likewise, with persons who always say no at first, it is useful to ward off this blow because the difficulty of conceding much more does not occur to them when your version is presented to them. This advice belongs to the rule about second thoughts, chapter 13, which covers the most subtle maneuvers of life. Number 145 Do not show your wounded finger, for everything will knock up against it, nor complain about it, for malice always aims where weakness can be injured. It is no use to be vexed, being the butt of the talk will only vex you the more. ill will searches for wounds to irritate,

Starting point is 03:00:14 aims darts to try the temper, and tries a thousand ways to sting to the quick. The wise never owned to being hit or disclose any evil, whether personal or hereditary. For even fate sometimes likes to wound us where we are most tender. It always mortifies wounded flesh.

Starting point is 03:00:34 Never therefore disclose the source of mortification or of joy, if you wish the one to cease and the other to endure. Number 146. Look into the interior of things. Things are generally other than they seem, and ignorance that never looks beneath the rind becomes disabused when you show the kernel.

Starting point is 03:01:00 Lies always come first, dragging fools along by the irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last. limping along on the arm of time. The wise, therefore, reserve for it, the other half of that power which the common mother has widely given in duplicate. Deceit is very superficial, and the superficial, therefore easily fall into it. Prudence lives retired within its recesses,

Starting point is 03:01:31 visited only by sages and wise men. Number 147 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 anyone. 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.

Starting point is 03:02:06 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. Our satisfaction in him and our trust in his steadfast faith give him that power. One need not pay respect or give credit to everyone, But in the innermost of his precaution, man has a true mirror of a confident to whom he owes the correction of his errors and has to thank for it. Number 148.

Starting point is 03:02:50 Have the art of conversation. That is where the real personality shows itself. No act in life requires more attention, though it be the commonest thing in life. You must either lose or gain by it. If it needs care to write a letter, which is but a deliberate and written conversation, how much more the ordinary kind in which there is occasion for a pomped display of intelligence? Experts feel the pulse of the soul is the tongue, wherefore the sage said, Speak that I may know thee.

Starting point is 03:03:28 Some hold that the art of conversation is to be without art, that it should be neat, not gaudy, like the garments. This holds good for talk between friends, but when held with a person to whom one would show respect, it should be more dignified to answer to the dignity of the person addressed. To be appropriate, it should adapt itself to the mind and tone of the interlocutor. And do not be a critic of words, or you will be taken for pedant, nor a tax-gatherer of ideas, or men will avoid you, or at least sell their thoughts dear.

Starting point is 03:04:06 In conversation, discretion is more important than eloquence. Number 149. Know how to put off ills on others. To have a shield against ill will is a great piece of skill in a ruler. It is not the resort of incapacity, as ill-wishers imagine, but is due to the higher policy of having someone to receive the censure of the disaffected and the punishment of universal detestation. Everything cannot turn out well, nor can everyone be satisfied.

Starting point is 03:04:42 It is well, therefore, even at the cost of our pride, to have such a scapegoat, such a target, for unlucky undertakings. Number 150 know to get your price for things. Their intrinsic value is not sufficient, for all do not bite at the kernel or look into the interior. Most go with the crowd and go because they see others go. It is a great stroke of art to bring things into repute,

Starting point is 03:05:14 at times by praising them, for praise arouses desire, at times by giving them a striking name, which is very useful for putting things at a premium, provided it is done without affectation. Again it is generally an inducement to profess to supply only connoisseurs, for all think themselves such, and, if not, the sense of want arouses the desire.

Starting point is 03:05:37 Never call things easy or common. That makes them depreciated, rather than made accessible. All rush after the unusual, which is more appetizing, both for the taste and for the intelligence. End of Section 17. Section 18 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom.

Starting point is 03:06:05 This is a Libervox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libavox.org. Recording by Tina Ding. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Bartasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. 151. Think beforehand. Today for tomorrow and even for many days hence. The greatest foresight consists in determining beforehand the time of trouble. For the provident, there are no mischances,

Starting point is 03:06:45 and for the careful, no narrow escapes. We must not put off thought till we're up to the chin in Meyer. Mature reflection can get over the most formidable difficulty. The pillow is a silent sibyl, and it is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards. Many act first and then think afterwards, that is, they think less of consequences than of excuses. Others think neither before nor after. The whole of life should be one course of thought how not to miss the right path. Rumination and foresight enable one to determine the line. of life. 152.

Starting point is 03:07:31 Never have a companion who casts you in the shade. The more he does so, the last desirable a companion he is. The more he excels in quality, the more in repute. He will always play first fiddle and you second. If you get any consideration, it is only his leavings. The moon shines bright alone among the stars. When the sun rises, she becomes either invisible or imperceptible. Never join one that eclipses you, but rather one who sets you in a brighter light.

Starting point is 03:08:10 By this means the cunning fabula in Marshall was able to appear beautiful and brilliant, owing to the ugliness and disorder of her companions. But one should as little imperil oneself by an evil companion as pay on a to another at the cost of one's own credit. When you are on the way to fortune, associate with the eminent, when arrived, with the mediocre. 153. Beware of entering where there is a great gap to be filled. But if you do it, be sure to surpass your predecessor. Merely to equal him requires twice his worth, as it is a fine stroke to arrange that our successor shall cause us to be wished back, so it is policy to see that our predecessor does not eclipse us.

Starting point is 03:09:07 To fill a great gap is difficult, for the past always seems best, and to equal the predecessor is not enough, since he has the right of first possession. You must therefore possess. additional claims to oust the other from his hold on public opinion. 154. Do not believe or like lightly. Maturity of mind is best shown in slow believe. Lying is the usual thing, then let belief be unusual. He that is lightly led away soon falls into contempt. At the same time, there is no necessity. to betray your doubts in the good faith of others,

Starting point is 03:09:57 for this adds insult to discourtesy, since you make out your informant to be either deceiver or deceived. Nor is this the only evil. Want of belief is the mark of the liar who suffers from two failings. He neither believes nor is believed. Suspension of judgment is prudent in a hearer. The speaker can appear,

Starting point is 03:10:23 to his original source of information. There is a similar kind of imprudence in liking too easily, for lies may be told by deeds as well as in words, and this deceit is more dangerous for practical life. 155. The art of getting into a passion. If possible, oppose vulgar importunity with prudent reflection. It will not be difficult for a really prudent man.

Starting point is 03:10:56 The first step towards getting into a passion is to announce that you are in a passion. By this means you begin the conflict with command over your temper, for one has to regulate one's passion to the exact point that is necessary and no further. This is the art of arts in falling into and getting out of a rage. You should know how and when best to come to a stop. It is most difficult to halt while running at a double. It is a great proof of wisdom to remain clear-sighted during paroxysms of rage. Every excess of passion is a digression from rational conduct.

Starting point is 03:11:45 But by this masterly policy, reason will never be transgressed, nor pass the bounds of its own centaresses. To keep control of passion, one must hold firm the reins of attention. He who can do so will be the first man, wise on horseback, and probably the last. 156. Select your friends. Only after passing the matriculation of experience and the examination of fortune, will they be graduates not alone in a faction, but in discernment?

Starting point is 03:12:25 Though this is the most important thing in life, it is the one least cared for. Intelligence brings friends to some, chance to most. Yet a man is judged by his friends, for there was never agreement between wise men and fools. At the same time, to find pleasure in a man's society is no point. proof of near friendship. It may come from the pleasantness of his company more than from trust in his capacity. There are some friendships legitimate, others illicit, the latter for pleasure, the former for their fecundity of ideas and motives. Few are the friends of a man's self, most those of his circumstances. The insight of a true friend is more useful.

Starting point is 03:13:18 than the goodwill of others. Therefore, gain them by choice, not by chance. A wise friend words off worries, a foolish one brings them about. But do not wish them too much luck, or you may lose them. 157. Do not make mistakes about character. That is the worst and yet easiest error. Better be cheated in the price than

Starting point is 03:13:48 in the quality of goods. In dealing with men, more than with other things, it is necessary to look within. To know men is different from knowing things. It is profound philosophy to sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character. Man must be studied as deeply as books. 158. Make use of your friends. This requires all the art of discretion. Some are good afar off, some when near. Many are no good at conversation, but excellent as correspondence, for distance removes some failings, which are unbearable in close proximity to them. Friends are for use even more than for pleasure, for they have the three qualities of the good, or, as some say, of being in general,

Starting point is 03:14:48 unity, goodness, and truth. For a friend is all in all. Few are worthy to be good friends, and even these become fewer because men do not know how to pick them out. To keep is more important than to make friends. Select those that will wear well. If they are new at first,

Starting point is 03:15:11 it is some consolation they will become old. Absolutely the best are those well salted, though they may require soaking in the testing. There is no desert like living without friends. Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. Tis the sole remedy against misfortune, the very ventilation of the soul. 159. Put up with fools.

Starting point is 03:15:43 The wise are always impatient, for he that increases knowledge increase in patience of folly. Much knowledge is difficult to satisfy. The first great rule of life, according to Epictetus, is to put up with things. He makes that the moiety of wisdom. To put up with all the varieties of folly would need much patience. We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend, a useful lesson in self-control.

Starting point is 03:16:18 Out of patience comes forth peace, the priceless boon, which is the happiness of the world. But let him that has no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself. 160. Be careful in speaking with your rivals from prudence,

Starting point is 03:16:43 With others, for the sake of appearance. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one. Talk as if you were making your will, the fewer words the last litigation. In trivial matters, exercise yourself for the more weighty matters of speech. Profound secrecy has some of the lustre of the divine. He who speaks lightly soon falls or fails. End of Section 18. Section 19 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom.

Starting point is 03:17:25 This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Tina Ding. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Bartasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. 161. Know your pet faults. The most perfect of men has them and is either wedded to them or has illicit relations with them. They are often faults of intellect, and the greater this is,

Starting point is 03:18:04 the greater they are, or at least the more conspicuous. It is not so much that their possessor does not know them. He loves them, which is a double evil, your rational affection for a avoidable faults. They are spots on perfection. They displease the outlooker as much as they please the possessor. Tis a gallant thing to get clear of them, and so give play to one's other qualities. For all men hit upon such a failing, and on going over your qualifications, they make a long stay at this blot and blacken it as deeply as possible in order to capture. your other talents into the shade. 162. How to triumph over rivals and detractors.

Starting point is 03:18:58 It is not enough to despise them, though this is often wise. A gallant bearing is the thing. One cannot praise a man too much who speaks well of them, who speak ill of him. There is no more heroic vengeance than that of talents and services, which at once conquer and torment the envious. Every success is a further twist of the cord round the neck of the ill-affected, and an enemy's glory is the rival's hell.

