Friday 27 March 2009

An Ounce of Wisdom

“The first and highest rule of all deed and speech, the more necessary to be followed the higher and more numerous our posts, is: an ounce of wisdom is worth more than tons of cleverness. It is the only sure way, though it may not gain so much applause.”

Balthasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, tr. J. Jacobs (London: MacMillan and Co., 1892), §.xcii, p.54.

3 comments:

dearieme said...

Can one distil the ounce from the tons?

argentum said...

Should that be "though it may not gain..."? Otherwise, I reckon it's too clever by half.

Deogolwulf said...

Ooops.