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Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent.

Baltasar Gracian
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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.
Baltasar Gracian
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
Baltasar Gracian
Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.
Baltasar Gracian
Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.
Baltasar Gracian
Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent.
Baltasar Gracian
Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
Baltasar Gracian
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
Baltasar Gracian
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
Baltasar Gracian
Evil report carries further than any applause.
Baltasar Gracian
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
Baltasar Gracian
True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
Baltasar Gracian
Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
Baltasar Gracian
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
Baltasar Gracian
Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.
Baltasar Gracian
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
Baltasar Gracian
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
Baltasar Gracian
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
Baltasar Gracian
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
Baltasar Gracian
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
Baltasar Gracian
When desire dies, fear is born.
Baltasar Gracian
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
Baltasar Gracian
Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favors by the shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders.
Baltasar Gracian
It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.
Baltasar Gracian
Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
Baltasar Gracian
We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.
Baltasar Gracian
Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.
Baltasar Gracian
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.
Baltasar Gracian
He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
Baltasar Gracian
He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.
Baltasar Gracian
Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
Baltasar Gracian
Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
Baltasar Gracian
Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave.
Baltasar Gracian
A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
Baltasar Gracian
To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.
Baltasar Gracian
It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.
Baltasar Gracian
Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
Baltasar Gracian
He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
Baltasar Gracian
Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
Baltasar Gracian
Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.
Baltasar Gracian
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
Baltasar Gracian
True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
Baltasar Gracian
Begin with another's to end with your own.
Baltasar Gracian
The things we remember best are those better forgotten.
Baltasar Gracian
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
Baltasar Gracian
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
Baltasar Gracian
Know or listen to those who know.
Baltasar Gracian
Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.
Baltasar Gracian
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
Baltasar Gracian