Starting point is 03:19:33 The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied wins applause. The immortality of his fame is the measure of the other's torture. The one lives in endless honor, the other in endless pain. The clearan of fame announces immortality to the one and death to the other, the slow death of envy long drawn out. 163.

Starting point is 03:20:05 Never, from sympathy with the unfortunate, involve yourself in his fate. One man's misfortune is another man's luck, for one cannot be lucky without many beings, unlucky. It is a peculiarity of the unfortunate to arouse people's goodwill who desire to compensate them for the blows of fortune with their useless favor, and it happens that one who is abhorred by all in prosperity is adored by all in adversity. Vengeance on the wing is exchanged for compassion afoot, yet tis to be noticed how fate. shuffles the cards. There are men who always consort with the unlucky, and he that yesterday flew

Starting point is 03:20:55 high and happy stands today miserable at their side. That argues nobility of soul, but not worldly wisdom. 164. Throw straws in the air to find how things will be received, especially those whose reception or success is doubtful. One can thus be assured of its turning out well and an opportunity is afforded for going on in earnest or withdrawing entirely. By trying men's intentions in this way, the wise man knows on what ground he stands. This is the great rule of foresight in asking, in desiring, and in ruling. 165. Wage war honorably. You may be obliged to wage war, but not to use poisoned arrows. Everyone must needs act as he is, not as others would make him to be.

Starting point is 03:21:59 Gallantry in the Battle of Life wins all men's praise. One should fight so as to conquer, not alone by force, but by the way it is used. A mean victory brings no glory, but rather disgrace. Honor always has the upper hand. An honorable man never uses forbidden weapons, such as using a friendship that's ended for the purpose of a hatred just begun. A confidence must never be used for a vengeance. The slightest taint of treason tarnishes the good name.

Starting point is 03:22:39 In men of honor, the smallest trace of meanness repels. The noble and the ignoble should be miles apart. Be able to boast that if gallantry, generosity, and fidelity were lost in the world, men would be able to find them again in your own breast. 166. Distinguish the men of words from the men of deeds. Discrimination here is as important as in the case of friends, persons, and employments, which have all many varieties. Bad words, even without bad deeds, are bad enough. Good words with bad deeds are words.

Starting point is 03:23:27 One cannot dine off words, which are wind, nor of politeness, which is but polite deceit. To catch birds with a mirror is the ideal snake. air. It is the vein alone who take their wages in windy words. Words should be the pledges of work, and, like pawn tickets, have their market price. Trees that bear leaves, but not fruit, have usually no pith. Know them for what they are of no use except for shade. 167. Know how to take your own part. In great crises, there is no better companion than a bold heart, and if it becomes weak, it must be strengthened from the neighboring parts. Worries die away before a man who asserts himself.

Starting point is 03:24:24 One must not surrender to misfortune, or else it would become intolerable. Many men do not help themselves in their troubles, and double their weight by not knowing how to bear them. He that knows himself knows how to strengthen his weakness, and the wise man conquers everything, even the stars in their courses. 168. Do not indulge in the eccentricities of folly. Like vain, presumptuous, egotistical, untrustworthy, capricious, obstinate, fanciful, theatrical, whimsical, inquisical, paradoxical, sectarian people and all kinds of one-sided persons, they are all monstrosities of impertinence. All deformity of mind is more obnoxious than that of the body because it contravenes a higher beauty. Yet who can assist such a complete confusion of mind? Where self-control is wanting, there is no room for others' guidance. Instead of paying attention to other people,

Starting point is 03:25:36 people's real derision, men of this kind blind themselves with the unfounded assumption of their imaginary applause. 169. Be more careful not to miss once than to hit a hundred times. No one looks at the blazing sun, all gaze when he is eclipsed. The common talk does not reckon what goes right, but what goes wrong. Evil report, carries farther than any applause. Many men are not known to the world till they have left it. All the exploits of men taken together are not enough to wipe out a single small blemish. Avoid, therefore, falling into error, seeing that ill will notices every error and no success. 170.

Starting point is 03:26:32 In all things, keep something in reserve. Tess a sure means of keeping up your importance. A man should not employ all his capacity and power at once and on every occasion. Even in knowledge, there should be a rear guard so that your resources are doubled. One must always have something to resort to when there is fear of a defeat. The reserve is of more importance than the attacking force, for it is distinguished for valor and reputation. Prudence always sets to work with assurance of safety.

Starting point is 03:27:13 In this matter, the Pick and Paradox holds good that the half is more than the whole. End of Section 19. Section 20 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. The Art of Wildly Wisdom by Beltazar Grazian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 20

Starting point is 03:27:54 171, Waste Not Influence The great as friends are for great occasions. One should not make use of great confidence for little things. for that is to waste a favour. The sheet anchor should be reserved for the last extremity. If you use up the grate for little ends, what remains afterwards? Nothing is more valuable than a protector, and nothing costs more nowadays than a favour.

Starting point is 03:28:28 It can make or unmake a whole world. It can even give sense and take it away. As nature and fame are favourable, to the wise, so luck is generally envious of them. It is, therefore, more important to keep the favour of the mighty than goods and chattels. 172. Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose, for thereby you enter into an unequal conflict. The other enters without anxiety, having lost. He lost everything, including shame, he has no further lost to fear.

Starting point is 03:29:14 He, therefore, resorts to all kinds of insolence. One should never expose a valuable reputation to so terrible a risk, lest what has cost years to gain may be lost in a moment, since a single slight may wipe out much sweat. A man of honor and responsibility has a reputation. because he has much to lose. He balances his own and the other's reputation. He only enters into the contest with the greatest caution

Starting point is 03:29:50 and then goes to work with such circumspection that he gives time to prudence to retire in time and bring his reputation under cover. For even by victory, he cannot gain what he has lost by exposing himself to the chances of loss. 173. Do not be glass in intercourse, still less in friendship. Some break very easily and thereby show their want of consistency. They attribute to themselves imaginary offences and to others' oppressive intentions.

Starting point is 03:30:34 Their feelings are even more sensitive. than the eye itself and must not be touched in jest or in earnest. Motes offend them, they need not wait for beams. Those who consort with them must treat them with the greatest delicacy, have regard to their sensitiveness and watch their demeanour, since the slightest slight arouses their annoyance. They are mostly very egoistic, slaves of their demeanour. their moods, for the sake of which they cast everything aside. They are the worshippers of

Starting point is 03:31:13 Punctilio. On the other hand, the disposition of the true lover is firm and enduring, so that it may be said that the Amant is half adamant. 1174. Do not live in a hurry. To know how to separate things is to know how to enjoy them. Many finish their fortune sooner than their life. They run through pleasures without enjoying them, and would like to go back when they find they have overleaped the mark. Postillions of life, they increase the ordinary pace of life by the hurry of their own calling. They devour more in one day than they can digest in a whole lifetime. They live in advance of pleasures, eat up the years beforehand, and by their hurry, get through everything too soon. Even in the search for knowledge, there should be moderation, lest we learn things better left unknown. We have more days to live

Starting point is 03:32:26 through than pleasures. Be slow in enjoyment, quick at work, for men see work ended with pleasure, pleasure ended with regret. 175, a solid man. One who is finds no satisfaction in those that are not. Tis a pitiable eminence that is not well-founded. Not all are men that seem to be so. Some are sources of deceit. Improngated by Cameras, they give birth to impositions. Others are like them so far that they take more pleasure in a lie

Starting point is 03:33:14 because it promises much than in the truth, because it performs little. But in the end, these caprices come to a bad end, for they have no solid, foundation. Only truth can give true reputation. Only reality can be of real profit. One deceit needs many others, and so the whole house is built in the air and must soon come to the ground. Unfounded things never reach old age. They promise too much to be much trusted, just as that cannot be true which proves too much. 176 have knowledge or know those that have knowledge. Without intelligence, either one's own or another's,

Starting point is 03:34:13 true life is impossible. But many do not know that they do not know, and many think they know when they know nothing. Failings of the intelligence are incorrigible since those who do not know do not know themselves and cannot therefore seek what they lack. Many would be wise if they did not think themselves wise. Thus it happens that though the oracles of wisdom are rare, they are rarely used. To seek advice does not lessen a greatness or argue incapacity. On the contrary, to ask advice proves you are well advised.

Starting point is 03:35:02 Take counsel with reason if you do not wish to court defeat. 177. Avoid familiarities in intercourse. Neither use them nor permit them. He that is familiar loses any superiority his influence gives him, and so loses respect. The stars keep their brilliance by not making themselves common. The divine demands decorum. Every familiarity breeds contempt.

Starting point is 03:35:42 In human affairs, the more a man shows, the less he has, for in open community, you communicate the failings that reserve might keep under cover. Familiarity is never desirable. With superiors because it is dangerous, with inferiors because it is unbecoming, least of all with the common herd, who become insolent from sheer folly. They mistake favor shown them for need felt of them. Familiarity trenches on vulgarity. 178. Trust your heart, especially when it has been proved. Never deny it a hearing. It is a kind of house oracle that often foretells the most important. Many have perished because they feared their own heart, but of what used to be. You

Starting point is 03:36:47 is it to fear it without finding a better remedy. Many are endowed by nature with a heart so true that it always warns them of misfortune and wards off its effects. It is unwise to seek evils unless you seek to conquer them. 1179. Reticence is the seal of capacity. A breast without a secret is an open letter. Where there is a solid foundation, secrets can be kept profound. There are spacious sellers where things of moment may be hid. Retticence springs from self-control, and to control oneself in this is a true triumph. You must pay ransom to each you tell. The security of wisdom consists in temperance in the inner man. The risk that reticence runs lies in the cross-questioning of others

Starting point is 03:37:56 in the use of contradiction to worm out secrets in the darts of irony. To avoid these, the prudent becomes more reticent than before. What must be done need not be said, and what must be said need not be done. 180. Never guide the enemy to what he has to do. The fool never does what the wise judge wise, because he does not follow up the suitable means.

Starting point is 03:38:36 He that is discreet follows still less a plan laid out or even carried out by another. One has to discuss matters from both points of view. Turn it over on both sides. Judgments vary. Let him that has not decided attend rather to what is possible than what is probable. End of Section 20. Section 21 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom.

Starting point is 03:39:19 This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa,survision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltazar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 21. 181 The truth, but not the whole truth. Nothing demands more caution than the truth.

Starting point is 03:39:55 Tis the lancet of the heart. It requires as much to tell the truth as to conceal it. A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity. The deceit is regarded as treason, and the deceiver is a traitor, which is worse. yet not all truths can be spoken, some for our own sake, others for the sake of others. 182 A grain of boldness in everything.

Starting point is 03:40:27 Tis an important piece of prudence. You must moderate your opinion of others so that you may not think so high of them as to fear them. The imagination should never yield to the heart. Many appear great till you know them personally, and then dealing with them does more to disillusionize than to raise esteem. No one or steps the narrow bounds of humanity. All have their weaknesses either in heart or head. Dignity gives apparent authority, which is rarely accompanied by personal power. For fortune often redresses the height of office by the inferiority of the holder.

