A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Baltasar Gracian
True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
Know or listen to those who know.
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
Never have a companion that casts you in the shade.
At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent.
Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.
Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.
Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.
Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.
Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.
He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.
One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.
Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.
Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.
Have friends. 'Tis a second existence.
There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
It is better to have too much courtesy than too little, provided you are not equally courteous to all, for that would be injustice.
When desire dies, fear is born.
Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word, never to withdraw one.
It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.
We often have to put up with most from those on whom we most depend.
Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.
Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
Work is the price which is paid for reputation.
There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
