Customer Reviews

The Lost Secrets of Fame and Fortune: How to Get - And Keep - Everything You Desire

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The pursuit of happiness is often the pursuit of wealth. "The Lost Secrets of Fame & Fortune: How to Get & Keep Everything You Desire" is a guide for those pursuing a life of fame and fortune and how to acquire such things. With simple wisdom broken down into quick, easily digestible chunks, Baltasar Gracian Morales gives readers a solid compendium of knowledge and leaves readers wiser having read the book. "The Lost Secrets of Fame & Fortune" is a must for any fortune seeker.

READING THIS BOOK is like genuinely travelling in a time-machine, and meeting with a very wise and realistic gentleman, living in the earliest years of the 17th century!

This is an English translation of a book written by BALTHAZAR GRACIAN MORALES. The "Introduction" to this book states that he was born in 1601, in Belmonte, a suburb of Calatayard, in the kingdom of Aragon, Spain....and grew up to be what one might call
today's version of a 17th-century life-coach." ( ! )

Thus, when you hold this book in your hands, you are holding a GENUINE book of wisdom, genuinely written in the 17th century!
Yes, it was translated by JOSEPH JACOBS, and has a copyright date of 2010, ( ! -- betokening yet another time-travel trip, perhaps?
It certainly seems so, from the vantage point of 4th November, 2009, the day I am writing this review!) However, for all its 21st century translation and copyright date, this book WAS first written, (in Spanish), in 1647!

This is a "self-help" book, with some differences. First of all, each principle, (or "secret"), is written on a separate page, in sometimes archaic, (but always easily-understood, if one concentrates on the words just a little more than usual), language.

The principles here are, indeed, PRINCIPLED. Unlike "The Prince", by Nicolo Machevelli, THIS book, "The Lost Secrets of Fame and Fortune", (originally titled, "Oraculo manuel y arte de prudencia"), does NOT tell one how to acquire power over others. No..."The Lost Secrets of Fame and Fortune", is mainly concerned wth acquiring power over one's self, and how to change bad habits into good ones! Of course, finding ways to success by gauging the weaknesses of others DOES appear in some of these nuggets of advice -- but NOT in the majority of them. After all, at times it IS necessary to find and exploit other's weaknesses...we are all, for good or ill, sales-people at some times. And using their own weaknesses to exploit EVIL people is no sin -- I don't think. Advice for such things IS given in this book. But, mainly, it is exploration and improvement of one's self that concerns Mr. Morales. A canny reader of human nature, Mr. Morales was the epitome of what I would call, "a realistic optimist". He recognizes evil, but also good -- and he tries to defend good's better points! It is, perhaps, quite propitious that this book was written by a man whose last name was "Morales", and that the original title included the word "prudencia"!)

Each of the 300 principles, expounded, as I have mentioned, on a single page, is easy-to-read and understand for people living in the 21st century. If most people have had -- as I sadly have had -- attention spans blasted to smithereens by a lifetime of having one's mind taken off what's on the television, every fifteen minutes or so, by a slew of commercials -- THIS book, with ONE principle per page, is a true godsend! A brief persual of this book finds two pages with 15 lines of type describing the title principle given at the top of each page, and a few pages with 14 lines of print. MOST OF THE PRINCIPLES, HOWEVER, ARE DESCRIBED IN FAR FEWER LINES! This is the easy-to-read, easy-to-comprehend self-help advice for which "the attention-span blasted" have been looking! No wading through pages and pages of text, or searching through indexes, to find wisdom, as in most other self-help books!
THIS book gives many pieces of wisdom -- of great wisdom -- in easy-to-read, "bite-size", one-page, descriptions!

And what wisdom this is! Thumbing through the book at random, one finds these gems -- just a few out of the 300 given!

X V I

K N O W L E D G E....A N D....G O O D

I N T E N T I O N S

together insure continuance of success. A fine intellect wedded to
a wicked will was always an unnatural monster.A wicked will envenoms all excellences: helped by knowledge, it only ruins with greater subtlety. 'Tis a miserable superiority that only results in
ruin. Knowledge without sense is double folly.



X X

A....M A N....O F....T H E....A G E

The rarest individuals depend upon their age, (("era"...this reviewer's definition)). It is not every one that finds the age
he deserves, and even when he finds it, he does not always know how to utilize it. Some men have been worthy of a better century, for every species of good does not always triumph. Things have their period; even excellences are subject to fashion. The sage has one advantage: he is immortal. If this is not his century, many others will be.



X X V I

F I N D....O U T....E A C H....M A N ' S

T H U M B S C R E W

'Tis the art of setting their wills in action. It needs more skill than resolution. You must know where to get at any one. Every volition has a special motive which varies according to taste. All men are idolatorsm some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure. Skill consists in knowing these idols in order to bring them into play. Knowing any man's mainspring of motive you have as it were the key to his will. Have resort to primary motors, which are not always the highest, but more often the lowest part of his nature. There are more dispositions badly organized than well. First guess a man's passion, appeal to it by a word, set it in motion by temptation, and you will infallibly give checkmate to his free-will. (( Note to counter-act this, should you be on the receiving end, by this reviewer: One can always, "JUST SAY NO" -- and either give reasons which will be understood to the other, (who will NOT be able to deny them) -- as in "So, what kind of home do you want in Pennsylvania?" "I want to live in New York!", or give no reasons at all, ("never explain, never complain"), depending on the circumstances. ))


L

N E V E R....L O S E....S E L F -- R E S P E C T

or be too familiar with ones self. Let your own right feeling be the true standard of your recitude, and owe more to the stictness of your own self-judgement than to all external sanctions. Leave off anything unseemly from regard for your own self-respect than from fear of external authority. Pay regard to that and there is no need of Seneca's invisible tutor.