Starting point is 03:41:07 The imagination always jumps too soon and paints things in brighter colors than the real. It thinks things not as they are but as it wishes them to be. Attentive experience disillusioned in the past soon corrects all that. Yet if wisdom should not be timorous, neither should folly be rash. And if self-reliance helps the ignorant, how much more are the brave and wise? Do not hold your views too firmly. Every fool is fully convinced, and everyone fully persuaded is a fool. The more erroneous his judgment, the more firmly he holds it.

Starting point is 03:41:54 Even in cases of obvious certainty, it is fine to yield. Our reasons for holding the view cannot escape notice. Our courtesy in yielding must be the more recognized. Our obstinacy loses more than our victory yields. That is not to champion truth, but rather rudeness. There be some heads of iron most difficult to turn. Add caprice to obstinacy and the sum is a wearisome fool. Steadfastness should be for the will, not for the mind.

Starting point is 03:42:28 Yet there are exceptions where one would fail twice, owning oneself wrong both in judgment and in the execution, of it. 184. Do not be ceremonious. Even in a king, affectation in this was renowned for its eccentricity. To be punctilious is to be a bore, yet whole nations have this peculiarity. The garb of folly is woven out of such things.

Starting point is 03:42:59 Such folk are worshippers of their own dignity, yet show how little it is justified, since they fear that the least thing can destroy it. It is right to demand respect, but not to be considered a master of ceremonies. Yet it is true that a man to do without ceremonies must possess supreme qualities. Neither effect nor despise etiquette. He cannot be great, who is great at such little things.

Starting point is 03:43:31 185. Never stake your credit on a single cap. For if it miscarries, the damage is irreparable. It may easy happen that a man should fail once, especially at first. Circumstances are not always favorable. Hence they say, every dog has his day. Always connect your second attempt with your first. Whether it's succeed or fail, the first will redeem the second.

Starting point is 03:44:00 Always have resort to better means and appeal to more resources. Things depend on all sorts of chances. That is why the satisfaction of success is so rare. 186 Recognize faults, however high-placed. Integrity cannot mistake vice, even when clothed in brocade, or perchance crowned with gold,

Starting point is 03:44:28 but will not be able to hide its character for all that. Slavery does not lose its vileness, however it vaunt the nobility of its lord and master. Vices may stand in high place, but are low for all that. Men can see that many a great man has great faults, yet they do not see that he is not great because of them. The example of the great is so specious that it even glosses over viciousness, till it may so affect those who flatter it that they do not notice

Starting point is 03:45:00 that what they gloss over in the great they abominate in the lower, classes. 187. Do pleasant things yourself, unpleasant things, through others. By the one course you gain goodwill, by the other you avoid hatred. A great man takes more pleasure in doing a favor than in receiving one. It is the privilege of his generous nature. One cannot easily cause pain to another without suffering pain, either from sympathy or from

Starting point is 03:45:34 remorse. In high place, one can only work by means of rewards and punishment, so grant the first yourself, inflict the other through others. Have someone against whom the weapons of discontent, hatred, and slander may be directed. For the rage of the mob is like that of a dog. Missing the cause of its pain, it turns to bite the whip itself, and though this is not the real culprit, it has to pay the penalty. 188. Be the bearer of praise. This increases our credit for good taste, since it shows that we have learned elsewhere to know what is excellent, and hence how to prize it in the present company.

Starting point is 03:46:21 It gives material for conversation and for imitation, and encourages praiseworthy exertions. We do homage besides, in a very delicate way, to the excellences before us. Others do the opposite. They accompany their talk with a sneer, and fancy they flatter those present by belittling the absent. This may serve them with superficial people,

Starting point is 03:46:45 who do not notice how cunning it is to speak ill of everyone to everyone else. Many pursue the plan of valuing more highly the mediocrities of the day than the most distinguished exploits of the past. Let the cautious penetrate, through these subtleties, and let him not be dismayed by the exaggerations of the one or made overconfident by the flatteries of the other, knowing that both act in the same way

Starting point is 03:47:13 by different methods, adapting their talk to the company they are in. 189. Utilize another's wants. The greater his wants, the greater the turn of the screw. Philosophers say privation is non-existent. statesmen say it is all embracing, and they are right. Many make ladders to attain their ends out of wants of others. They make use of the opportunity and tantalized the appetite by pointing out the difficulty of satisfaction. The energy of desire promises more than the inertia of possession.

Starting point is 03:47:53 The passion of desire increases with every increase of opposition. It is a subtle point to satisfy the desire and yet preserve the dependence. One hundred and ninety. Find consolation in all things. Even the useless may find it in being immortal. No trouble without compensation. Fools are held to be lucky, and the good luck of the ugly is proverbial. Be worth little, and you will live long.

Starting point is 03:48:25 It is the cracked glass that never gets broken, but worries one with its durability. It seems that fortune envies the great, so it equalizes things by giving long life to the useless, a short one to the important. Those who bear the burden come soon to grief, while those who have no importance live on and on. In one case it appears so, in the other it is so. The unlucky thinks he has been forgotten by both death and fortune. End of Section 21. 22 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom.

Starting point is 03:49:10 This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 22. 191. Do not take payment in politeness, for it is a kind of fraud. Some do not need the herbs of Thessaly for their magic, for they can enchant fools by the grace of their salute. Theirs is the

Starting point is 03:49:53 bank of elegance, and they pay with the wind of fine words. To promise everything is to promise nothing. Promises are the pitfalls of fools. The true courtesy is, performance of duty. The spurious and especially the useless is deceit. It is not respect, but rather a means to power. Obisance is paid not to the man but to his means, and compliments are offered not to the qualities that are recognized, but to the advantages that are desired. 192 Peaceful life A long life

Starting point is 03:50:33 To live Let live Peacmakers not only live They rule life Here see and be silent A day without dispute brings sleep without dreams Long life and a pleasant one

Starting point is 03:50:50 Is life enough for two That is the fruit of peace He has all That makes nothing of what is nothing to him. There is no greater perversity than to take everything to heart. There is equal folly

Starting point is 03:51:06 in troubling our heart about what does not concern us and in not taking to heart what does. 193. Watch him that begins with another's to end with his own. Watchfulness is the only guard

Starting point is 03:51:21 against cunning. Be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives, you may at any moment be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire to the damage of your own fingers. 14. Have reasonable views of yourself and of your affairs, especially in the beginning of life. Everyone has a high opinion of himself, especially those who have least ground for it. everyone dreams of his good luck and thinks himself a wonder.

Starting point is 03:52:00 Hope gives rise to extravagant promises which experience does not fulfill. Such idle imaginations merely serve as a wellspring of annoyance when disillusion comes with the true reality. The wise man anticipates such errors. He may always hope for the best, but he always expects the worst, so as to receive what comes with equanimity. True, it is wise to aim high so as to hit your mark, but not so high that you miss your mission at the very beginning of life.

Starting point is 03:52:34 This correction of the ideas is necessary, because before experience comes expectation is sure to soar too high. The best panacea against folly is prudence. If a man knows the true sphere of his activity and position, he can reconcile his ideas with reality. one hundred and ninety five know how to appreciate there is none who cannot teach somebody something and there is none so excellent but he is excelled to know how to make use of everyone is useful knowledge wise men appreciate all men for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good fools depreciate all men not recognizing the good and selecting the bad 1196

Starting point is 03:53:27 Know your ruling star None so helpless as not to have one If he is unlucky, that is because he does not know it Some stand high in the favor of princes and potentates Without knowing why or wherefore Except that good luck itself has granted them favor on easy terms Merely requiring them to aid it with a little exertion Others find favor with the wise

Starting point is 03:53:54 one man is better received by one nation than by another, or is more welcome in one city than in another. He finds more luck in one office or position than another, and all this though his qualifications are equal or even identical. Luck shuffles the cards, how and when she will. Let each man know his luck, as well as his talents, for on this depends whether he loses or wins. Follow your guiding star and help it,

Starting point is 03:54:23 Without mistaking any other for it, for that would be to miss the north, though its neighbor, the pole star, calls us to it with a voice of thunder. 1097. Do not carry fools on your back. He that does not know a fool when he sees him is one himself. Still more he that knows him, but will not keep clear of him. They are dangerous company and ruinous confidants. even though their own caution and others care keeps them in bounds for a time, still at length, they are sure to do or to say some foolishness, which is all the greater for being kept so long in stock. They cannot help another's credit who have none of their own. They are most unlucky, which is the nemesis of fools, and they have to pay for one thing or the other.

Starting point is 03:55:17 There is only one thing which is not so bad about them, and this is that, though they can be of use to the wise, they can be of much use to them as signposts or as warnings. 198 Know how to transplant yourself. There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make one's value felt, especially in great posts. Their native land is always a stepmother to great talents. Envy flourishes there on its native soil,

Starting point is 03:55:49 and they remember one's small beginnings rather than the great one has reached. A needle is appreciated that comes from one end of the world to the other, and a piece of painted glass might outvigh the diamond in value if it comes from afar. Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from afar, partly because it is ready-made and perfect. We have seen persons once the laughing-stock of their village, and now the wonder of the whole world,

Starting point is 03:56:18 honored by their fellow countrymen and by the foreigners, among whom they dwell. among whom they dwell, by the latter because they come from afar, and by the former, because they are seen from afar. The statue on the altar is never reverenced by him who knew it as a trunk in the garden. To find a proper place by merit, not by presumption. The true road to respect is through merit, and if industry accompany merit, the path becomes shorter. Integrity alone is not, sufficient. Push and insistence is degrading, for things arrive by that means so be sprinkled with dust that the discredit destroys reputation. The true way is the middle one, halfway between deserving a place and pushing oneself into it. Two hundred. Leave something to wish for. So is not to

Starting point is 03:57:15 be miserable from very happiness. The body must respire and the soul aspire. If one possessed all, all would be disillusion and discontent. Even in knowledge, there should always be something left to know in order to arouse curiosity and excite hope. Surfeits of happiness are fatal. In giving assistance, it is a piece of policy not to satisfy entirely. If there is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear. An unhappy state of happiness. When desire dies, fear is born.

Starting point is 03:57:52 End of Section 22. Section 23 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org.

