Most do violence to their natural aptitude, and thus attain superiority in nothing.
Baltasar GracianIt is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
Baltasar GracianNever lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external percepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority.
Baltasar Gracian