Latest / The Philosophy Insights Collection / 16 - Nobility of Feeling - The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian

Transcript

16 - Nobility of Feeling - The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian · The Philosophy Insights Collection

0:00
Nobility of feeling. There is a certain distinction of the soul, a high
0:06
mindedness prompting to gallant acts that gives an air of grace to the whole character.
0:13
It is not found often, for it presupposes great magnanimity. Its chief
0:19
characteristic is to speak well of an enemy, and to act even better towards
0:24
him. It shines brightest when a chance comes of revenge. Not alone does
0:30
it let the occasion pass, but it improves it by using a complete victory
0:36
in order to display unexpected generosity. Tis a fine stroke of policy, nay
0:43
the very acme of state craft. It makes no pretense to victory, for
0:49
it pretends to nothing, and while obtaining its deserts, it conceals its merits.
0:58
One hundred and thirty two. Revise your judgments. To appeal to an
1:03
inner court of revision makes things safe, especially when the course of action is
1:10
not clear. You gain time either to confirm or improve your decision. It
1:17
affords new grounds for strengthening or corroborating your judgment. And if it is a
1:23
matter of giving, the gift, is the more valued from its being evidently
1:29
well considered than for being promptly bestowed long expected is highest priced, and if
1:37
you have to deny, you gain time to decide how and when to mature
1:42
than know that it may be made palatable. Besides, after the first heat
1:49
of desire is past, the repulse of refusal is felt less keenly in cold
1:55
blood. But especially when men press for a reply, is it best to
2:00
defer it, For as often as not, that is only a feint to
2:06
disarm a tension. One hundred thirty three. Better mad with the rest of
2:14
the world than wise alone, so say politicians. If all are so,
2:22
one is no worse off than the rest. Whereas solitary wisdom passes for folly,
2:29
So important is it to sail with the stream. The greatest wisdom often
2:35
consists in ignorance, or the pretense of it. One has to live with
2:40
others, and others are mostly ignorant. To live entirely alone, one must
2:46
be very like a god, or quite like a wild beast. But I
2:52
would turn the aphorism by saying, better be wise with the many than a
2:58
fool all alone. There may be some two who seek to be original.
3:02
By seeking chimeras one hundred and thirty four double your resources, you thereby double
3:14
your life. One must not depend on one thing or trust to only one
3:19
resource. However pre eminent, everything should be kept double, especially the causes
3:25
of success, of favor, or of esteem. The Moon's mutability transcends everything
3:34
and gives a limit to all existence, especially of things dependent on human will,
3:40
the most brittle of all things. To guard against this inconstancy should be
3:47
the sage's care, And for this the chief rule of life is to keep
3:53
a double store of good and useful qualities. Thus, as nature gives gives
4:00
us in duplicate the most important of our limbs and those most exposed to risk,
4:06
so art should deal with the qualities on which we depend for success.
4:14
One hundred and thirty five. Do not nourish the spirit of contradiction. It
4:20
only proves you foolish or peevish, and prudence should guard against this strenuously.
4:28
To find difficulties in everything may prove you clever, but such wrangling writes you
4:34
down a fool. Such folk make a mimic war out of the most pleasant
4:40
conversation, and in this way act as enemies towards their associates, rather than
4:46
towards those with whom they do not consort. Grit grates most in delicacies,
4:54
and so does contradiction in amusement. They are both foolish and cruel who yoke
5:00
together the wild beast and the tame one hundred and thirty six. Post yourself
5:10
in the center of things, so you feel the pulse of affairs. Many
5:16
lose their way either in the ramifications of useless discussion or in the brushwood of
5:24
wearisome verbosity, without ever realizing the real matter at issue. They go over
5:30
a single point a hundred times, wearing themselves and others, and yet never
5:36
touch the all important center or affairs. This comes from a confusion of mind
5:44
from which they cannot extricate themselves. They waste time and patience on matters they
5:50
should leave alone, and cannot spare them afterwards for what they have left alone.
6:00
Hundred and thirty seven. The sage should be self sufficing. He that
6:05
was all in all to himself carried all with him when he carried himself.
6:13
If a universal friend can represent to us Rome and the rest of the world,
6:18
let a man be his own universal friend, and then he is in
6:24
a position to live alone. Whom could such a man want? If there
6:30
is no clearer intellect or finer taste than his own. He would then depend
6:36
on himself alone, which is the highest happiness. And like the supreme being,
6:43
he that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage
6:48
in much, and God in everything. One hundred and thirty eight. The
6:57
art of letting things alone, the more so the wilder the waves of public
7:02
or of private life. There are hurricanes in human affairs, tempests of passion,
7:10
when it is wise to retire to a harbor and ride at anchor.
7:15
Remedies often make diseases worse. In such cases, one has to leave them
7:21
to their natural course and the moral suasion of time. It takes a wise
7:28
doctor to know when not to prescribe, and at times the greater skill consists
7:34
in not applying remedies. The proper way to still the storms of the vulgar
7:42
is to hold your hand and let them calm down of themselves. To give
7:47
way now is to conquer by and buy. A fountain gets muddy with but
7:55
little stirring up, and does not get clear by our meddling with it,
8:00
but by our leaving it alone. The best remedy for disturbances is to let
8:05
them run their course, for so they quiet down one hundred and thirty nine.
8:13
Recognize unlucky days they exist, nothing goes well on them. Even though
8:22
the game may be changed, the ill luck remains. Two tries should be
8:26
enough to tell if one is in luck to day or not. Everything is
8:33
in process of change, even the mind, and no one is always wise.
8:39
Chance has something to say, even how to write a good letter.
8:45
All perfection turns on the time, Even beauty has its hours. Even wisdom
8:52
fails at times by doing too much or too little to turn out well.
8:58
A thing must be done on its own day. This is why with some
9:05
everything turns out ill. With others all goes well, even with less trouble.
9:11
They find everything ready, their wit prompt, their presiding genius favorable,
9:18
their lucky star in the ascendant. At such times one must seize the occasion
9:24
and not throw away the slightest chance. But a shrewd person will not decide
9:31
on the day's luck by a single piece of good or bad fortune, for
9:37
the one may be only a lucky chance, and the other only a slight
9:41
annoyance. One hundred and forty. Find the good in a thing at once
9:50
tis the advantage of good taste. The bee goes to the honey for her
9:56
comb, the serpent to the gall for a its venom. So with taste,
10:03
some seek the good, others the ill. There is nothing that has
10:07
no good in it, especially in books as giving food for thought. But
10:13
many have such a scent that, amid a thousand excellences, they fix upon
10:20
a single defect and single it out for blame, as if they were the
10:24
scavengers of men's minds and hearts. So they draw up a balance sheet of
10:31
defects, which does more credit to their bad taste than to their intelligence.
10:39
They lead a sad life, nourishing themselves on bitters and battening on garbage.
10:46
They have the luckier taste, who midst a thousand defects seize upon a single
10:52
beauty. They may have hit upon the by chance. End of section six Steen