Baltasar Gracián

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

One should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a Paradise or an Inferno.

Cautious silence is the refuge of good sense

For the advice in a joke is sometimes more useful than the most serious teaching.

He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.

Memory is not only unruly, leaving us in the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well, putting its nose into places where it is not wanted.

Harness the imagination: Sometimes curbing her, sometimes giving her rein, for she is the whole of happiness. She sets to rights even the understanding. She sinks to tyranny, not satisfied with mere faith, but demanding works. Thus she becomes the mistress of life itself. She does so with pleasure or with pain, according to the nonsense presented. She makes people contented or discontented with themselves. By dangling before some nothing but the specter of their eternal suffering, she becomes the scourge of these fools. To others she shows nothing but fortune and romance, while merrily laughing. Of all this she is capable if not held in check by the wisest of wills.

Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can__ be good, be careful.

We have eyelids but not earlids, for the ears are the portals of learning, and Nature wanted to keep them wide open.

Deal with people from whom you can learn

Be first the master of yourself

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself.

The truths that matter most to us come always half spoken.

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.

Though such authority and respect shouldn't be handed to all and sundry, have in caution's innermost room a confidant, a faithful mirror, whose correction you value when disillusionment is necessary.

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 a good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.