'BE A PERSON WITHOUT ILLUSIONS'

Balthasar Gracian (y Morales), The Art of Worldly Wisdom, translated from the Spanish by Joseph Jacobs (Shambhala Pocket Classics) (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1993) ("100. Be a person without illusions, one who is wise and righteous, a philosophical courtier. Be all these, not merely seem to be them, still less affect to be them. Philosophy is nowadays discredited, but yet it was always the chief concern of the wise. The art of thinking has been degraded. Seneca introduced it at Rome, it found favor for a time among nobility, but now it is considered nonsense. And yet the discovery of deceit was always thought the true nourishment of a thoughtful mind, the true delight of a virtuous soul." Id. at 85. ""276. Know how to renew your character both with nature and with art. Every seven years the disposition changes, they say. Let it be change for the better and for the nobler in your taste. After the first seven comes reason, with each succeeding lustre let a new excellence be added. Observe this change so as to aid it, and hope also for betterment in others. Hence it happens that many change their behavior when they change their position or their occupation. At times the change is not noticed till it reaches the height of maturity. At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty nothing at all." Id. at 238.).