WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Wed, 08 Jul 2026 20:29:24 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg precedence – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 O'Malley, Austin -- Keystones of Thought (1914) https://wist.info/omalley-austin/79219/ https://wist.info/omalley-austin/79219/#respond Tue, 23 Sep 2025 15:28:58 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=79219 The weaker the man in authority, layman or cleric, the stronger his insistence that all his privileges be acknowledged.


Austin O'Malley (1858-1932) American ophthalmologist, professor of literature, aphorist
Keystones of Thought (1914)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/omalley-austin/79219/feed/ 0 79219 Gracián, Baltasar -- The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 7 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)] https://wist.info/gracian-y-morales-baltasar/49713/ https://wist.info/gracian-y-morales-baltasar/49713/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2021 18:08:25 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=49713 Most people do not mind being surpassed in good fortune, character, or temperament, but no one, especially not a sovereign, likes to be surpassed in intelligence. For this is the king of attributes, and any crime against it is lèse-majesté.

[Bien se hallará quien quiera ceder en la dicha, y en el genio; pero en el ingenio, ninguno, cuanto menos una soberanía. Es éste el atributo rey, y así cualquier crimen contra él fue de lesa Majestad.]


Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 7 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)]
    (Source)

See Johnson. (Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:

There are many who will yield in good fortune, or in good humour; but no body will yield in Wit, and least of all a Sovereign. Wit is the King of Attributes, and by consequent, every Offence against it, is no less a Crime than Treason.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

There be some that will grant you precedence in good luck or good temper but none in good sense, least of all a prince; for good sense is a royal prerogative, any claim to that is a case of lèse-majesté.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]

Some will deign to take place after you in matters of luck or of heart, but in intelligence, none, least of all a sovereign: for this is the sovereign attribute, wherefore any attack upon it is a crime against majesty.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]

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