That it is always better to be alert to what fate has granted you than what it has denied.
Gracián? So I'm told, although I've never been able actually to track it down.
Update: Not "Gratian." See comments.
Update #2: David Lull knows where it is. See comments.
Gracián? So I'm told, although I've never been able actually to track it down.
Update: Not "Gratian." See comments.
Update #2: David Lull knows where it is. See comments.
3 comments:
I suspect Baltasar Gracián.
Yo Michael! I was just about to write to you. I am sure you are right; duly corrected.
Now, if you can just give us the exact source...
From Balthasar Gracian: The Art of Worldly Wisdom:
See the last sentence of this "paragraph":
120. Live practically. Even knowledge has to be in style, and where it is not it is wise to affect ignorance. Thought and taste change with the times. Do not be old fashioned in your ways of thinking and let your taste be modern. In everything the taste of the many carries the day; for the time being one must follow it in hope of leading it to higher things. In the adornment of the body, as of the mind, adapt yourself to the present, even though the past appears better. But this rule does not apply to kindness, for goodness is for all times. It is neglected nowadays and seems out of date. Truthfulness, keeping your word, and so too good people, seem to come from the good old days, yet they are liked for all that, but even so if any exist they are not in fashion and are not imitated. What a misfortune for our age that it regards virtue as a stranger and vice as a matter of course! If you are wise live as you can, if you cannot live as you would. Think more highly of what fate has given you than of what it has denied.
http://www.dantaylor.com/books/gracian.html
Post a Comment