Uberman

I have the pleasure of being surrounded by books. Many many glorious books. Sometimes I’ll buy a book in the spur of the moment because I fancy its cover, or title, or how the typography sits on the page or how clever it would look sitting on my coffee table—and inevitably, they don’t all get read. Then later—through some faint suggestion from parts unknown—I’ll pick up the book, read it, and be literally transformed, as if the book had been waiting for just that moment to enlighten me.

One such book is Balthasar Gracian’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom. (I remember buying this one because the title is awesome and the cover was a soft green felt and the pages were uneven and rustic-looking. I imagined myself sitting in a fair-trade café drinking coffee—black—in a bowler, a monocle resting upon one cheek, and my eyes stopping at the end of each page with a look suggesting some deep insight.)

Whatever the original motivation, I’ve rediscovered this classic and right on time. It’s a book of 300 maxims on how to live more fully, advance socially, and be a better person. I share a few of my favorite passages below:

A person at his peak.

We are not born perfect. Every day we develop in our personality and in our profession until we reach the highest point of our completed being, to the full round of our accomplishments and of our excellences. This is known by the purity of our taste, the clearness of our thought, the maturity of our judgment, and the firmness of our will. Some never arrive at being complete - something is always lacking. Others ripen late. The complete person - wise in speech, prudent in act - is admitted to the familiar intimacy of discreet people and is even sought out by them.

Be spotless:

the indispensable condition of perfection. Few live without some weak point, either physical or moral, which they pamper though they could easily cure it. The keenness of others often regrets to see a slight defect attaching itself to a whole assembly of elevated qualities, and yet a single cloud can hide the whole of the sun. There are likewise patches on our reputation which ill-will soon finds out and is continually noticing. The highest skill is to transform them into ornament. So Cæsar hid his natural baldness with the laurel.

Be without passions.

This is the highest quality of the mind. Its very eminence redeems us from being affected by transient and low impulses. There is no higher rule than that over oneself, over one’s impulses; there is the triumph of free will. When passion rules your character do not let it threaten your position, especially if it is a high one. It is the only refined way of avoiding trouble and the shortest way back to a good reputation.

Prize Intensity more than Extent.

Excellence resides in quality not in quantity. The best is always few and rare: much lowers value. Even among men giants are commonly the real dwarfs. Some reckon books by the thickness, as if they were written to try the brawn more than the brain. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity: it is the misfortune of universal geniuses that in attempting to be at home everywhere, are so nowhere. Intensity gives eminence, and rises to the heroic in matters sublime.

Think with the Few and speak with the Many.

By swimming against the stream it is impossible to remove error, easy to fall into danger; only a Socrates can undertake it. To dissent from others’ views is regarded as an insult, because it is their condemnation. Disgust is doubled on account of the thing blamed and of the person who praised it. Truth is for the few, error is both common and vulgar. The wise man is not known by what he says on the house-tops, for there he speaks not with his own voice but with that of common folly, however much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it. The prudent avoid being contradicted as much as contradicting: though they have their censure ready they are not ready to publish it. Thought is free, force cannot and should not be used to it. The wise man therefore retires into silence, and if he allows himself to come out of it, he does so in the shade and before few and fit persons.

Be thorough.

How much depends on the person. The interior must be at least as much as the exterior. There are natures all frontage, like houses that for want of means have the portico of a palace leading to the rooms of a cottage. It is no use boring into such persons, although they bore you, for conversation flags after the first salutation. They prance through the first compliments like Sicilian barbs, but silence soon succeeds, for the flow of words soon ceases where there is no spring of thoughts. Others may be taken in by them because they themselves have but a view of the surface, but not the prudent, who look within them and find nothing there except material for scorn.

Keep Matters for a Time in Suspense.

Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of; it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate. Besides, you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch.

Wisdom Through Music: