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The Art of Worldly Wisdom, by Balthasar Gracian, tr. by Joseph Jacobs, [1892], at sacred-texts.com
p. iii
Auf des Glückes großer Waage Steht die Zunge selten ein; Du mußt steigen oder sinken, Du mußt herrschen und gewinnen, Oder dienen und verlieren, Leiden oder triumphieren, Amboß oder Hammer sein. 1 GOETHE, Ein Kophtisches Lied.
When you are an anvil, hold you still, When you are a hammer, strike your fill. G. HERBERT, Jacula Prudentum. |
THE ART
OF
WORLDLY WISDOM
BY
BALTHASAR GRACIAN
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY
JOSEPH JACOBS
Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of History, Madrid
![](img/title00.jpg)
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
[1892]
Scanned, Proofed, and formatted at sacred-texts.com, June 2005, by John Bruno Hare. This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was published prior to 1923.
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Footnotes
iii:1 Translation of the Goethe epigram, above:
On the great scales of fortune,
The balance rarely keeps still;
You must rise or sink,
You must rule and win
Or serve and lose,
Suffer or triumph,
Be the anvil or the hammer.
—JBH.
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