The Art of Worldly Wisdom, by Baltasar Gracián

S

SCW

Orthodox Curious
Agnostic
Heirloom
Specifically, I am recommending the 1992 translation by Christoper Maurer ISBN 9780385421317. I have come to appreciate how slight differences in translations can completely alter the meaning and intention of the author.

It's a book of 300 aphorisms that I've found to give me comfort in these times, in living in this world but not being of it. Some might be common sense, others can be contradictory, but you might find just a few to be truly enlightening. By sharing it here I hope others can also find some value.

Three randomly picked items for you to get a feel of this manuscript:

77
Adapt yourself to everyone else. A Proteus of discretion. Learned with the learned, saintly with saints. This is a great way to capture the goodwill of others, for similarity generates benevolence. Observe people’s temperaments, and adapt yourself accordingly. Whether you’re with a serious person or a jovial one, follow the current, and politely transform yourself. This is especially true of those who depend on others. It is a great stratagem for living prudently, and it requires much capacity. It is less difficult for the person with a well-informed intellect and varied tastes.

278
Don’t call attention to yourself. When others notice you doing so, your very gifts turn into defects and you will simply be left alone and criticized as an eccentric. Even beauty, if it is excessive, will harm your reputation. When it gives others pause, it is offensive, and disreputable eccentricities have the same effect, only greater. Some wish to be known for their vices, searching for new ways to discredit themselves. Even in matters of the understanding, excess produces pedantry.

20
A person born in the right age. People of truly rare eminence depend on the times. Not all of them had the times they deserved, and many who did were unable to take advantage of them. Some were worthy of better times, for not all goodness triumphs always. Things have their seasons, and even certain kinds of eminence go in and out of style. But wisdom has an advantage: she is eternal. If this is not her century, many others will be.


Baltasar Gracián y Morales, S.J. (8 January 1601 – 6 December 1658), better known as Baltasar Gracián, was a Spanish Jesuit and Baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragón). His writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

 
Pardon me for bumping my own thread, but I thought I might continue to share more aphorisms from this book, if it's appropriate.

Three randomly chosen with https://www.random.org/

23
Don’t have a single imperfection. Few people live without some moral flaw or character defect, and they give in to it when it would be easy to cure. The prudence of others is grieved to see a universal, sublime talent threatened by a small defect: a single cloud eclipses the sun. Defects are moles on the face of reputation, and malevolence is good at noticing them. It takes supreme skill to turn them into beauty marks. Caesar covered his defect with laurels.**He hid his baldness under a crown of laurel.

276
Renew your character with nature and with art. They say that one’s condition changes every seven years: let this change improve and heighten your taste. After the first seven years of life, we reach the age of reason; let a new perfection follow every seven years thereafter. Observe this natural variety and help it along, and expect others to improve also. This is why many changed their behavior or their estate, or their employment, and at times one does not notice until one sees how great the change has been. When you are twenty years old, you will be a peacock; at thirty, a lion; at forty, a camel; at fifty, a serpent; at sixty, a dog; at seventy, a monkey; and at eighty, nothing.

125
Don’t be a blacklist of others’ faults. To pay attention to the infamy of others shows that your own fame is ruined. Some would like to dissimulate, or cleanse, their own blemishes with those of others, or to console themselves with them: a consolation of fools. Their breath stinks; they are cesspools of filth. In these matters, he who digs deepest gets muddiest. Few escape some fault of their own, either by inheritance or by association. Only when you are little known are your faults unknown. The prudent person doesn’t register the defects of others or become a vile, living blacklist.
 
229
Parcel out your life wisely. Not confusedly, in the rush of events, but with foresight and judgment. Life is painful without a rest, like a long day’s journey without an inn. What makes life pleasant is a variety of learning. For a beautiful life, spend the first act in conversation with the dead: we are born to know and to know ourselves, and books turn us faithfully into people. Spend the second act with the living: behold all that is good in the world. Not all things are found in one region. In distributing the dowry, the universal Father sometimes gave wealth to his ugliest daughter. The third act belongs entirely to you: to philosophize is the highest delight of all.

126
The fool isn’t someone who does something foolish, but the one who doesn’t know how to conceal it. Hide your affects, but even more, your defects. All people err, but with this difference: the wise dissimulate their errors, and fools speak of those they are about to commit. Reputation is more a matter of stealth than of deeds. If you can’t be chaste, be chary. The slips of the great are closely observed, like eclipses of the sun and moon. You shouldn’t confide your defects to friends, or even to yourself, were that possible. Another rule for living is applicable here: know how to forget.

215
Pay attention to the person with hidden intentions. The shrewd person distracts someone’s will in order to attack it. Once it wavers it is easily defeated. These people conceal their intentions in order to get what they want and put themselves second in order to come out first. Their aim is best when no one sees them take aim. Stay awake as long as intentions do. When intentions go into hiding, redouble your vigilance. Be careful to penetrate the scheming of others. Watch them dart to and fro in order to home in on what they want. They propose one thing and intend another, flying in circles before their intentions come home to roost. Be cautious of their concessions. Sometimes it is best to make others understand that you have understood.
 
