Baltasar Gracián

In one word, be a Saint. So is all said at once. Virtue is the link of all perfections, the centre of all felicities. She it is that makes a man prudent, discreet, sagacious, cautious, wise, courageous, thoughtful, trustworthy, happy, honoured, truthful, and a universal Hero. Three H’s make a man happy—Health, Holiness, and a Headpiece. Virtue is the sun of the microcosm, and has for hemisphere a good conscience. She is so beautiful that she finds favour with both God and man. Nothing is lovable but virtue, nothing detestable but vice. Virtue alone is serious, all else is but jest. A man’s capacity and greatness are to be measured by his virtue and not by his fortune. She alone is all-sufficient. She makes men lovable in life, memorable after death.

Leave others still hungry. Even with nectar, leave people with it still on their lips. Desire is the measure of esteem; even with bodily thirst, it is a trick of good taste to whet it but not quench it. What is good, if there is little of it, is doubly good. The second time brings a great falling off. Surfeits of pleasure are dangerous, for they bring contempt on even the most enduring eminence. The one rule for pleasing is to find the appetite still sharpened by the hunger it was left with. If it must be provoked, let it be through the impatience of desire rather than the weariness of enjoyment; happiness that has been suffered for is enjoyed twice over.

Three Things go to a Prodigy. 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: it is 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 aright is the fruit of a reasonable nature. At twenty the will rules; at thirty the intellect; at forty the judgment. There are minds that shine in the dark like the eyes of the lynx, 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.

Always act as if in full view. The circumspect man is the one who sees that he is being watched, or will be. He knows that walls have ears and that a bad deed is bursting to come out. Even when alone he acts as if in sight of the whole world, for he knows that everything will be known; he already regards as witnesses those who will become witnesses later when they hear of it. The man who wished the whole world could see him did not mind that his neighbors could look into his house from their own.

A man of gifts, and majestic ones. The foremost gifts make the foremost men. A single one is worth a whole host of middling ones. There was a man who liked everything he owned to be great, even his everyday belongings. How much more should a great man see to it that the gifts of his soul are great! In God everything is infinite, everything immense; so in a hero everything must be great and majestic, so that all he does, and all he says too, is robed in a transcendent, grandiose majesty.

Do not affect what you have not effected. Many claim exploits without the slightest claim. With the greatest coolness they make a mystery of all. Chameleons of applause, they afford others a surfeit of laughter. Vanity is always objectionable, here it is despicable. These ants of honour go crawling about filching scraps of exploits. The greater your exploits the less you need 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. Aspire rather to be a hero than merely to appear one.

Be moderate in your views. Each person judges as suits his interest and has plenty of reasons for what he perceives. In most people judgment gives way to feeling. It happens that two people meet with contradictory views, and each assumes that reason is on his side; but reason, being faithful, has never known how to show two faces. Let the wise man proceed with reflection on so delicate a point; in this way his doubts about himself will correct his judgment of the other’s conduct. Let him sometimes put himself on the other side and examine his opponent’s motives. Then he will neither condemn the other nor justify himself so blindly.

On maturity. It shines in one’s outward bearing, but more in one’s habits. Physical weight makes gold precious, and moral weight makes a person so. It is the dignity of one’s gifts and inspires veneration. A man’s composure is the façade of his soul. It is not foolishness that barely stirs, as frivolity would have it, but a very calm authority. It speaks in maxims and acts with success. It presupposes a fully formed man, for one is as much a person as one is mature. On ceasing to be a child, one begins to be serious and to carry authority.

Let your nature be greater than the demands of your office, and not the other way round. However high the post, the person must show himself greater. Ample abilities keep expanding and showing themselves more as one’s posts rise. A narrow heart is easily overwhelmed, and in the end it goes bankrupt in both obligations and reputation. The great Augustus prided himself on being a greater man than prince. Here loftiness of spirit counts, and a sensible self-confidence helps too.

Know how to sound people out. Let the attention of the judicious match the reserve of the cautious; great judgment is needed to measure someone else’s. It matters more to know the temperaments and properties of people than those of herbs and stones. This is one of the subtlest acts in life: metals are known by their ring, and people by their speech. Words show integrity, but deeds show it much more. Here one needs unusual care, deep observation, subtle discernment, and judicious assessment.