Everything is at its Acme; especially the art of making one’s way in the world. There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man than formerly to make Seven Sages, and more is needed nowadays to deal with a single person than was required with a whole people in former times.
-Balthasar Gracian
Years ago I picked up a small “pocket book” with the intriguing title The Art of Worldly Wisdom. It was authored by Balthasar Gracian, a 17th Century Jesuit priest.
In 1637 Gracian wrote a collection of short maxims and titled it the “Oráculo Manual”. Part self-improvement manual, part strategic advice a la The Art of War, part political survival guide, the book is a collection of 300 paragraphs on various topics, giving advice and guidance on how to live fully, advance socially, and be a better person. Written in a very frank and modern style, The Art of Worldly Wisdom speaks to the twenty-first century as well as the seventeenth.
The entire translation of The Art of Worldly Wisdom can be found here.