L I I I

D I L L I G E N T....A N D....I N T E L L I G E N T

Dilligence promptly executes what intelligence slowly excogitates.
Hurry is the failing of fools; they know not the crucial point, and set to work without preparation. On the other hand, the wise more often fail from procrastination; foresight begets deliberation
and remiss action often nullifies prompt judgement. Celerity is the mother of good fortune. He has done much, who leaves nothing over till tomorrow. Festina lente is a royal motto.


C X X I

W A G E....W A R....H O N O U R A B L Y

You may be obliged to wage war, but not to use poisoned arrows.
Everyone must needs act as he is, not as others would make him to
be. Gallantry in the battle of life wins all men's praise; one should fight so as to conquer, not alone by force but by the way it is used. A mean victory brings no glory, but rather disgrace.
Honour always has the upper hand. An honourable man never uses forbidden weapons, such as using a friendship that's ended, just for purposes of a hatred judt begun: a confidence must never be used for a vengeance. The slightest taint of treason tarnishes the good name. In men of honour the smallest trace of meaness repels: the noble and the ignoble should be miles apart. Be able to boast that if gallantry, generosity and fidelity were lost in the world men would be able to find them again in your own breast.


C X L V I I I

P E A C E F U L....L I F E....A....L O N G....L I F E

To live, let live. Peacemakers not only live, they rule life. Hear, see, and be silent. A day without dispute brings sleep without dreams. Long life and a pleasant one is life enough for two. That is the fruit of peace. He has all that makes nothing of what is nothing to him. There is no greater perversity than to take everything to heart. There is equal folly in troubling our heart about what doed not concern us and in not taking to heart what does.


C X L I X

W A T C H....H I M....T H A T....B E G I N S....W I T H

A N O T H E R ' S....T O....E N D....W I T H....H I S....O W N

Watchfullness is the only guard against cunning. Be intent on his emotions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives, you may at any moment be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire to the damage of your own fingers.


C X C I V

K N O W....W H A T....I S....W A N T I N G

I N....Y O U R S E L F

Many would have been great personages if they had not had something wanting without which they could not rise to the hight of perfection. It is remarkable with some that they could be much better if they could be better in something. They do not perhaps take themselves seriously enough to do justice to their great abilities; some are wanting in geniality of disposition, a quality which their entourage soon find want of, especially if they are in high office. Some are without organizing ability, others are without moderation. In all such cases a careful man may make of habit a second nature.


C C L V I

I N....O N E....W O R D,....B E....A....S A I N T


So is all said at once. Virtue is the link of all perfections. the centre of all the felicities. She is it that makes a man prudent,
discrete, sagatious, cautious, wise, courageous, delightful, trustworthy, happy, honoured, useful, and a universal Hero. Three HHH's make a man happy: Health, Holiness and a Headpiece. Virtue is the sum of the microcosm. and has for hemisphere a good conscience. She is so beautiful that she finds favour in both God and man. Nothing is lovable but virtue, nothing detestible but vice. Virtue alone is serious, all else is but jest. A man's capacity and greatness are to be measured by his virtue and not by his fortune. She alone is all-sufficient. She makes men lovable in life, memorable after death.

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The two lines of "+" symbols, written above, to separate the quotes from the rest of my review, are NOT there by accident! : )


Ten principles from the book, chosen at random, are given here. There are 256 such principles in ths book! And each is just as wise, snd timeless, and universal, as those chosen by random, above!

When all is said and done, it appears one does NOT have to go through treacherous jungles, hidden monestaries, or into dangerous, first-trial time-machines, to find wisdom for a happy and successful life! All one must do is buy this book on Amazon!
Read it, live it....and become more successful! And, perhaps more successful than your fondest dreams!

It is stated, at the end of this book's Introduction, that, after the author died, that the Aragonese village where he was born, (Belmonte de Calatayud), changed its name to Belmonde Gracian in his honour. Read this gook...and see why!

This is a true treasure, straight from the beginning of the 17th century -- on into the 21st -- and probably, forever more! : ) No need to go into a rare book store. This book is magic! "Occult" means hidden...but there is nothing hidden about the knowledge in this book. Basically, it is just common sense, mixed with wisdom!
Some principles transend all years and all centuries. Two hundred and fifty-six (256) of them are in this book! Buy it and learn from it!

There is no better time than now to get back to the basicvs. The world has become som chaotic, so out of control, yet wuith everythingnthat has changed, the desire bfor bfame and fortune remains constant. Whether you want to have more money, uncover your true purpose so you can help others, look and feel better, or attract true love, it's time for you to claim your share. The basics, so simple yet profound, are exactly what Baltasar Gracian Morales has laid out for you in this book. "The Lost Secets of Fame and Fortune" contains over 300 maxims for getting-and keeping-everything you desire. The keeping is just as important as the getting. We have all witnessed too many people achieve their dreams, have it all, then lose everything as quickly as a sandcastle when the tide comes in. This is NOT the "Law of Attraction", and this is NOT the Secret. These are real, actionable, practical words of wisdom about how to claim your share of the fame and fortune you deserve. You can get MORE out of life. Don't wait, the time to start putting these life-changing principles into action is now.