Starting point is 03:58:20 The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. 23 201 They are all fools who seem so besides half the rest Folly arose with the world

Starting point is 03:58:39 and if there be any wisdom it is folly compared with the divine But the greatest fool is he who thinks he is not one and all others are To be wise it is not enough to seem wise

Starting point is 03:58:52 least of all to oneself He knows who does not think that he knows and he does not see who does not see that others see though all the world is full of fools there is none that thinks himself one or even suspects the fact

Starting point is 03:59:08 2002 words and deeds make the perfect man one should speak well and act honorably the one is an excellence of the head the other of the heart and both arise from nobility of soul words are the shableness are the shableness

Starting point is 03:59:27 of deeds, the former are feminine, the latter masculine. It is more important to be renowned than to convey renown. Speech is easy, action hard. Actions are the stuff of life. Words, it's frippery. Eminent deeds endure. Striking words pass away. Actions are the fruit of thought. If this is wise, they are effective. 203. Know the great men of your age. They are not many. There is one phoenix in the whole world, one great general, one perfect orator, one true philosopher in a century, a really illustrious king in several. Mediocrities are as numerous as they are worthless. Eminent greatness is rare in every respect, since it needs complete perfection, and the higher the species, the more difficult is the highest rank in it. Many have

Starting point is 04:00:27 claimed the title great, like Caesar and Alexander, but in vain, for without great deeds the title is a mere breath of air. There have been few Seneca's, and fame records, but one appellees. 204. Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy. In the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed. For a thing to remain undone, nothing more is needed than to think it done. On the other hand, patient industry overcomes impossibilities. Great undertakings are not to be brooded over, lest their difficulty when seen causes despair. 205. Know how to play the card of contempt. It is a shrewd way of getting things you want,

Starting point is 04:01:26 by affecting to depreciate them. Generally they are not to be had when sought for, but fall into one's hands when one is not looking for them. As all mundane things are but shadows of the things eternal, they share with shadows this quality that they flee from him who follows them and follow him that flees from them. Contempt is besides the most subtle form of revenge.

Starting point is 04:01:54 It is a fixed rule with the way, wise never to defend themselves with the pen. For such defense always leaves a stain and does more to glorify one's opponent than to punish his offense. It is a trick of the worthless to stand forth as opponents of great men so as to win notoriety by a roundabout way, which they would never do by the straight road of merit. There are many we would not have heard of if their eminent opponents had not taken notice of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, through which they are buried in the dust of their unworthiness. Audacious persons hope to make themselves eternally famous by setting fire to one of the wonders of the world and of the ages. The art of reproving scandal is to take no notice of it.

Starting point is 04:02:45 To combat it damages our own case. Even if credited, it causes discredit and is a source of satisfaction to our opponent, for this shadow of a stain dulls the luster of our fame, even if it cannot altogether deaden it. 206 Know that there are vulgar natures everywhere. Even in Corinth itself, even in the highest families. Everyone may try the experiment within his own gates. But there is also such a thing as vulgar opposition to vulgarity, which is worse.

Starting point is 04:03:20 This special kind shares all the qualities of the common kind, just as bits of a broken glass. But this kind is still more pernicious. It speaks folly, blames impertinently, is a disciple of ignorance, a patron of folly, and passmaster of scandal. You need not notice what it says, still less what it thinks. It is important to know vulgarity in order to avoid it, whether it is subjective or objective. For all, folly is vulgarity, and the vulgar consists of fools. 207. Be moderate.

Starting point is 04:04:00 One has to consider the chance of a mischance. The impulses of the passions cause prudence to slip, and there is the risk of ruin. A moment of wrath, or of pleasure, carries you on farther than many hours of calm, and often a short diversion may put a whole life to shame. The cunning of others uses such moments of temptation to search the recesses of the mind. They use thumb screws as our want to test the best caution. Moderation serves as a counterplot, especially in sudden emergencies. Much thought is needed to prevent a passion taking the bit in the teeth,

Starting point is 04:04:41 and he is doubly wise who is wise on horseback. He who knows the danger may with care pursue his journey. Light as a word may appear to him who throws it out, it may import much to him that hears it and ponderes on it. 208. Do not die of the fool's disease. The wise generally die after they have lost their reason. Fools before they have found it.

Starting point is 04:05:12 To die of the fool's disease is to die of a fool's disease is to die of too much thought. Some die because they think and feel too much. Others live because they do not think and feel. These are fools because they do not die of sorrow. The others because they do. A fool is he the dies of too much knowledge. Thus some die because they are too knowing, others because they are not knowing enough. Yet though many die like fools, few die fools. 209. Keep yourself free from common follies. This is a special stroke of policy. They are of special power because they are general, so that many who would not be led away by any individual folly cannot escape the universal failing. Among these are to be counted the common prejudice that anyone is

Starting point is 04:06:09 satisfied with his fortune, however great, or unsatisfied with his intellect, however poor it is. Or again, that each, being discontented with his own lot, envies that of others, or further, that persons of today praise the things of yesterday, and those here, the things there. Everything past seems best, and everything distant, is more valued. He is as great a fool that laughs at all as he that weeps at all. 210. Know how to play the card of truth. Tis dangerous, yet a good man cannot avoid speaking it. But great skill is needed here. The most expert doctors of the soul pay great attention to the means of sweetening the pill of truth, for when it deals with the destroying of illusion, it is the quintessence

Starting point is 04:07:07 of bitterness. A pleasant manner has here an opportunity for a display of skill. With the same truth it can flatter one and fell another to the ground. Matters of today should be treated as if they were long past. For those who can understand, a word is sufficient, and if it does not suffice, it is a case for silence. Princes must not be cured with bitter drafts. It is therefore desirable in their case to gild the pill of disillusion. End of Section 23. Section 24 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording.

Starting point is 04:07:58 All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs 211 In heaven all is bliss, in hell, all misery On earth between the two, both one thing and the other, We stand between the two extremes and therefore share both, fate varies,

Starting point is 04:08:40 All is not good luck nor all mischance. This world is merely zero. By itself, it is of no value, but with heaven in front of it, it means much. Indifference at its ups and downs is prudent, nor is there any novelty for the wise. Our life gets as complicated as a comedy as it goes on, but the complications get gradually resolved. See that the curtain comes down on a good denouement. 212. Keep to yourself the final touches of your art.

Starting point is 04:09:16 This is a maxim of the great masters who pride themselves on this subtlety in teaching their pupils. One must always remain superior, remain master. One must teach an art artfully. The source of knowledge need not be pointed out no more than that of giving. By this means a man preserves the respect and the dependence of others. In amusing and teaching, you must be pointed out. keep to the rule, keep up expectation, and advance in perfection. To keep a reserve is a great rule for life and for success, especially for those in high place. 213. Know how to contradict. A chief means

Starting point is 04:09:59 of finding things out to embarrass others without being embarrassed. The true thumbscrew it brings the passions into play. Tepid incredulity acts as an emetic on secrets. It is the key to a locked up breast, and with great subtlety makes a double trial of both mind and will. A sly appreciation of another's mysterious word sense out the profoundest secrets. Some sweet bait brings them into the mouth till they fall from the tongue and are caught in the net of astute deceit. By reserving your attention, the other becomes less attentive and lets his thoughts appear while otherwise his heart were inscrutable. An affected doubt is the subtlest picklock that curiosity can use to find out what it wants to know. Also in learning, it is a subtle

Starting point is 04:10:52 plan of the pupil to contradict the master, who thereupon takes pains to explain the truth more thoroughly and with more force, so that a moderate contradiction produces complete instruction. do not turn one blunder into two. It is quite usual to commit four others in order to remedy one, or to excuse one piece of impertinence by still another. Folly is either related to or identical with the family of lies, for in both cases it needs many to support one. The worst of a bad case is having to fight it,

Starting point is 04:11:30 and worse than the ill itself is not being able to conceal it. The annuity of one failing serves to support many other, A wise man may make one slip, but never two, and that only in running, not while standing still. 215. Watch him that acts on second thoughts. It is a device of businessmen to put the opponent off his guard before attacking him, and thus to conquer by being defeated. They dissemble their desire so as to attain it. They put themselves second so as to come out first in the final spurt.

Starting point is 04:12:09 This method rarely fails if it is not noticed. Let therefore the attention never sleep, when the intention is so wide awake. And if the other puts himself second, so to hide his plan, put yourself first to discover it. Prudence can discern the artifices which such a man uses, and notices the pretext he puts forward to gain his ends. He aims at one thing to get another. Then he turns around smartly and fires straight at his target. It is well to know what you grant him, and at times it is desirable to give him to understand that you understand.

Starting point is 04:12:49 216. Be expressive. This depends not only on the clearness, but also the vivacity of your thoughts. Some have an easy conception but a hard labor. for without clearness the children of the mind, thoughts and judgments cannot be brought into the world. Many have a capacity like that of vessels with a large mouth and a small vent. Others, again, say more than they think.

Starting point is 04:13:18 Resolution for the will, expression for the thought, two great gifts. Plausible minds are applauded, yet confused ones are often venerated, just because they are not understood, and at times obscurity is convenient if you wish to avoid vulgarity. Yet, how shall the audience understand one that connects no definite idea with what he says? 217. Neither love nor hate forever. Trust the friends of today as if they will be enemies tomorrow and that of the worst kind. As this happens in reality, let it happen in your precaution.

Starting point is 04:13:59 Do not put weapons in the hand for deserters from friendship to wage war with. On the other hand, leave the door of reconciliation open for enemies, and if it is also the gate of generosity, so much the more safe. The vengeance of long ago is at times the torment of today, and the joy over the ill we have done is turned to grief. 218. Never act from obstinacy, but from knowledge. all obstinacy is an excrescence of the mind, a grandchild of passion which never did anything right.

Starting point is 04:14:38 There are persons who make a war out of everything, real banditti of intercourse. All that they undertake must end in victory. They do not know how to get on in peace. Such men are fatal when they rule and govern, for they make government rebellion and enemies out of those whom they ought to regard as children. They try to affect everything with strategy and treat it as the fruit of their skill. But when others have recognized their perverse humor all revolt against them and learn to overturn their chimerical plans, and they succeed in nothing but only heap up a mass of troubles

Starting point is 04:15:13 since everything serves to increase their disappointment. They have a head turned and a heart spoiled. Nothing can be done with such monsters except to flee from them, even to the antipodes, where the savagery is easier. to bear than their loathsome nature. 219. Do not pass for a hypocrite. Though such men are indispensable nowadays, be considered rather prudent than astute. Sincerity in behavior pleases all, though not all can show it in their own affairs.

Starting point is 04:15:48 Sincerity should not degenerate into simplicity, nor sagacity into cunning. Be rather respected as wise than feared as. sly. The open-hearted are loved but deceived. The great art consists in disclosing what is thought to be deceit. In the golden age, simplicity flourished. In these days of iron cunning, the reputation of being a man who knows what he has to do is honorable and inspires confidence, but to be considered a hypocrite is deceptive and arouses mistrust. If you cannot clothe yourself in lion's skin, use foxpelt. To follow the times is to lead them.

