A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

— Baltasar Gracián

Be first the master of yourself

— Baltasar Gracián

Cautious silence is the refuge of good sense

— Baltasar Gracián

Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself.

— Baltasar Gracián

Deal with people from whom you can learn

— Baltasar Gracián

Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can’t be good, be careful.

— Baltasar Gracián

For the advice in a joke is sometimes more useful than the most serious teaching.

— Baltasar Gracián

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

— Baltasar Gracián

Harness the imagination: Sometimes curbing her, sometimes giving her rein, for she is the whole of happiness. She sets to rights even the understanding. She sinks to tyranny, not satisfied with mere faith, but demanding works. Thus, she becomes the mistress of life itself. She does so with pleasure or with pain, according to the nonsense presented. She makes people contented or discontented with themselves. By dangling before some nothing but the specter of their eternal suffering, she becomes the scourge of these fools. To others, she shows nothing but fortune and romance, while merrily laughing. Of all this she is capable if not held in check by the wisest of wills.

— Baltasar Gracián

He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.

— Baltasar Gracián