Customer Reviews

The Art of Worldly Wisdom

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Gracian had a splendid understanding of human nature. This book is just phenomenal, and it is not intended to be read and left on the shelf, it must be digested little by little, like the Book of Proverbs.
His insights have been copied and rewritten all the time, because they are universal in nature. It is interesting to notice that even though Gracian gives counsel on how to deal with people and even enemies, the BIG difference we see in him when compared with other authors like Machiavelli (whom Gracian detested) is his love for virtues like courage, generosity and kindness.
Gracian writes in order to make people become better human beings, not to give advice on how to win a war or have success in business, with a finesse that unfortunately is not found easily any more in our brute and materialistic world of today.

I received this book as a gift in 1992, I had no idea what I had been given..The Art Of Wordly Wisdom, is "THE" guide to Human Nature, a Handbook on Life, It is a brilliant how it describes human nature/behavior in all scopes of life's pursuits and how to handle any situation, not based on incident but based on human reaction and interaction to the incident...The writings are ageless, the book should be in everyone's library and read often..It is not a one read book, but one you can take out when dealing with whatever life may throw at you...I have used it and I have never found anything better on human nature and it always find a way of getting you out of the worst and even the best of situations. It is not religious, not new age teachings,not cult, it is common sense,you could say psychology by examples of life and people....
Nietzche and Shopenhauer were fans of Gracian, but none ever reached his clarity and accessibility..THE translation by Christopher Maurer is the ONLY ONE worth reading, for he is as clear as Gracian...Don't bother with the rest...
Baltasar Gracian is a man still ahead of his time...

Gracian's "Oracle" as it has been known through the past four centuries has its admirers and detractors, but none may honestly deny its charisma, and, as far as we can tell, eternal, relevance. Gracian himself was an apostate Jesuit, in fact, an early associate of Loyola, i.e., a disenfranchised charter member. One gets the feeling that Gracian was simply too much for his fellows - his insight into their 'sins' too penetrating even for the putatively penitent.
In the deepest Augustinian sense - where 'sin' is that which brings us misery - Gracian turns his great insight - that sin is folly & folly is sin - to its most beneficial application in his economic, witty, utile, most often profound guide to prudentia (practical wisdom), that venerable, yet too often elusive, lynchpin of virtue... and success.
As Maurer tells us in his informative introduction to what is in my opinion - the definitive English translation (I can vouch only for its impact)- that Gracian learned from his former illustrious associate Aphorism 251: "Use human means as though divine ones didn't exist, and divine means as though there were no human ones". I claim that Gracian uses both - to the most efficacious extent in this slender, but ever deeper masterpiece.
To the aphorisms, themselves!
I can't list all my favorites. I'd end up hand-copying almost the entire work, and it would take a lifetime to begin sorting out what might be best. Besides, I'd rather spend my time attempting to apply the wisdom found here, though I can but hope to master the bulk of it, try as I might. More hopefully, bits and pieces of a few will encourage you to pick up a book we might all do well to read more in.

"The art of moving people's wills involves more skill than determination. You must know how to get inside the other person. Each will has its own special object of delight;they vary according to taste. Everyone idolizes something... The trick is to identify the idols that can set people in motion."

"Love - if you would be loved."

"Feel with the few, speak with the many."

"The prudent show restraint, and would rather fall short than long. True eminences are rare, so temper your esteem. To overvalue something is a form of lying."

"... there is more courage in avoiding danger than in conquering it."

"Know how to wait. It shows a great heart with deep reserves of patience. Never hurry and never give way to your emotions. Master yourself and you will master others. Stroll through the open spaces of time to the center of opportunity. Wise hesitation ripens success and brings secrets to maturity."

"End well. If you enter the house of Fortune through the door of pleasure, you will leave through the door of sorrow, and vice versa. So be careful of the way you end things, and devote more attention to a successful exit than to a highly applauded entrance. Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave. Rare are those who are still wanted. Fortune seldom accompanies someone to the door."

"The wise do sooner what fools do later. Both do the same, the difference is when."

"Never come unless you're called, never go unless you are sent."

"Know your major defect. Every talent is balanced by a fault, and if you give into it, it will govern you like a tyrant. You can begin to overthrow it by paying heed to it: begin to conquer it by identifying it. Pay it the same attention as those who reproach you for it."