Starting point is 04:16:34 He that gets what he wants never loses his reputation. Cleverness, when force will not do. One way or another, the king's highway of valor or the by-path of cunning. Skill has affected more than force, and astuteness has conquered courage more often than the other way. When you cannot get a thing, then is the time to despise it. End of Section 24. Section 25, The Art of Worldly Wisdom.

Starting point is 04:17:13 This is a Librevox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Librevox.org. Recorded by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltazar Grasian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. 221 Do not seize occasions to embarrass yourself or others. There are some men's stumbling blocks of good manners, either for themselves or for others.

Starting point is 04:17:50 They are always on the point of some stupidity. You meet with them easily and part from them uneasily. A hundred annoyances a day is nothing. to them. Their humor always strokes the wrong way since they contradict all and every. They put on the judgment cap wrong side foremost and thus condemn all. Yet the greatest test of others' patience and prudence are just those who do no good and speak ill of all. There are many monsters in the wide realm of Indecorum. 222. Reserve is proof of prudence. The tongue is a wild beast. Once let loose, it is difficult to chain. It is the pulse of the soul, by which wise men

Starting point is 04:18:37 judge of its health. By this pulse, a careful observer feels every movement of the heart. The worst is that he who should be most reserved is the least. The sage saves himself from worries and embarrassments and shows his mastery over himself. He goes his way carefully, a Janus for impartiality, an argus for watchfulness. Truly Momus had better placed the eyes in the hand than the window in the breast. 223. Be not eccentric, neither from affectation nor carelessness. Many have some remarkable and individual quality leading to eccentric actions. These are more defects than excellent differences.

Starting point is 04:19:26 And just as some are known for some special ugliness, so these for something repellent in their outward behavior. Such eccentricities simply serve as trademarks through their atrocious singularity. They cause either derision or ill-will. 224. Never take things against the grain. No matter how they come. Everything has a smooth and a seamy side, and the big, best weapon wounds if taken by the blade, while the enemy's spear may be our best protection if

Starting point is 04:20:02 taken by the staff. Many things cause pain, which would cause pleasure if you regarded their advantages. There is a favorable and an unfavorable side to everything. The cleverness consists in finding out the favorable. The same thing looks quite different in another light. Look at it, therefore on its best side and do not exchange good for evil. Thus it haps that many find joy, many grief, in everything. This remark is a great protection against the frowns of fortune and a weighty rule of life for all times and all conditions. Two hundred and twenty-five. Know your chief fault. There lives none that has not in himself a counterbalance to his most conspicuous merit. If this be nourished by desire, it may grow to be a tyrant. Commence

Starting point is 04:20:58 war against it, summoning prudence as your ally, and the first thing to do is the public manifesto, for an evil once known is soon conquered, especially when the one afflicted regards it in the same light as the onlookers. To be master of oneself, one should know oneself. If the chief imperfection surrender, the rest will come to an end. 226. Take care to be obliging. Most talk and act, not as they are, but as they are obliged. To persuade people of ill is easy for any, since the ill is easily credited even when at

Starting point is 04:21:41 times it is incredible. The best we have depends on the opinion of others. Some are satisfied if they have right. on their side, but that is not enough, for it must be assisted by energy. To oblige persons often costs little and helps much. With words, you may purchase deeds. In this great house of the world, there is no chamber so hid that it may not be wanted one day in the year, and then you would miss it however little is its worth. Everyone speaks of a subject, according to his feelings. 227. Do not be the slave of first impressions. Some marry the very first account they hear. All others must

Starting point is 04:22:28 live with them as concubines. But as a lie has swift legs, the truth with them can find no lodging. We should neither satisfy our will with the first object, nor our mind with the first proposition, for that we're superficial. Many are like new casks, who keep the scent of the first liquor they hold, be it good or bad. If this superficiality becomes known, it becomes fatal, for then it gives opportunity for cunning mischief. The ill-minded hasten to color the mind of the credulous. Always, therefore, leave room for a second hearing. Alexander always kept one ear for the other side. Wait for the second or even third edition of news. To be the slave of your impressions, argues want of capacity, and is not far from being the slave of your passions.

Starting point is 04:23:24 228. Do not be a scandalmonger. Still less pass for one, for that means to be considered a slanderer. Do not be witty at the cost of others. It is easy, but hateful. All men have their revenge on such an one by speaking ill of him, and as they are many and he but one, he is more likely to be overcome than they convinced. Evil should never be our pleasure, and therefore never our theme.

Starting point is 04:23:56 The backbiter is always hated, and if now and then one of the great consorts with him, it is less from pleasure in his sneers than from esteem for his insight. He that speaks ill will always hear worse. wisely. Not as chance will have it, but with prudence and foresight. Without amusements, it is worrisome, like a long journey where there are no ins. Manifold knowledge gives manifold pleasure. The first day's journey of a noble life should be passed in conversing with the dead. We live to know and to know ourselves, hence true books make us truly men. The second day should be spent with the living, seeing and noticing all the good in the world. Everything is not to be found

Starting point is 04:24:52 in a single country. The Universal Father has divided his gifts, and at times has given the richest dower to the ugliest. The third day is entirely for oneself. The last felicity is to be a philosopher. 230. Open your eyes betimes. Not all that see. have their eyes open, nor do all those see that look. To come up to things too late is more worry than help. Some just begin to see when there is nothing more to see. They pull their houses about their ears before they come to themselves. It is difficult to give sense to those who have no power of will, still more difficult to give energy to those who have no sense. Those who surround them play with them a game of blind man's buff, making them the butts of others, and because they are

Starting point is 04:25:48 hard of hearing, they do not open their eyes to see. There are often those who encourage such insensibility on which their very existence depends. Unhappy Steed whose writer is blind, it will never grow sleek. End of Section 25. Section 26 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sondriza, survision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 26 2131

Starting point is 04:26:49 Never let things be seen Half finished They can only be enjoyed when complete All beginnings are misshapen And this deformity sticks in the imagination The recollection of having seen a thing Imperfect disturbs our enjoyment of it when completed To swallow something great at one gulp

Starting point is 04:27:11 May disturb the judgment of the separate parts But satisfies the taste till a thing is everything, it is nothing, and while it is in process of being, it is still nothing. To see the tastiest dishes prepared arouses rather disgust than appetite. Let each great master take care not to let his work be seen in its embryonic stages. They might take this lesson from Dame Nature, who never brings the child to the light till it is fit to be seen. 232. Have a touch of the traitor. Life should not be all thought. There should be action as well. Very wise folk are generally easily deceived, for while they know out of the way things, they do not know the ordinary things of life, which are much more needful. The observation of higher things leaves them no time for things close at hand, since they know not the very first thing they should know and what everybody knows so well, they are either considered or thought ignorant by the superficial multitude.

Starting point is 04:28:15 Let therefore the prudent take care to have something of the traitor about him, enough to prevent him being deceived and so laughed at. Be a man adapted to the daily round, which if not the highest is the most necessary thing in life, of what use is knowledge if it is not practical, and to know how to live is nowadays the true knowledge. Let not the proffered morsel be distasteful. Otherwise it gives more discomfort than pleasure.

Starting point is 04:28:49 Some displease when attempting to oblige because they take no account of varieties of taste. What is flattery to one is an offense to another, and in attempting to be useful, one may become insulting. It often costs more to displease a man than it would have cost to please him. You thereby lose both gift and thanks because you have lost the compass which steers for pleasure.

Starting point is 04:29:13 He who knows not another's taste knows not how to please him. Thus it haps that many insult where they mean to praise and get soundly punished and rightly so. Others desire to charm by their conversation and only succeed in boring by their loquacity. 234 Never trust your honor to another unless you have his in pledge. Arrange that silence is a mutual advantage, disclosure, a danger to both.

Starting point is 04:29:44 Where honor is at stake, you must act with a partner so that each must be careful of the other's honor for the sake of his own. Never entrust your honor to another. But if you have, let caution surpass prudence. Let the danger be in common and the risk mutual, so that your partner cannot turn King's evidence. 235. know how to ask

Starting point is 04:30:10 With some nothing easier, with others nothing so difficult, for there are men who cannot refuse, with them no skill is required, but with others their first word at all times is no, with them great art is required, and with all the propitious moment. Surprise them when in a pleasant mood, when a repast of body or soul has just left them refreshed,

Starting point is 04:30:33 if only their shrewdness has not anticipated the cunning of the, applicant. The days of joy are the days of favor, for joy overflows from the inner man into the outward creation. It is no use applying when another has been refused, since the objection to a no has just been overcome. Nor is it a good time after sorrow. To oblige a person beforehand is a sure way, unless he is mean. 26. Make an obligation beforehand of what would have to be a reward afterwards. This is a stroke of subtle policy. To grant favors before they are deserved is a proof of being obliging. Favors thus granted beforehand have two great advantages. The promptness of the gift obliges the recipient the more strongly, and the same gift which would afterwards be merely a

Starting point is 04:31:29 reward is beforehand an obligation. This is a subtle means of transforming obligations since that which would have forced the superior to reward is changed into one that obliges the one obliged to satisfy the obligation. But this is only suitable for men who have the feeling of obligation, since with men of lower stamp, the honorarium paid beforehand acts rather as a bit than as a spur. 237. Never share the secrets of your superiors. You may think you will share pairs, but you will only share pairings. Many have been ruined by being confidants. They are like soaps of bread used as forks. They run the same risk of being eaten up afterwards. It is no favor in a prince to share a secret. It is only a relief. Many break the mirror that reminds them of their ugliness. We do not like

Starting point is 04:32:26 seeing those who have seen us as we are, nor is he seen in a favorable light who has seen us in an unfavorable one. None ought to be too much beholden to us, least of all one of the great, unless it be for benefits done him, rather than for such favors received from him. Especially dangerous are secrets entrusted to friends. He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave. With a prince, this is an intolerable position which cannot last. He will desire to recover his lost liberty, and to gain it will overturn everything, including right and reason. Accordingly, neither tell secrets nor listen to them. 38. Know what is wanting in yourself. Many would have been great personages if they had not

Starting point is 04:33:19 had something wanting without which they could not rise to the height of perfection. It is remarkable with some that they could be much better if they could be much better if they had not had something wanting without which they could not rise to the height of perfection. could be better in something. They do not perhaps take themselves seriously enough to do justice to their great abilities. Some are wanting in geniality of disposition, a quality which their entourage soon find the want of, especially if they are in high office. Some are without organizing ability, others lack moderation. In all such cases, a careful man may make of a habit a second nature. Do not be captious. It is much more important to be sensible.

Starting point is 04:34:04 To know more than is necessary blunts your weapons, for fine points generally bend or break. Common sense truth is the surest. It is well to know but not to niggle. Lengthy comments lead to disputes. It is much better to have sound sense, which does not wander from the matter in hand. 240.

