The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence (Penguin Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
Written over 350 years ago, The Pocket Oracle and the Art of Prudence is a charming collection of 300 witty and thought-provoking aphorisms. From the art of being lucky to the healthy use of caution, these elegant maxims were created as a guide to life, with further suggestions given on cultivating good taste, knowing how to refuse, the foolishness of complaining and the wisdom of controlling one's passions. Baltasar Gracian intended that these ingenious aphorisms would encourage each reader to challenge themselves both in understanding and applying each axiom.
About the Author
Baltasar Gracián was born in 1601 in Belmonte, Aragon and entered the Society of Jesus in 1619. Teaching in Jesuit colleges across the Kingdom of Aragon, he was also at one time confessor to the viceroy of Aragon and chaplain to the Spanish army. But it is as one of the great Spanish stylists and moralists that he is best known. He wrote a series of short moral tracts marked by their elliptical, epigrammatic style, as well as a three volume allegorical novel, The Critic (1651-57). Published in 1647, The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence influenced the vogue for the form in France, and was quickly translated into the major European languages.
Jeremy Robbins is Forbes Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of numerous studies on Spanish Baroque culture and a General Editor of the Bulletin of Spanish Studies.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Some like Niccolo, but I favor Baltasar
4 Feb 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have friends who read The Prince like a bible, and its true that Machiavelli is worthy of repeated study, both as a period piece and window into the Renaissance Italian soul, and as possibly the most notorious treatise on Realpolitik ever written. Machiavelli, like Nietzsche, has been misused by the unscrupulous and decried by the ignorant; also, IMHO, both writers were actually better historians and analysts than they were philosophers per se.
Baltasar Gracian, in the Pocket Oracle, has accomplished what Niccolo never could, nor would have wanted to: a day to day primer of sage advice from a trained Jesuit mind who walked and worked in the highest halls of power in his time. The lessons are pithy and epigrammatic, both simple yet deserving of deep reflection and consideration and, most importantly, are eminently USEFUL in almost every interpersonal interaction in your day to day life, whether you are a dish washer or a senator -- his teachings are that universal.
Robert Greene strip-mined Gracian for 48 Laws of Power, but again IMHO, it's always best to refer back to the seminal source even after being presented with a good a digest as Greene presented. This is the Penguin edition, so you of course have the value added of their wonderful introductions, with historical references anchoring Gracian's life and the impact of the Oracle itself. Also, this translation is, I feel, much better than those I've seen marketed under the variant title Art of Worldly Wisdom.
I read this book everyday. I recommend it to every man woman or child that wants to live their very best. Gracian was one of the wisest men who ever lived, and this is the free distillation of his wisdom.
Baltasar Gracian, in the Pocket Oracle, has accomplished what Niccolo never could, nor would have wanted to: a day to day primer of sage advice from a trained Jesuit mind who walked and worked in the highest halls of power in his time. The lessons are pithy and epigrammatic, both simple yet deserving of deep reflection and consideration and, most importantly, are eminently USEFUL in almost every interpersonal interaction in your day to day life, whether you are a dish washer or a senator -- his teachings are that universal.
Robert Greene strip-mined Gracian for 48 Laws of Power, but again IMHO, it's always best to refer back to the seminal source even after being presented with a good a digest as Greene presented. This is the Penguin edition, so you of course have the value added of their wonderful introductions, with historical references anchoring Gracian's life and the impact of the Oracle itself. Also, this translation is, I feel, much better than those I've seen marketed under the variant title Art of Worldly Wisdom.
I read this book everyday. I recommend it to every man woman or child that wants to live their very best. Gracian was one of the wisest men who ever lived, and this is the free distillation of his wisdom.
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