SCW said:
A person born in the right age. People of truly rare eminence depend on the times. Not all of them had the times they deserved, and many who did were unable to take advantage of them. Some were worthy of better times, for not all goodness triumphs always. Things have their seasons, and even certain kinds of eminence go in and out of style. But wisdom has an advantage: she is eternal. If this is not her century, many others will be.
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What a great one. Very wise and true.
SCW said:
Another rule for living is applicable here: know how to forget.
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One of my favorite characteristics of people.

This guy has great stuff. Thanks for the links and quotes.
 
Blade Runner said:
A lot of the modern world is like this because so few people are well read.
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Yep. There is a huge market in curating better, wiser, older books.

Basically Greene and Ryan Holiday and Tim Ferriss have made very lucrative careers out of it. To my knowledge they generally acknowledge their sources, so it seems fine to me. Although I think Holiday is an insufferable noodle otherwise.
 
Holiday is big on Stoicism and has spoken about it on Joe Rogan. His books are small while you can lift weights with Greene's bestsellers.

So I did read the translation the OP recommended of Baltasar Gracian. There are 300 aphorisms- I'd say 100 or 150 are really amazing. Going to reread and mark the ones I like.

After I read Gracian I bought Rochfoucauld's book of Maxims, which I also recommend.
 
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220
If you can’t wear the skin of a lion, wear the skin of a fox. To follow the times is to lead them. If you get what you want, your reputation will not suffer. If you lack strength, use skill; take one road or the other, the royal road of courage or the shortcut of artifice. Know-how has accomplished more than strength, and the wise have conquered the courageous more often than vice versa. When you can’t get what you want, you risk being despised.

77
Adapt yourself to everyone else. A Proteus of discretion. Learned with the learned, saintly with saints. This is a great way to capture the goodwill of others, for similarity generates benevolence. Observe people’s temperaments, and adapt yourself accordingly. Whether you’re with a serious person or a jovial one, follow the current, and politely transform yourself. This is especially true of those who depend on others. It is a great stratagem for living prudently, and it requires much capacity. It is less difficult for the person with a well-informed intellect and varied tastes.

54
Act boldly but prudently. Even hares tweak the beard of a dead lion. Like love, courage is no joking matter. If it yields once, it will have to yield again, and again. The same difficulty will have to be conquered later on, and it would have been better to get it over with. The mind is bolder than the body. So with the sword: let it be sheathed in prudence, ready for the occasion. It is your defense. A weak spirit does more harm than a weak body. Many people with eminent qualities lacked this brio, appeared to be dead, and were buried in their lassitude. Provident nature resourcefully joined the sweetness of honey with the sting of the bee. You have both nerves and bones in your body: don’t let your spirit be all softness.
 
167. Be self-reliant. There is no better company, in tight situations, than a stout heart. When it is weak, use the organs closest to it. Worries are borne better by the self-reliant. Don’t give in to fortune, or it will make itself even more unbearable. Some people help themselves little in their own travails, and double them by not knowing how to bear them. The person who knows himself overcomes his weakness with thoughtfulness, and the prudent manage to conquer all, even the stars.

39. Know when things are at their acme, when they are ripe, and know how to take advantage of them. All works of nature reach their point of full perfection. Before, they were gaining; from then on, waning. As for works of art, only rarely can they not be improved. People with good taste know how to enjoy each thing when it reaches perfection. Not everyone can, and not everyone who can knows how. Even the fruits of the understanding attain this ripeness. But you must know it in order to value and use it.

168. Don’t become a monster of foolishness. Among these monsters are all people who are vain, presumptuous, stubborn, whimsical, self-satisfied, extravagant, paradoxical, light-headed, seekers of novelty, the undisciplined … all are monsters of impertinence. Spiritual monstrosity is worse than bodily, for it contradicts a superior beauty. But who will correct all this common folly? Where good sense is lacking, there is no room for advice and direction. Careful observation has been pushed aside by an illconceived desire for imaginary applause.
 
242. Follow through on your victories. Some people do everything to begin and nothing to end. Fickle characters, they start but don’t persist. They never win praise because they carry on but don’t carry through. To them everything is over before it ends. The Spaniard is known for his impatience, as the Belgian is for his patience. The latter finishes things, the former finishes them off; he sweats until he has conquered difficulty, is content to conquer, but doesn’t know how to carry through on his victory. He proves that he can but doesn’t want to. This is always a defect: it shows either inconstancy or having rashly attempted the impossible. What is worth doing is worth finishing. If it isn’t worth finishing, why begin at all? The wise don’t merely stalk their prey, they make the kill.

239. Don’t be overly clever. Better to be prudent. If you sharpen your wits too much, you will miss the point, or break your point: that is what happens to common subtlety. Common sense is safer. It is good to be intelligent, but not to be a pedant. Much reasoning is a kind of disputing. Better a substantial judgment that reasons only as much as it needs to.

17. Keep changing your style of doing things. Vary your methods. This will confuse people, especially your rivals, and awaken their curiosity and attention. If you always act on your first intention, others will foresee it and thwart it. It is easy to kill the bird that flies in a straight line, but not one that changes its line of flight. Don’t always act on your second intention either; do something twice, and others will discover the ruse. Malice is ready to pounce on you; you need a good deal of subtlety to outwit it. The consummate player never moves the piece his opponent expects him to, and, less still, the piece he wants him to move.
 
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