Starting point is 04:34:26 40. Make use of folly. The wisest play this card at times, and there are times when the greatest wisdom lies in seeming not to be wise. You need not be unwise, but merely affect unwisdom. To be wise with fools and foolish with the wise were of little use. Speak to each in his own language. He is no fool who affects folly, but he is who suffers from it. Ingenuous fall, rather than the pretended is the true foolishness since cleverness has arrived at such a pitch. To be well liked, one must dress in the skin of the simplest of animals.

Starting point is 04:35:10 End of Section 26. Section 27 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org.

Starting point is 04:35:40 The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, Section 27. 241. Put up with raillery, but do not practice it. The first is a form of courtesy, the second may lead to embarrassment.

Starting point is 04:36:01 to snarl it play has something of the beast and seems to have more audacious raillery is delightful to stand it proves power to show oneself annoyed causes the other to be annoyed best leave it alone the surest way not to put on the cap that might fit the most serious matters have arisen out of jests nothing requires more tact and attention before you begin to joke know how far the subject of your jokes you will be able to joke how far the subject of your joke is able to bear it. 242. Push advantages. Some put all their strength in the commencement and never carry a thing to a conclusion. They invent but never execute. These be paltering spirits.

Starting point is 04:36:49 They obtain no fame, for they sustain no game to the end. Everything stops at a single stop. This arises in some from impatience, which is the failing of the Spaniard, As patience is the virtue of the Belgian. The latter bring things to an end, the former come to an end with things. They sweat away till the obstacle is surmounted, but content themselves with surmounting it. They do not know how to push the victory home. They prove that they can but will not.

Starting point is 04:37:21 But this proves always that they cannot or have no stability. If the undertaking is good, why not finish it? If it is bad, why undertake it? Strike down your quarry, if you are wise. Be not content to flush it. 243. Do not be too much of a dove. Alternate the cunning of the serpent with the candor of the dove.

Starting point is 04:37:47 Nothing is easier than to deceive an honest man. He believes in much who lies in naught. Who does no deceit has much confidence. To be deceived is not always due to stupidity. It may arise from sheer greek. goodness. There are two sets of men who can guard themselves from injury, those who have experienced it at their own cost, and those who have observed it at the cost of others. Prudence should use as much suspicion as subtlety uses snares, and none need be so good as to enable others to do him ill.

Starting point is 04:38:23 Combine in yourself the dove and the serpent, not as a monster, but as a prodigy. Create a feeling of obligation. Some transform favors received into favors bestowed and seem, or let it be thought, that they are doing a favor when receiving one. There are some so astute that they get honor by asking, and by their own advantage with applause from others. They manage matters so cleverly that they seem to be doing others a service when receiving one from them. They transpose the order of obligation with extraordinary skill, or at least render it doubtful, who has obliged whom. They buy the best by praising it, and make a flattering honor out of the pleasure they express.

Starting point is 04:39:14 They oblige by their courtesy, and thus make men beholden for what they themselves should be beholden. In this way, they conjugate, to oblige, in the active, instead of in the passive voice, thereby proving themselves better politicians than grammarians. This is a subtle piece of finesse. A still greater is to perceive it, and to retaliate on such fools' bargains by paying in their own coin, and so coming by your own again.

Starting point is 04:39:46 245. Original and out-of-the-way views are signs of superior ability. We do not think much of a man who never contradicts us, that is no sign he loves us but rather that he loves himself do not be deceived by flattery and thereby have to pay for it rather condemn it besides you may take credit for being censured by some especially if they are those of whom the good speak ill on the contrary it should disturb us if our affairs please everyone

Starting point is 04:40:19 for that is a sign that they are of little worth perfection is for the few 246. Never offer satisfaction unless it is demanded. And if they do demand it, it is a kind of crime to give more than necessary. To excuse oneself before there is occasion is to accuse oneself. To draw blood in full health gives the hint to ill-will. An excuse unexpected arouses suspicion from its slumbers. Nor need a shrewd person show himself away.

Starting point is 04:40:55 of another's suspicion, which is equivalent to seeking out offense. He had best disarmed distrust by the integrity of his conduct. 247. Know a little more. Live a little less. Some say the opposite. To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else. It is equally unfortunate to waste your precious life in mechanical tasks or in a profusion of important work.

Starting point is 04:41:31 Do not heap up occupation and thereby envy, otherwise you complicate life and exhaust your mind. Some wish to apply the same principle to knowledge, but unless one knows, one does not truly live. 248 Do not go with the last speaker. There are persons who go. by the latest edition and thereby go to irrational extremes. Their feelings and desires are of wax. The last comer stamps them with his seal and obliterates all previous impressions. These never gain anything, for they lose everything so soon. Everyone dies them with his own color. They are of no use

Starting point is 04:42:13 as confidants. They remain children their whole life. Owing to this instability of feeling and They halt along cripples in will and thought and totter from one side of the road to the other. 249 Never begin life with what should end it. Many take their amusement at the beginning, putting off anxiety to the end. But the essential should come first and accessories afterwards if there is room. Others wish to triumph before they have fought. Others again begin with learning things of little consequence

Starting point is 04:42:50 and leave studies that would bring them fame and gain to the end of life. Another is just about to make his fortune when he disappears from the scene. Method is essential for knowledge and for life. 250. When to change the conversation. When they talk scandal. With some all goes contrary wise, their no is yes and their yes,

Starting point is 04:43:16 No. If they speak ill of a thing, it is the highest praise. For what they want for themselves, they depreciate to others. To praise a thing is not always to speak well of it, for some, to avoid praising what's good, praise what's bad, and nothing is good for him, for whom nothing is bad. End of Section 27. Section 28 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Libravox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org

Starting point is 04:44:03 The Art of Worldly Wisdom, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 28. 251 Use human means as if there were no divine ones, and divine as if there were no human ones. A masterly rule, it needs no comment. 252. Neither belong entirely to yourself nor entirely to others. Both are mean forms of tyranny.

Starting point is 04:44:38 To desire to be all for oneself is the same as desiring to have all for oneself. Such persons will not yield a jot or lose, a tittle of their comfort. They are rarely beholden, lean on their own luck, and their crutch generally breaks. It is convenient at times to belong to others that others may belong to us, and he that holds public office is no more nor less than a public slave, or let a man give up both birth and berthen, as the old woman said to Hadrian. On the other hand, others are all for others, which is folly, that always flies to extremes, in this case in a most unfortunate manner. No day, no hour is their own, but they have so much too much of others that they may be called the slaves of all.

Starting point is 04:45:31 This applies even to knowledge, where a man may know everything for others and nothing for himself. A shrewd man knows that others when they seek him do not seek him, but their advantage in him and by him. 253. Do not explain overmuch. Most men do not esteem what they understand and venerate what they do not

Starting point is 04:45:56 see. To be valued, things should cost dear. What is not understood becomes overrated. You have to appear wiser and more prudent than he requires with whom you deal, if you desire to give him a high opinion of you.

Starting point is 04:46:13 Yet in this there should be moderation and no excess. And though with sensible people common sense holds its own, with most men a little elaboration is necessary. Give them no time for blame. Occupy them with understanding your drift. Many praise a thing without being able to tell why, if asked. The reason is that they venerate the unknown as a mystery, and praise it because they hear it praised. never despise an evil however small for they never come alone they are linked together like pieces of good fortune fortune and misfortune generally go to find their fellows hence all avoid the unlucky and associate with the fortunate even the doves with all their innocence resort to the whitest walls everything fails with the unfortunate himself his words and his luck Do not wake misfortune when she sleeps.

Starting point is 04:47:19 One slip is a little thing, yet some fatal loss may follow it till you do not know where it will end. For just as no happiness is perfect, so no ill luck is complete. Patience serves with what comes from above, prudence with that from below. 255. Do good a little at a time, but often. One should never give beyond the possibility of return. Who gives much does not give, but sells. Nor drain gratitude to the dregs,

Starting point is 04:47:56 for when the recipient sees all return is impossible, he breaks off correspondence. With many persons it is not necessary to do more than overburdened them with favors to lose them altogether. They cannot repay you, and so they retire, preferring rather to be enemies than perpetually. debtors. The idol never wishes to see before him the sculptor who shaped him, nor does the benefited wish to see his benefactor always before his eyes. There is a great subtlety in giving what

Starting point is 04:48:28 costs little, yet is much desired, so that it is esteemed the more. 256. Go armed against discurtesy and against perfidy presumption and all other kinds of folly. There is much of it in the world and prudence lies in avoiding a meeting with it. Arm yourself each day before the mirror of attention with the weapons of defense. Thus you will beat down the attacks of folly. Be prepared for the occasion and do not expose your reputation to vulgar contingencies. Armed with prudence, a man cannot be disarmed by impertinence. The road of human intercourse is difficult, for it is full of ruts which may jolt our credit. Best to take a byway, taking Ulysses as a model of shrewdness. Fained misunderstanding is of great value in such matters. Aided by politeness, it helps us overall, and is often the

Starting point is 04:49:31 only way out of difficulties. 257. Never let matter come to a rupture. For our reputation always comes injured out of the encounter. Everyone may be of importance as an enemy, if not as a friend. Few can do us good. Almost any can do us harm. In Job's bosom itself, even his eagle never nestles securely from the day he has quarreled with a beetle. Hidden foes use the paw of the declared enemy to stir up the fire, and meanwhile, they lie in ambush for such an occasion. Friends provoked become the bitterest of enemies. They cover their own failings with the faults of others. Everyone speaks as things seem to him, and things seem as he wishes them to appear. All blame us at the beginning for want of foresight, at the end for lack of

Starting point is 04:50:30 patience, at all times for imprudence. If, however, a breach is inevitable, let it rather be excused as a slackening of friendship than by an outburst of wrath. Here is a good application of the saying about a good retreat. 258. Find out someone to share your troubles. You will never be all alone, even in dangers, nor bear all the burden of hate. Some think by their high position to carry off the whole glory of success, and have to bear the whole humiliation of defeat. In this way, they have none to excuse them, none to share the blame. Neither fate nor the mob are so bold against two. Hence the wise physician, if he has failed to cure, looks out for someone who, under the name of a consultation may help him carry out the corpse. Share weight and woe, for misfortune falls with

Starting point is 04:51:32 double force on him that stands alone. 259. Anticipate injuries and turn them into favors. It is wiser to avoid than to revenge them. It is an uncommon piece of shrewdness to change a rival into a confidante or transform into guards of honor those who were aiming attacks at us. It helps much to know how to oblige, for he leaves no time for injuries that fills it up with gratitude. That is true Savois-Faire to turn anxieties into pleasures. Try and make a confidential relation out of ill-will itself. 260 We belong to none, and none to us.

