WIST Quotations

Gracián, Baltasar -- The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 224 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)]

Dave — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 14:39:01 +0000

Things look different when seen in a different light. So look at them in the light of happiness. Don’t confuse good and bad.

[Hace muy diferentes visos una misma cosa si se mira a diferentes luces: mírese por la de la felicidad. No se han de trocar los frenos al bien y al mal.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 224 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)]
(Source)

(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:

One and the same thing, hath its good day, and its bad. Examine it on the fairest side. We must not give the contrary reines to good and evil.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

The same thing looks quite different in another light; look at it therefore on its best side and do not exchange good for evil.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]

For one and the same thing has very different faces, as seen in different lights; look upon it in its happiest light, and do not get the controls mixed, as to what is good and what is bad.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]

Horace -- Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 41ff (1.1.41-42) (20 BC) [tr. Ferry (2001)]

Dave — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:33:00 +0000

Virtue begins by shunning vice; wisdom
By shunning folly.

[Virtus est vitium fugere et sapientia prima
stultitia caruisse.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 41ff (1.1.41-42) (20 BC) [tr. Ferry (2001)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

It is virtue, vice t'avoyde and wysedome chéefe of all
Follie to wante: these two ills lo do vex the at thy gall.
[tr. Drant (1567)]

'Tis Vertue, to flie Vice: and the first Stair
Of Wisdome, to want Folly.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]

'Tis Vertue, Sir, to be but free from Vice,
And the first step tow'rds being truly Wise
Is to want folly.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

Even in our flight from vice some virtue lies;
And free from folly, we to wisdom rise.
[tr. Francis (1747)]

Vice to renounce is virtue's earliest rule,
Wisdom's first step is to lay aside the fool.
[tr. Howes (1845)]

It is virtue, to fly vice; and the highest wisdom, to have lived free from folly.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

To fly from vice is virtue: to be free
From foolishness is wisdom's first degree.
[tr. Conington (1874)]

To fly from vice is virtue, says the sage,
Not to be foolish, wisdom's earliest stage.
[tr. Martin (1881)]

It is virtue to fly from vice, and the beginning of wisdom to be free from folly.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]

To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]

Virtue means keeping from vice, and wisdom begins
When you stop being stupid.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]

Virtue begins with fleeing vice and wisdom starts
in being a fool no longer.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]

Running when vice runs after you
Is the beginning of virtue; shaking
Foolishness off is the beginning
Of sense.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

Virtue's first rule is "avoid vice," and wisdom's
"get rid of folly."
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]

Virtue is to flee vice, and wisdoms’ beginning is
Freedom from foolishness.
[tr. Kline (2015)]

~Other -- Mike Huber, Techwr-L

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I never, ever say, “I can’t,” about anything. I might say, “I don’t have the authority to make that decision,” or, “Building A is too heavy for me to lift,” or, “I will need training before I pilot that space shuttle.”

(Other Authors and Sources)
Mike Huber, Techwr-L