"Know how to take things. Never against the grain, though they're handed to you that way. There are two sides to everything. If you grab the blade, the best thing will do you harm; the most harmful with defend you if you seize it by the hilt."

"Live neither entirely for yourself, nor for others. It is a vulgar sort of tyranny."

"There are more days than luck. Be quick to act, slow to enjoy."

"Speak as if you were making out your will... the fewer words, the fewer lawsuits."

"Don't wait to be a setting sun. It is a maxim of prudent people to abandon things before being abandoned by them."

When I started to read this book I did not want to put it down. But this book is not meant to be read in one sitting, allowing the reader time to reflect on the art of life. Gracian's use of words in these aphorisms hit the mark; though he may seem cynical, at this day and age one can easily embrace his views about everyday dealings with mankind, not always easy, requiring a delicate balance of patience that is needed most when the supply seems to have run out. He reminds us of how human we all are. It is hard to pick out a favorite, so here is a sample: "A man who can wait, for it marks a great heart endowed with patience; never to be in undue haste or excited. Be first the master of yourself, and you will thereafter be the master of others; one must journey far through time to get to the core of anything. A prudent waiting brings season to accomplishment and ripeness to what is hidden... God himself does not tame with a whip, but with time..." A must for anyone interested or studying philosophy, principles of living.

If Gracián describes your life, then you are living very, very well.

These few hundred brief, oblique, and aphoristic guidelines come down from the 17th century, but are as fresh and true as today's "talk" with your boss. They describe honor, skill, honesty, and trust. They describe the times when each must be pressed, and when each must be left behind. Gracián states again and again how each moment nurtures some effort or other, and how each kind of effort must await its moment. He also prescribes a peaceful mind, most times. That means letting go of matters that do not matter, for your own sake, for mercy towards those around you who may suffer brief lapses, and for your reputation as a person of judegement.

I fault Gracián for exactly one lack: continuous and clear-eyed self criticism. The essence of all art and all science, in terms of daily practice, is the ability to look at one's own work, and to see clearly what parts succeed and what parts fail. Somehow, Gracián missed the bravery required to tear down your own work when it needs to be torn down, in order to build up something more worthy in its place. I also question Gracián's central emphasis on luck, on the benificent forces of the stars. I have seen luck, good and bad, and have always seen that it is a thing a person creates for him/herself. In my own life, I acknowledge random effects for good or bad, but I see little or no "luck."

Gracián's essential message describes a person of honor, determination, insight, and adaptability. This person, in the end, can only succeed. This is a book to read, to re-read, and to re-read again. Mark it up, add your thoughts - it can only become more true.

//wiredweird

It's almost trite to say a certain book contains so much wisdom, but if I have to pick one, it would be this puppy right here. Doesn't matter what translator, because it's pretty hard to screw up such a great piece of work. If you haven't read this book before, I suggest you begin ASAP. Every time I read a passage, I would be in awe to have read such insight, yet at the same time it was clear and digestible--not to mention practical. It's not some obscure, hard-to-apply mumbo jumbo notorious in such books.

I am a voracious reader, and this is the best book I have ever read besides the bible. This is one of the few books that truly is perfect. It is a philosophy book, but it is not filled with a bunch of abstract thoughts that are meaningless and difficult to understand. It is more a book of aphorisms. I learned more about life from this book than any other book. It really changed the way I think and behave. It also makes me sound smarted when I repeat things I read in this book.

I use it mainly for work...to manage people and relationships. It makes you aware of your behaviour and it's impact on others and vice versa. I would recommend this book to people trying move up the corporate ladder.

This is a beautifully produced book, and on the whole the translation is at least satisfactory, and frequently elegant in its own right. But the oracle's original train of thought within each half-page aphorism (probably hard enough to follow in the original Spanish) often becomes totally unintelligable in translation.

Perhaps annotations would have helped, but without either the original Spanish or any notes to refer to one sometimes has to simply give up trying to understand the gist, and move on to the next aphorism.

Overall it's a rewarding read, and certainly a book to keep at hand and dip into again and again, but also somewhat frustrating. This is not the ultimate translation.

This is one of the top ten books of all time. Wise, cogent, witty, poetic and human. Machiavelli with a soul. His final advise for getting over in the world, besides "Do, but also seem." "Be a saint."