Starting point is 04:52:19 entirely. Neither relationship nor friendship nor the most intimate connection is sufficient to affect this. To give one's whole confidence is quite different from giving one's regard. The closest intimacy has its exceptions without which the laws of friendship would be broken. The friend always keeps one secret to himself, and even the son always hides something from his father. Some things are kept from one that are revealed to another and vice versa. In this way, one reveals all and conceals all, by making a distinction among the persons with whom we are connected. End of Section 28.

Starting point is 04:53:09 Section 29 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librivox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Davy Bacobu. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Balthasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, Section 29. 261. Do not follow up a folly. Many make an obligation out of a blunder, and because they have entered the wrong path

Starting point is 04:53:42 think it proves their strength of character to go on in it. Within they regret their error, while outwardly they excuse it. At the beginning of their mistake, they were regarded as inattentering. in the end as fools. Neither a non-considered promise nor a mistaken resolution are really binding. Yet some continue in their folly and prefer to be constant fools. 262. Be able to forget. It is more a matter of luck than of skill.

Starting point is 04:54:11 The things we remember best are those better forgotten. Memory is not only unruly, leaving us in the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well, putting its nose into places where it is not wanted. In painful things it is active, but neglectful in recalling the pleasurable. Very often the only remedy for the ill is to forget it, and all we forget is the remedy. Nevertheless, one should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a paradise or an inferno. The happy are an exception who enjoy innocently their simple happiness.

Starting point is 04:54:49 263. Many things of taste one should not possess oneself. One enjoys them better if another's than if one's own. The owner has the good of them the first day. For all the rest of the time, they are for others. You take a double enjoyment in other men's property, being without fear of spoiling it and with the pleasure of novelty. Everything tastes better for having been without it.

Starting point is 04:55:16 Even water from another's well tastes like nectar. Possession not alone hinders enjoyment. It increases annoyance whether you lend or keep. You gain nothing except keeping things for or from others, and by this means gain more enemies than friends. 264. Have no careless days. Fate loves to play tricks, and will heap up chances to catch us unawares. Our intelligence, prudence, and courage, even our beauty,

Starting point is 04:55:45 must always be ready for trial. for their day of careless trust will be that of their discredit. Care always fails just when it is most wanted. It is thoughtlessness that trips us up into destruction. Accordingly, it is a piece of military strategy to put perfection to its trial when unprepared. The days of parade are known and are allowed to pass by, but the day is chosen when least expected so as to put valor to the severest test.

Starting point is 04:56:14 265 set those under you difficult tasks. Many have proved themselves able at once when they had to deal with a difficulty. Just as fear of drowning makes a swimmer of a man. In this way many have discovered their own courage, knowledge or tact, which but for the opportunity would have been forever buried beneath their want of enterprise. Dangers are the occasions to create a name for oneself. And if a noble mind sees honor at stake, he will do the work of thousands. Queen Isabella the Catholic knew well this rule of life, as well as all the others.

Starting point is 04:56:53 And to a shrewd favor of this kind from her, the great captain won his fame, and many others earn an undying name. By this great art she made great men. 266 Do not become bad from sheer goodness. That is, by never getting into a temper. Such men without feeling are scarcely to be considered men. It does not always arise from laziness, but from sheer inability. To feel strongly on occasion is something personal.

Starting point is 04:57:26 Birds soon mock at the mocking. It is a sign of good taste to combine bitter and sweet. All sweets is diet for children and fools. It is very bad to sink into such insensibility out of very goodness. 267. Silken words, sugared manners. Arrows pierce the body, insults the soul. Sweet pastry perfumes the breath.

Starting point is 04:57:53 It is a great art in life to know how to sell wind. Most things are paid for in words, and by them you can remove impossibilities. Thus we deal in air and a royal breath can produce courage and power. Always have your mouth full of sugar. to sweeten your words, so that even your ill-wishers enjoy them. To please one must be peaceful. 268. The wise do at once what the fool does at last. Both do the same thing. The only difference lies in the time they do it, the one at the right time, the other at the wrong. He catches by the foot, but he ought to knock on the head. He turns right into left, and in all his acts is but a child.

Starting point is 04:58:40 There is only one way to get him the right way, and that is to force him to do what he might have done of his own accord. The wise men, on the other hand, sees it once what must be done sooner or later, so he does it willingly and gains honor thereby. 269. Make use of the novelty of your position, for men are valued while they are new. Novelty pleases all because it is uncommon. Taste is refreshed, and a brand-new mediocrity.

Starting point is 04:59:10 is thought more of than a custom excellence. Ability wears away by use and becomes old. However, know that the glory of novelty is short-lived, after four days' respect is gone. Accordingly, learn to utilize the first fruits of appreciation, and sees during the rapid passage of applause all that can be put to use. For once the heat of novelty over, the passion cools and the appreciation of novelty is exchanged for satiety at the customary, believe that all has its season which soon passes. 270. Do not condemn alone that which pleases all. There must be something good in a thing that

Starting point is 04:59:54 pleases so many, even if it cannot be explained it is certainly enjoyed. Singularity is always hated and when in the wrong left at. You simply destroy respect for your taste rather than do harm to the object of your blame and are left alone, you and your bad taste. If you cannot find the good in a thing, hide your incapacity and do not damn it straight away. As a general rule, bad taste springs from want of knowledge. What all say is so or will be so. End of Section 29. Section 30 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom.

Starting point is 05:00:39 This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public. domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Librevox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, servision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 30 271. In every occupation, if you know little, stick to the safest.

Starting point is 05:01:13 If you are not respected as subtle, you will be regarded as sure. On the other hand, a man well trained can plunge in and act as he pleases. To know little and yet seek danger is nothing else than to seek ruin. In such a case, take stand on the right hand, for what is done cannot be undone. Let little knowledge keep to the king's highway, and in every case, knowing or unknowing, security is shrewder than singularity. 272. Sell things by the tariff of courtesy.

Starting point is 05:01:51 You oblige people most that way. The bid of an interested buyer will never equal the return gift of an honorable recipient of a favor. Courtesy does not really make presents, but really lays men under obligation, and generosity is the great obligation. To a right-minded man, nothing costs more dear than what is given him. You sell at him twice and for two prices, one for the value, one for the politeness. At the same time, it is true that with vulgar souls, generosity is gibberish, for they do not understand the language of good breeding.

Starting point is 05:02:30 273. Comprehend their dispositions with whom you deal. so as to know their intentions. Cause known, effect known, beforehand in the disposition and after in the motive. The melancholy man always foresees misfortunes, the backbiter, scandals. Having no conception of the good,

Starting point is 05:02:53 evil offers itself to them. A man, moved by passion, always speaks of things differently from what they are. It is his passion speaks, not his reason. Thus each speaks as his feeling or his humor prompts him, and all far from the truth. Learn how to decipher faces and spell out the soul in the features. If a man laughs always, set him down as foolish, if never, as false.

Starting point is 05:03:20 Beware of the gossip. He is either a babbler or a spy. Expect little good from the misshapen. They generally take revenge on nature and do little honor to her, as she has done little to them. Beauty and folly generally go ahead. hand in hand. 274.

Starting point is 05:03:41 Be attractive. It is the magic of subtle courtesy. Use the magnet of your pleasant qualities more to obtain goodwill than good deeds, but apply it to all. Merit is not enough unless supported by grace, which is the sole thing that gives general acceptance and the most practical means of rule over others.

Starting point is 05:04:04 To be in vogue is a matter of luck. Yet it can be encouraged by skill, for art can best take root on a soil favored by nature. Their goodwill grows and develops into universal favor. 275. Join in the game as far as decency permits. Do not always pose and be a bore. This is a maxim for gallant bearing. You may yield a touch of dignity to gain the general goodwill.

Starting point is 05:04:34 You may now and then go where most. go, yet not beyond the bounds of decorum. He who makes a fool of himself in public will not be regarded as discreet in private life. One may lose more on a day of pleasure than has been gained during a whole life of labor. Still, you must not always keep a way. To be singular is to condemn all others. Still less, act the prude, leave that to its appropriate sex. Even religious prudery is ridiculous. nothing so becomes a man as to be a man a woman may affect a manly bearing as an excellence but not vice versa two hundred and seventy six know how to renew your character with the help both of nature and of art every seven years the disposition changes they say let it be a change for the better and for the nobler in your taste after the first seven comes to the disposition changes they say let it be a change for the better and for the nobler in your taste after the first seven comes

Starting point is 05:05:36 reason. With each succeeding luster, let a new excellence be added. Observe this change so as to aid it, and hope also for betterment in others. Hence it arises that many change their behavior when they change their position or their occupation. At times the change is not noticed till it reaches the height of maturity. At 20, man is a peacock. At 30, a lion. At 40, a camel. At 50, a serpent. At 60 a dog, at 70 an ape. At 80, nothing at all. 277. Display yourself.

Starting point is 05:06:19 Tis the illumination of talents. For each there comes an appropriate moment. Use it, for not every day comes a triumph. There are some dashing men who make much show with a little, a whole exhibition with much. If ability to display them is joined to versusely. versatile gifts, they are regarded as miraculous. There are whole nations given to display. The Spanish people take the highest rank in this. Light was the first thing to cause creation to shine forth.

Starting point is 05:06:50 Display fills up much, supplies much, and gives a second existence to things, especially when combined with real excellence. Heaven that grants perfection provides also the means of display, for one without the other were abortive. is however needed for display. Even excellence depends on circumstances and is not always opportune. Ostentation is out of place when it is out of time. More than any other quality, it should be free of any affectation. This is its rock of offense, for it then borders on vanity and so on contempt. It must be moderate to avoid being vulgar, and any excess is despised by the wise.

Starting point is 05:07:34 At times, it consists in a sort of mute eloquence, a careless display of excellence, for a wise concealment is often the most effective boast, since the very withdrawal from view piques curiosity to the highest. Tis a fine subtlety, too, not to display one's excellence all at one time, but to grant stolen glances at it,

Starting point is 05:07:57 more and more as time goes on. Each exploit should be the pledge of a great, and applause at the first should only die away in expectation of its sequel. 278. Avoid notoriety in all things. Even excellences become defects if they become notorious. Notaryity arises from singularity, which is always blamed. He that is singular is left severely alone.

Starting point is 05:08:29 Even beauty is decredited by Coxcomb, which offends by the very notice it attracts. Still more does this apply to discreditable singularities. Yet among the wicked, there are some that seek to be known for seeking novelties in vice so as to attain to the fame of infamy. Even in matters of the intellect, want of moderation may degenerate into loquacity. 279. Do not contradict the contradictor.

