To the Reader
No laws for the just, no advice for the wise; and yet no one ever knew enough for himself. One thing you must forgive me, and another you must thank me for. Forgive me for calling this epitome of the right ways of living an Oracle, which it is in its sententiousness and its brevity. Thank me for offering you, at a single stroke, all twelve Graciáns,1 each so highly esteemed that El Discreto2 had scarcely been seen in Spain before France had it, translated into its own language and printed at its court. Let this serve Reason as a bill of fare at the banquet of her wise men, on which she may enter the dishes of prudence that will be served to her one after another in the other works, so that she may portion out their flavor to each according to his temperament.