Baltasar Gracian

Wie meistere ich mein Leben in einer Welt, die vergänglich und unvollkommen ist? Was muss ich tun, um mit mir selbst und meiner Umwelt in Einklang zu sein? - Fragen wie diese stehen im Mittelpunkt von Baltasar Graci?ns >Hand-Orakel

Baltasar Gracian's "Art of Worldly Wisdom" offers practical advice on how to make your way in a chaotic world, and how to make it well. The three hundred aphorisms contained here, first published as "Oraculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia" in 1647, remain remarkably relevant today. The political and social upheavals of Spain's Golden Era bear a striking resemblance to 21st century reality, political transformations, economic battles that pit local interests against global forces, competing religious outlooks seeking to shape secular worlds and new technologies torn between democratization and centralization. Gracian's aphorisms, as much poetry as instruction, address us today as practical guides for civility in an often uncivil world, and may serve as invitations to participate in making an uncivil world as civil as possible.

A Pocket Mirror for Heroes is a mirror because it reflects -the person you are or the one you ought to be.- It is a pocket mirror because its author took the time to be brief. And it is a mirror for heroes because it provides a vivid image of ethical and moral perfection to which all can aspire. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian was all but forgotten for three hundred years, until its republication in 1992 turned this lost classic into a New York Times bestseller. Now Gracian, the Spanish Jesuit considered Machiavelli's better in strategy and insight, sets a new standard on the art of living and the practice of achieving. That new standard is the art of heroism--how to be -the consummate person, ripe and perfect: accurate in judgment, mature in taste, attentive in listening, wise in sayings, shrewd in deeds, the center of all perfection.- Gracian teaches the reader to be -a giant----the greatest person possible, a miracle of perfection, a king.- Wit, wisdom, courage, elegance, grace, humility, spontaneity--these are the qualities needed to reach heroism in any occupation. But it is not enough to be wise or graceful: one must learn as well how to manage that talent, how to distinguish a quality fiom its shadow. A Pocket Mirror for Heroes provides -a politics for governing oneself, a compass for sailing toward excellence, an art for reaching distinction with just a few rules of discretion, - and it will be wise and witty company for anyone who recognizes--and relishes--the challenges of daily life. From the Hardcover edition.

This perennially popular book of advice on how to achieve personal and professional success is valued for its timeless insights on how to make one's way in the world. Written in the seventeenth century by a Spanish Jesuit scholar, these teachings are strikingly modern in tone and address universal concerns such as friendship, morality, managing emotions, and effective leadership. The Art of Worldly Wisdom is for anyone seeking to combine ethical behavior with worldly success. This edition of The Art of Worldly Wisdom includes an informative introduction by Willis Barnstone, Distinguished Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at Indiana University. Barnstone, a noted translator, critic, and poet, explores Graci n's background and places him within his historical and literary context.

The remarkable best-seller — a long-lost, 300-year-old book of wisdom on how to live successfully yet responsibly in a society governed by self-interest — as acute as Machiavelli yet as humanistic and scrupulously moral as Marcus Aurelius.