Starting point is 05:09:01 You have to distinguish whether the contradiction comes from cunning or from vulgarity. It is not always obstinacy, but may be artfulness. Notice this, for in the first case, one may get into difficulties, in the other into danger. Caution is never more needed than against spies. There is no such countercheck to the picklock of the mind as to leave the key of caution in the lock. trustworthy honorable dealing is at an end trusts are denied few keep their word the greater the service the poor the reward that is the way with all the world nowadays there are whole nations inclined to false dealing with some treachery has always to be feared with

Starting point is 05:09:55 others breach of promise with others deceit yet this bad behavior of others should rather be a warning to us than an example. The fear is that the sight of such unworthy behavior should override our integrity, but a man of honor should never forget what he is because he sees what others are. End of Section 30. Section 31 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, visit Librevox.org. Recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org.

Starting point is 05:10:46 The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs, section 31. 281. Find favor with men of sense. The tepid yes of a remarkable man is worth more than all the applause of the vulgar. You cannot make a meal off the smoke of chaff. The wise speak with understanding

Starting point is 05:11:13 and their praise gives permanent satisfaction. The sage Antigonus reduced the theater of his fame to Zeus alone, and Plato called Aristotle his whole school. Some strive to fill their stomach, albeit only with the breath of the mob. Even monarchs have need of authors and fear their pens more than ugly, women, the painter's pencil.

Starting point is 05:11:39 282. Make use of absence to make yourself more esteemed or valued. If the accustomed presence diminishes fame, absence augments it. One that is regarded as a lion in his absence may be laughed at when present as the ridiculous result of the parturition of the mountains. Talents get soiled by use,

Starting point is 05:12:03 for it is easier to see the exterior rind than the kernel of greatness it encloses. Imagination reaches farther than sight, and disillusion, which ordinarily comes through the ears, also goes out through the ears. He keeps his fame that keeps himself in the center of public opinion. Even the Phoenix uses its retirement for new adornment and turns absence into desire. It is a proof of the highest genius, yet when was genius without a touch of madness? If discovery be a gift of genius, choice of means is a mark of sound sense. Discovery comes by special grace and very seldom, for many can follow up a thing when found,

Starting point is 05:12:54 but to find it first is the gift of the few, and those the first in excellence and in age. novelty flatters and if successful gives the possessor double credit. In matters of judgment, novelties are dangerous because leading to paradox, in matters of genius, they deserve all praise. Yet both equally deserve applause if successful. 284. Do not be importunate.

Starting point is 05:13:23 And so you will not be slighted. Respect yourself if you would have others respect you. be sooner sparing than lavish with your presence. You will thus become desired and so well received, never come unasked, and only go when sent for. If you undertake a thing of your own accord, you get all the blame if it fails, none of the thanks if it succeeds.

Starting point is 05:13:47 The importunate is always the butt of blame, and because he thrusts himself in without any shame, he is thrust out with it. Never die of another's ill luck. Notice those who stick in the mud and observe how they call others to their aid so as to console themselves with a companion in misfortune. They seek someone to help them to bear misfortune, and often those who turned the cold shoulder on them in prosperity give them now a helping hand.

Starting point is 05:14:22 There is great caution needed in helping the drowning without danger to oneself. 286. Do not become responsible for all or for everyone. Otherwise you become a slave and the slave of all. Some are born more fortunate than others. They are born to do good as others to receive it. Freedom is more precious than any gifts for which you may be tempted to give it up. Lay less stress on making many dependent on you than on keeping yourself independent of you. any. The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good. Above all, do not regard responsibility as a favor, for generally it is another's plan to make one dependent on him. 287. Never act in a passion. If you do, all is lost. You cannot act for yourself if you are

Starting point is 05:15:23 not yourself and passion always drives out reason. In such cases, interpose a prudent go-between who can only be prudent if he keeps cool. That is why lookers-on see most of the game, because they keep cool. As soon as you notice that you are losing your temper, beat a wise retreat, for no sooner is the blood up than it is spilt, and in a few moments occasion may be given for many days repentance for oneself and complaints of the other party. 288. Live for the moment. Our acts and thoughts and all must be determined by circumstances. Will when you may, for time and tide, wait for no man. Do not live by certain fixed rules except those that relate to the cardinal virtues, nor let your will subscribe fixed conditions.

Starting point is 05:16:18 for you may have to drink the water tomorrow which you cast away today. There may be some so absurdly paradoxical that they expect all the circumstances of an action should bend to their eccentric whims and not vice versa. The wise man knows that the very pole star of prudence lies in steering by the wind. 289. Nothing depreciates a man more than to show he is the same. a man like other men. The day he is seen to be very human, he ceases to be thought divine. Frivolity is the exact opposite of reputation, and as the reserved are held to be more than men,

Starting point is 05:17:02 so the frivolous are held to be less. No failing causes such failure of respect. For frivolity is the exact opposite of solid seriousness. A man of levity cannot be a man of weight, even when he is old, and age should oblige him to be prudent. Although this blemish is so common, it is nonetheless despised. Two hundred and ninety, tis a piece of good fortune to combine man's love and respect. Generally, one dare not be liked if one would be respected. Love is more sensitive than hate. Love and honor do not go well together, so that one should aim neither to be much feared nor much loved. Love introduces confidence,

Starting point is 05:17:53 and the further this advances, the more respect recedes. Prefer to be loved with respect rather than with passion, for that is a love suitable for many. End of Section 31. Section 32 of the Art of Worldly Wisdom. This is a Librevox recording.

Starting point is 05:18:21 All Librevox recordings are in the the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Librevox.org. Recorded by Linda Sonrisa, servision.org. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs. Section 32 291. Know how to test. The care of the wise,

Starting point is 05:18:52 must guard against the snare of the wicked. Great judgment is needed to test that of another. It is more important to know the characteristics and properties of persons than those of vegetables and minerals. It is indeed one of the shrewdest things in life. You can tell medals by their ring and men by their voice. Words are proof of integrity, deeds still more. Here one requires extraordinary care, deep observation, subtle discernment, and judicious decision. 292. Let your personal qualities

Starting point is 05:19:31 surpass those of your office. Let it not be the other way about. However high the post, the person should be higher. An extensive capacity expands and dilates more and more as his office becomes higher. On the other hand, the narrow-minded will even lose heart and come to grief with diminished responsibilities and reputation. The great Augustus thought more of being a great man than a great prince.

Starting point is 05:20:02 Here a lofty mind finds fit place and well-grounded confidence finds its opportunity. 293. Maturity It is shown in the costume, still more in the customs. Material weight is the sign of a person. precious metal, moral of a precious man. Maturity gives finish to his capacity and arouses respect. A composed bearing in a man forms a facade to his soul. It does not consist in the insensibility of fools, as frivolity would have it, but in a calm tone of authority. With men of this kind

Starting point is 05:20:43 sentences are orations and acts are deeds. Maturity finishes a man off, for each is so far a complete man according as he possesses maturity. On ceasing to be a child, a man begins to gain seriousness and authority. 24. Be moderate in your views. Everyone holds views according to his interest and imagines he has abundant grounds for them. For with most men, judgment has to give way to inclination. It may occur that two may meet with exactly opposite views, and yet each thinks to have reason on his side, yet reason is always true to itself and never has two faces. In such a difficulty, a prudent man will go to work with care,

Starting point is 05:21:34 for his decision of his opponent's view may cast doubt on his own. Place yourself in such a case in the other man's place, and then investigate the reasons for his opinion. You will not then condemn him or justify yourself in such a confusing. way. 295. Do not affect which you have not effected. Many claim exploits without the slightest claim. With the greatest coolness they make a mystery of all.

Starting point is 05:22:06 Chameleons of applause they afford others a surfeit of laughter. Vanity is always objectionable. Here it is despicable. These ants of honor go crawling about filching scraps of exploits. The greater your exploits, the less you need to affect them. Content yourself with doing, leave the talking to others. Give away your deeds, but do not sell them. And do not hire venal pens to write down praises in the mud to the derision of the knowing ones.

Starting point is 05:22:40 Aspire rather to be a hero than merely to appear one. 296 Noble qualities. Noble qualities make noble men. A single one of them is worth more than a multitude of mediocre ones. There was once a man who made all his belongings, even his household utensils, as great as possible. How much more ought a great man see

Starting point is 05:23:08 that the qualities of his soul are as great as possible. In God, all is eternal and infinite. So in a hero, everything should be great and majestic, so that all his deeds, nay, all his words, should be pervaded by a transcendent majesty. 297. Always act as if your acts were seen. He must see all round who sees that men see him or will see him. He knows that walls have ears and that ill deeds rebound back.

Starting point is 05:23:44 Even when alone he acts as if the eyes of the whole world were upon him. For as he knows that sooner or later all will be known, so he considers those to be present as witnesses who must afterwards hear of the deed. He that wished the whole world might always see him, did not mind that his neighbors could see him over their walls. 298. Three things go to a prodigy.

Starting point is 05:24:13 They are the choicest gifts of heaven's prodigality, A fertile genius, a profound intellect, a pleasant and refined taste. To think well is good, to think right is better, tis the understanding of the good. It will not do for the judgment to reside in the backbone. It would be of more trouble than use. To think a right is the fruit of a reasonable nature. At 20, the will rules. At 30, the intellect.

Starting point is 05:24:45 at 40 the judgment. There are minds that shine in the dark like the eyes of the links and are most clear where there is most darkness. Others are more adapted for the occasion. They always hit on that which suits the emergency. Such a quality produces much and good, a sort of fecund felicity. In the meantime, good taste seasons the whole of life.

Starting point is 05:25:12 299. Leave off hungry One ought to remove even the bowl of nectar from the lips Demand is the measure of value Even with regard to bodily thirst It is a mark of good taste to slake But not to quench it Little and good is twice good

Starting point is 05:25:34 The second time comes a great falling off Surfeit of pleasure was ever dangerous And brings down the ill will of the highest powers The only way to please is to revive the appetite by the hunger that is left. If you must excite desire, better do it by the impatience of want than by the repletion of enjoyment. Happiness earned gives double joy. 300. In one word, be a saint.

Starting point is 05:26:09 So it is all said at once. Virtue is the link of all perfections, the center of all the felicities. She it is that makes a man prudent, discreet, sagacious, cautious, wise, courageous, thoughtful, trustworthy, happy, honored, truthful, and a universal hero. Three H's make a man happy, health, holiness, and a headpiece. Virtue is the son of the microcosm and has for hemisphere a good conscience. She is so beautiful that she finds favor with both God and man. Nothing is lovable but virtue. Nothing detestable but vice. Virtue alone is serious. All else is but just. A man's capacity and greatness are to be measured by his virtue and not by his

Starting point is 05:27:07 fortune. She alone is all sufficient. She may makes men lovable in life memorable after death. End of Section 32, recording by Linda Sonrisa, survision.org. End of the Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, translated by Joseph Jacobs.

Classic Audiobook Collection - The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian ~ Full Audiobook [philosophy]

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.