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
Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.
Know or listen to those who know.
Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
To oblige persons often costs little and helps much.
There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.
Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
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.
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.
Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
Evil report carries further than any applause.
To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
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.
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.
Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.
He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
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.
Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
The things we remember best are those better forgotten.
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
Work is the price which is paid for reputation.
When desire dies, fear is born.
Begin with another's to end with your own.
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.
Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.
There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens a truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself.
