The courtiers manual oracle, or, The art of prudence written originally in Spanish by Baltazar Gracian, and now done into English.

About this Item

Title: The courtiers manual oracle, or, The art of prudence written originally in Spanish by Baltazar Gracian, and now done into English.
Author: Gracián y Morales, Baltasar, 1601-1658.
Publication: London :: Printed by M. Flesher, for Abel Swalle ...,; 1685.
Rights/Permissions: To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
Subject terms: Courts and courtiers.; Maxims.
Link to this Item: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A41733.0001.001
Cite this Item: "The courtiers manual oracle, or, The art of prudence written originally in Spanish by Baltazar Gracian, and now done into English." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A41733.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 14, 2025.

Pages

MAXIME XXXVIII.

To be moderate in good fortune

Is the part of a good Gamester, when Reputation lies at stake. A brave Retreat is as great as a brave Enterprise. When one hath acted great exploits, he ought to secure the glory of them, by drawing off in time. A continued Prosperity is always suspected. That which hath its interruptions is the surer. A little sharp with the sweet makes it relish better. The more Prosperities crowd one upon another, the more slippery they are, and subject to a reverse. The quality of the pleasure makes sometimes amends for the shortness of the enjoyment. Fortune is weary to carry one and the same man al∣ways upon her shoulders.