The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia
EditionTranslated from the original Spanish
Three hundred compressed maxims on prudence, reputation, and dealing with people, from a Spanish Jesuit of the seventeenth century.
Also in the library: the complete Korean translation.
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DRM-free files. Translation CC BY-NC 4.0; the original work is in the public domain.
About the book
Baltasar Gracián, a Jesuit priest in Aragon, published this pocket book in 1647 under his brother’s name. Its three hundred numbered aphorisms each open with a short heading and then turn it over in a few dense sentences: how to keep others dependent, when to retreat, how to refuse, why never to compete, how to be a person of substance in a world that judges by appearances. The original title calls it a pocket oracle and an art of prudence.
This complete English translation is made directly from the Spanish text of 1647. Each aphorism appears as one paragraph under its original number, Gracián’s key words (prudence, good sense, discernment, wit, taste) are rendered one way throughout, and his terse, antithetical style is kept terse. Seventy-seven short notes identify persons, sayings, and wordplay.
Highlights
- A man without knowledge, a world in the dark.
- Reputation is bought at the price of work; what costs little is worth little.
- Virtue is a thing in earnest; all else is in jest.
Contents
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Colophon
Translated from the original Spanish. Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.Full colophon
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Original title · Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia
Author · Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658)
Translator · Ether Library
First publication · 1647, Huesca, printed by Juan Nogués, under the name of Lorenzo Gracián, with an address to the reader by Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa.
Source text · A public-domain digital transcription of the Huesca text of 1647, spelling modernized. Translated directly from the Spanish.
Extent · Complete and unabridged · address to the reader and three hundred aphorisms · 301 paragraphs, as in the original · 77 short translator’s notes
Copyright · The author died in 1658; the original work is in the public domain.
This translation · Translated from the Spanish by Ether Library. The English text is © Ether Library and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0): you may copy and share it for noncommercial purposes, with attribution.
Edition · English edition 1.0 · October 2026
Typography · Set in Lora (SIL Open Font License 1.1). Cover painting and design by Ether Library.
Original in the public domain · English translation CC BY-NC 4.0
Ether Library · No. 0016