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It is a great misfortune to be of use to nobody scarcely less to be of use to everybody.

Baltasar Gracian

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Baltasar Gracian
Age: 57 †
Born: 1601
Born: January 16
Died: 1658
Died: December 6
Jesuit
Philosopher
Writer
Belmonte de Gracian
Balthasar Gracian
Baltasar Gracian
Baltasar Gracián y Morales
Everybody
Less
Use
Great
Usefulness
Scarcely
Misfortune
Misfortunes
Nobody

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When desire dies, fear is born.
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He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
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One who was abhorred by all in prosperity is adored by all in adversity.
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Admiration is the basis of ignorance.
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It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
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Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture.
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If you are wise, live as you can if you cannot, live as you would.
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For a thing to remain undone nothing more is needed than to think of it done.
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Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of time.
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Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
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Know how to choose well. Most of life depends thereon. It needs good taste and correct judgment, for which neither intellect nor study suffices.
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It takes more to make one sage today than it did to make the seven of Greece. And you need more resources to deal with a single person these days than with an entire nation in times past.
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The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
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Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste.
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Display startling novelty-rise afresh like the sun every day. Change too the scene on which you shine, so that you rloss may be felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins applause in the new.
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Oh life, you should never had begun, but since you did, you should never end
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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.
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Many pleasant things are better when they belong to someone else. When things belong to others, we enjoy them twice as much, without the risk of losing them, and with the pleasure of novelty.
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