Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom | Are.na

Plan out your Life wisely, not as chance will have it, but with prudence and foresight.

Let every one have before his mind the chief of his calling not so much to follow him as to spur himself on.

Enlightenment and knowledge, especially in this day and age, can be very abundant as long as one searches for them. Seek them in nature, in books, in art, and you will see that there is a teacher everywhere you look.

Whether any ideal person will learn to rule the world by studying Gracian’s or any one else’s maxims is somewhat more doubtful, for reasons I have given above in discussing proverbs. The man who can act on maxims can act without them, and so does not need them. And there is the same amount of contradiction in maxims as in proverbs.

If you want to be a great leader,

you must learn to follow the Tao.

Stop trying to control.

Let go of fixed plans and concepts,

and the world will govern itself.