Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
Baltasar GracianOne must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
Baltasar GracianKeep the extent of your abilities unknown.The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honored at all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so great.
Baltasar Gracian