The Art of Wordly Wisdom

by Balthasar Gracian, Folsom Finds (Editor), Joseph Jacobs (Translator)

The Art of Worldly Wisdom ( Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia ) is a book written in 1647 by Baltasar Gracián y Morales, better known as Baltasar Gracian. It is a collection of 300 maxims, each with a commentary, on various topics giving advice and guidance on how to live fully, advance socially, and be a better person, that became popular throughout Europe. It was translated by Joseph Jacobs (London and New York City, Macmillan and co., 1892, which is the original version this edition sources from.

Genres: Philosophy

Paperback

Published November 12, 2022

Reviews

[Zadignose]

Over the last couple of years I have read this book in bits and pieces, which is probably the best way to read it--which does not mean it is necessarily a *good* way to read it, but it's better than reading it all at one go, which is almost certain to make the reader insane. Another way to read it would be to skim it, or dip into a few random passages now and then, without intending to actually finish it. But finish it I did.

Keep in mind, this is not (regardless of reports to the contrary) a book of philosophy, nor is it really a wisdom book. It is more of a large collection of "wise" sayings and aphorisms, grouped by theme, often contradictory of other sayings within the same collection, and occasionally obscure. Odd is the choice to focus on Worldly Wisdom from the perspective of a supposed man of God, who ought to know better and realize the superiority of divine wisdom, and though the author's concluding words of wisdom suggest that the ultimate goal is to be a saint, the contents of the book point more in the direction of how to seem a saint while avoiding martyrdom.

This is late for the renaissance, but it seems intended to distill a large portion of the courtly, worldly, rather cynical and practical wisdom one associates with the culture of renaissance times.

Rather than taking the book as a guide for how to live, it seems better (and perhaps closer to the author's actual intention?) to take various passages as points to meditate on, to ponder, to weigh and measure what is true and was is false within them, and mine for whatever actual wisdom one may come away with--but of course that exposes one to the danger of learning the wrong lessons.

Another practical use for this book, and one which Gracian put it to himself, is to pick out a few pithy sayings here and there as source material to work into other writings. Put a few of these words into character's mouths, for instance.

But what I think might be an even more interesting experiment, and one worth trying, is to choose a few of the 300 sections/chapters/groupings, and make each selected passage the guiding philosophy of a particular fictional character. See how a person guided by these thoughts and principles might enact their ideas in a fictional context, and see how the various characters would relate to and clash with one another. Anyway... it's something to try someday.

As for whether I'd actually recommend the reading of this book... if you're one of the maybe 2% of people who would read this review and find yourself more intrigued than discouraged, maybe take a stab at it. But there are probably better ways to spend one's time!

[Brent Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book with loads of brilliant insights that are as relevant today as they were in the 1600s. The thing I love the most is that a lot of the recommendations are things that would be considered taboo today, and it goes in the face of quite a lot of modern "niceness" self-improvement guidance.

Harsh but valuable lessons in here, and I'll be back to re-read it again as it's very short.

[Adam K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The picture of how one should be emerging from the maxims in this book is a nuanced one. This is because of the detail and depth of the advice. What I will take away from them is to aim at choosing words carefully, paying attention to others, and being kind to friends and politely distant to foes. Then again, it really is quite difficult to summarise the message of 'The Art of Worldly Wisdom' because the lessons therein go beyond your standard self-help like book. Rather, this read offers subtle and well considered guidelines pointing towards a balanced, steady, open minded, thought oriented and a times shrewd attitude to life.

I read this back to back, but I can see myself going back to individual chapters time and time again. This not to say that if one were to follow every maxim, one would become automatically enlightened and perpetually happy. Nevertheless, there is a lot of valuable insight here.
'The best remedy for disturbances is to let them run their course, for so they quiet down'.