Baltasar Gracian

Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.

Begin with another's to end with your own.

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.

Words are feminine deeds are masculine.

A sage has one advantage he is immortal. If this is not his century many others will be.

The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected.

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

Truth always lags last limping along on the arm of Time.

Time and I against any two.

Nothing really belongs to us but time which even he has who has nothing else.

Superiority is always detested.

Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word never to withdraw one.

Nothing arouses ambition so much as the trumpet clang of another's fame.

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.

The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious.

'No' and 'Yes' are words quickly said but they need a great amount of thought before you utter them.

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 nothing at all.

Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding better those who push forward who employ their enterprise who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck and to effectively gain her favor.