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The Art of Worldly Wisdom, by Balthasar Gracian, tr. by Joseph Jacobs, [1892], at sacred-texts.com

p. iii

Auf des Glückes großer Waage
Steht die Zunge selten ein;
Du mußt steigen oder sinken,
Du mußt herrschen und gewinnen,
Oder dienen und verlieren,
Leiden oder triumphieren,
Amboß oder Hammer sein. 1
          GOETHE, Ein Kophtisches Lied.

When you are an anvil, hold you still,
When you are a hammer, strike your fill.
          G. HERBERT, Jacula Prudentum.

THE ART

OF

WORLDLY WISDOM

BY

BALTHASAR GRACIAN

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY

JOSEPH JACOBS

Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of History, Madrid

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

[1892]

Scanned, Proofed, and formatted at sacred-texts.com, June 2005, by John Bruno Hare. This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was published prior to 1923.

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Footnotes

iii:1 Translation of the Goethe epigram, above:

On the great scales of fortune,
The balance rarely keeps still;
You must rise or sink,
You must rule and win
Or serve and lose,
Suffer or triumph,
Be the anvil or the hammer.

—JBH.

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