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16 - Nobility of Feeling - The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian · Logic Library

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