Latest / Logic Library / 07 - Never Exaggerate The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian

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07 - Never Exaggerate The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian · Logic Library

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  Never exaggerate. It is an important object of attention not to talk in superlatives,
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  so is neither to offend against truth, nor to give a mean idea
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  of one's understanding. Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment, which shows the
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  narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste. Praise arouses lively, curiosity begets desire,
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  and if afterwards the value does not correspond to the price, as generally
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  happens, expectation revolts against the deception and revenges itself by under estimating the thing
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  recommended, and the person recommending a prudent man goes more cautiously to work,
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  and prefers to err by omission than by commission. Extraordinary things are rare,
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  therefore moderate ordinary valuation. Exaggeration is a branch of lying, and you use
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  by it the credit of good taste, which is much, and of good
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  sense, which is more forty two born to command. It is a secret
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  force of superiority, not to have to get on by artful trickery, but
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  by an inborn power of rule. All submit to it without knowing why,
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  Recognizing the secret vigor of connatural authority, such magisterial spirits are kings by merit,
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  and lions by innate privilege. By the esteem which they inspire, they
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  hold the hearts and minds of the rest. If their other qualities permit.
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  Such men are born to be the prime motors of the state. They perform
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  more by a gesture than others by a long harangue forty three. Think with
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  the few, and speak with the many by swimming against the stream. It
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  is impossible to remove error, easy to fall into danger, only as Socrates
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  can undertake it. To dissent from others views is regarded as an insult,
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  because it is their condemnation. Disgust is doubled on account of the thing blamed
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  and of the person who praised it. Truth is for the few. Error
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  is both common and vulgar. The wise man is not known by what he
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  says on the housetops, for there he speaks not with his own voice,
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  but with that of common folly. However much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it.
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  The prudent avoid being contradicted as much as contradicting. Though they have their
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  censure ready, they are not ready to publish it. Thought is free.
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  Force cannot and should not be used to it. The wise man therefore retires
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  into silence, and if he allows himself to come out of it, he
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  does so in the shade and before few and fit persons. Forty four.
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  Sympathy with great minds. It is an heroic quality. To agree with heroes.
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  Tis like a miracle of nature. For mystery and for use. There
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  is a natural kinship of hearts and minds. Its effects are such that vulgar
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  ignorance, sense, witchcraft, esteem established, good will follows, which at
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  times reaches affection. It persuades without words, and obtains without earning. This
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  sympathy is sometimes active, sometimes passive, both alike felicific. The more so
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  the more sublime. Tis a great art to recognize, to distinguish, and
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  to utilize this gift. No amount of energy suffices without that favor of nature.
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  Forty five Use, but do not abuse cunning. One ought not to
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  delight in it, still less to boast of it. Everything artificial should be
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  concealed. Most of all cunning, which is hated deceit is much in use.
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  Therefore, our caution has to be redoubled, but not so as to
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  show itself, for it arouses distrust, causes much annoy awakens revenge and gives
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  rise to more ills than you would imagine. To go to work with.
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  Caution is of great advantage in action, and there is no greater proof of
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  wisdom. The greatest skill in any deed consists in the sure mastery with which
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  it is executed. Forty six Master your antipathies. We often allow ourselves to
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  take dislikes, and that before we know anything of a person. At times,
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  this innate yet vulgar aversion attaches itself to eminent personalities. Good sense masters
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  this feeling, for there is nothing more discreditable than to dislike those better than
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  ourselves. As sympathy with great men ennobles us, so dislike to them degrades
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  us. Forty seven. Avoid affairs of honor one of the chiefest aims of
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  prudence. In men of great ability, the extremes are kept far asunder,
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  so that there is a long distance between them, and they always keep in
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  the middle of their caution, so that they take time to break through it.
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  It is easier to avoid such affairs than to come well out of them.
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  They test our judgment. It is better to avoid them than to conquer
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  in them. One affair of honor leads to another and may lead to an
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  affair of dishonor. There are men so constituted by nature or by nation that
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  they easily enter upon such obligations. But for him that walks by the light
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  of reason, such a matter requires long thinking over. There is more valor
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  needed not to take up the affair than to conquer in it. When there
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  is one fool ready for the occasion, one may excuse oneself from being the
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  second forty eight b thorough. How much depends on the person. The interior
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  must be at least as much as the exterior. How much depends on the
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  person, The interior must be at least as much as the exterior. There
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  are natures all frontage like houses. For want of means, have the portico
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  of a palace leading to the rooms of a cottage. It is no use
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  boring into such persons, although they bore you for conversation flags After the first
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  salutation, they prance through the first compliments like Sicilian barbes. But silence soon
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  succeeds, for the flow of words soon ceases. Where there is no spring
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  of thoughts, others may be taken in by them, because they themselves have
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  but a view of the surface, but not the prudent who look within them
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  and find nothing there except material for scorn. Forty nine. Observation and judgment.
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  A man with these rules things not they him, He sounds at once
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  the profoundest depths. He is a phrenologist by means of physiognomy. On seeing
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  a person, he understands him and judges of his inmost nature. From a
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  few observations, he deciphers the most hidden recesses of his nature, keen observation,
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  subtle insight, judicious inference. With these he discovers, notices, grasps,
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  and comprehends everything. Fifty. Never lose self respect or be too familiar
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  with oneself. Let your own right feeling be the true standard of your rectitude,
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  and owe more to the strictness of your own self judgment than to all
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  external sanctions. Leave off anything unseemly more from regard for your own self respect
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  than from fear of external authority. Pay regard to that, and there is
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  no need of Seneca's imaginary tutor. End of section seven