In my trip to Nanog95, I managed to visit Houston Nasa Center and this bookshop. I wanted to buy the latest book from the owner but I couldn’t and by chance I found a book from Baltasar Gracian. It was funny because I wanted to read that book after reading the 48 laws power. So I bought it and after a short walk in the town, I got back to my drive.
I liked the intro and the bit of history of Baltasar and how important the book was for some prime philosophers like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer (who translated to German!)
I think the most repeated words in the book are prudence and wisdom. There are 300 short entries, and most of them are worth commenting about but I will some main ones.
33: “Know when to put something aside” = learn to say no.
51: “Know how to choose”. This is from XVII, so 400y ago they new about the problem about having options. I think this is one of the main issues we have nowadays.
90: “The art of living ling: live well. The strength of the mind is communicated to the body. A good life is long both in intention and extension”.
103: “To each, the dignity that befits him. Not everyone is a king, but your deeds should be worthy of one”.
104: “Have a good sense of what each job required: … Far better are the jobs we dont grow bored with, where variety combines with importance and refreshes our taste”. And you think boredom or burnout is only recent…..
105: “… Good things, if brief: twice good. Brevity is pleasant and flattering, and it gets more done”. This is one I use more often, and my favourite.
125: “.. The prudent person doesn’t register the defects of others or become a vile, living blacklist.
130: “… To excel and to know how to show it is to excel twice”
137: “… Be that friend to yourself and you will be able to live by yourself”.
251: “Use human means as though divine ones didn’t exist, and divine means as though there were no human ones.” This is from Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
262: “Know how to forget: It takes more luck than skill”: Amen
295: “Not a braggart, but a doer: … Content yourself with doings: leave saying to others”
297: “Always behave as though others were watching”
299: “Leave people hungry. The good, if little, is twice good” similar to 105.
300: Be a saint. Virtue is chain of all perfections…. She makes you prudent, discreet, shrewd,….
Another of my favourite sentences is:
“Quien te alaba con lo que non es en ti, sabe que quiere levar lo que as de ti.
– https://akifrases.com/frase/175729
I need to read about Don Manuel