The Art of Worldly Wisdom

By: Balthasar Gracian

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."Many men have sought to give their views about man and about life in a pithy way; a few have tried to advise men in short sentences what to do in the various emergencies of life. The former have written aphorisms, the latter maxims. Where the aphorism states a fact of human nature, a maxim advises a certain course of action. The aphorism is written in the indicative, the maxim in an imperative mood. "Life is interesting if not happy," is an aphorism, of Professor Seely's, I believe. "Ascend a step to choose a friend, descend a step to choose a wife," is a maxim of Rabbi Meir, one of the Doctors of the Talmud."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1534847006
• ISBN13: 9781534847002
• Release Date: June 2016
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 86 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"