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03 - No Laws for the Just - The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian · Logic Library

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  No laws for the just, no counsels for the wise. Yet no one
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  ever knew as much as he had need one thing, you must forgive another.
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  Thank me, for I have called this manual of worldly wisdom an oracle,
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  for at this one in curtness and sententiousness. On the other hand,
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  I offer you in one all the twelve works of Grathian. Each of these
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  is so highly thought of that his prudent man had scarcely appeared in Spain than
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  it was enjoyed among the French, in whose language it was translated, and
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  at whose court it was printed. May this be Wisdom's bill of fare at
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  the banquet of her sages, in which she inscribes the items of the feast
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  of reason to be found in Grathia's other works. Don Vincenzio Juan de Lastanosa
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  One. Everything is at its acme, especially the art of making one's way
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  in the world. There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man
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  then formerly to make seven sages. And more is needed nowadays to deal with
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  a single person than was required with the whole people in former times. Two
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  character and intellect the two poles of our capacity, one without the other is
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  but half way to happiness. Intellect suffices not character is also needed. On
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  the other hand, it is the fool's misfortune to fail in obtaining the position,
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  the employment, the neighborhood, and the circle of friends that suit him.
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  Three. Keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their novelty
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  heightens the value of your achievements. It is both useless and insipid to play
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  with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately,
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  you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object
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  of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery
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  arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as
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  you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the
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  holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of.
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  It only leaves room for criticism, and if it happens to fail,
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  you are doubly unfortunate. Besides, you imitate the divine way when you cause
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  men to wander and watch. Four. Knowledge and courage are the elements of
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  greatness. They give immortality because they are immortal each is as much as he
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  knows and wise can do anything. A man without knowledge a world without light,
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  wisdom and strength, eyes and hands. Knowledge without courage is diile.
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  Five. Create a feeling of dependence. Not he that adorns, but he
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  that adores makes a divinity. The wise man would rather see men needing him
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  than thanking him. To keep them on the threshold of hope is diplomatic to
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  trust to their gratitude. Boorish hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad
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  one. More is to be got from dependence than from courtesy. He that
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  has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well, and the orange,
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  once sucked, falls from the golden platter into the waste basket. When dependence
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  disappears, good behavior goes with it, as well as respect. Let it
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  be one of the chief lessons of experience to keep hope alive without entirely satisfying
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  it by preserving it. To make oneself all is needed, even by a
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  patron on the throne. But let not silence be carried to access lest you
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  go wrong, nor let another's failing grow incurable for the sake of your own
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  advantage. Six. A man at his highest point we are not born perfect.
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  Every day we develop in our personality and in our calling, till we
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  reach the highest point of our completed being, to the full round of our
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  accomplishments of our excellences. This is known by the purity of our taste,
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  the clearness of our thought, the maturity of our judgment, and the firmness
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  of our will. Some never arrive at being complete. Somewhat is always wanting.
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  Others ripen too late. The complete man wise in speech, prudent in
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  act, is admitted to the familiar intimacy of discreet persons is even sought for
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  by them. Seven avoid victories over superiors. All victories breed hate, and
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  that over your superior is foolish or fatal. Superiority is always detested. Are
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  for theory superiority over superiority. Caution can gloss over common advantages. For example,
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  good looks may be cloaked by careless attire. There be some that will
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  grant you precedence in good luck or good temper, but none in good sense.
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  Least of all, a prince, for good sense is a royal prerogative.
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  Any claim to that is a case of lais majesty. They are princes
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  and wish to be so in that most princely of qualities. They will allow
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  a man to help them, but not to surpass them, and will have
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  any advice tender them appear like a recollection of something they have forgotten, rather
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  than as a guide to something they cannot find. The stars teach us this
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  finesse with happy tact. Though they are his children and brilliant like him,
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  they never rival the brilliancy of the Sun. Eight. To be without passions
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  tis a privilege of the highest order of mind. Their very eminence redeems them
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  from being affected by transient and low impulses. There is no higher rule than
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  the one over one's self. Over one's impulses, there is the triumph of
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  free will, while passion rules the character. No aiming at high office,
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  the less the higher it is. The only refined way of avoiding scandals.
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  Nay, tis the shortest way back to good repute. Nine. Avoid to
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  faults of your nation. Water shares the good or bad qualities of the strata
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  through which it flows, and man those of the climate in which he is
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  born. Some ow more than others to their native land because there is more
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  fate favorable sky in the Senith. There is not a nation, even among
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  the most civilized, that has not some fault peculiar to itself, which other
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  nations blame by way of boast or as a warning. Tis a triumph of
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  cleverness. To correct in oneself such national failings, or even to hide them.
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  You get great credit for being unique among your fellows, and as it
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  is less expected of you, it is esteemed the more. There are also
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  family failings, as well as faults of position, of office, or of
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  age. If these all meet in one person and are not carefully guarded against,
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  they make an intolerable monster. Ten Fortune and fame, where the one
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  is fickle, the other is enduring, the first for life, the second
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  afterwards, the one against envy, the other against oblivion. Fortune is desired
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  at times assisted, fame is earned. The desire for fame springs from man's
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  best part. It was and is the sister of the giants. It always
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  goes to extremes, horrible monsters, or brilliant prodigies. And of Section three