The Art of Worldly Wisdom
by Gracian · first published 2008
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, aphoristic maxims on prudence, judgment and dealing with people; readers return to it for practical wisdom in daily life and interactions, and call it concise, filler-free and poetically written.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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For me, the most undervalued book is The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian y Morales. It's a small book of very condensed and timeless wisdom in the form of maxims, written very poetically. It's not a self-help book, the kind you might picture. (any book…
on “Surprisingly undervalued books” ↗…your failures/faults rather openly. Always project your strengths and don't advertise your faults. PS: Read The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence by Baltasar Gracian trans. by Jeremy Robbins (aka The Art of Worldly Wisdom) for some pragmatic approach to life.
on “All my career rejections” ↗The art of worldly wisdom, by Baltasar Gracian. Timeless classic, tiny book of 300 maxims. Each one very profound, highly re-readable as you go through life. I've been reading it over and over little bits at a time, for well…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗Witter Bynner's Translation is truly the one. Its complemented in me by Martin Fischer's Translation of Baltasar Gracian's "The Art of Worldly Wisdom". (Amazon seems to have a few) Quoth Nietzsche: "Europe has never produced anything finer or more complicated in matters of moral subtlety."
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗…character. Some resources you may find helpful; * Books on Power by Jeffrey Pfeffer (see my comment history for book names). * Robert Greene's popular books (eg. The 48 Laws of Power). * The classic "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" by Baltasar Gracian. Get the Penguin translation by Jeremy Robbins titled "The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence". * The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod - Provides a game theoretic approach.
on “I Quit Being So Accommodating (1922)” ↗This book and "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" by Baltasar Gracian (http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/aww/) are my two favorite books I've read repeatedly for over 20 years. It sounds very cheesy, but they are both like a road map for my life. Everyone…
on “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - full story of a 1720s startup” ↗[1] Balthasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" Timeless classic, 300 short maxims containing sage advice, written in beautiful prose. One of those books you can read just a few pages whenever you feel like. Currently re-reading it for the third…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗…everything. All these were favourites of Nietzsche, whose work contains a lot of aphorisms, although it's mostly written in self-contained paragraphs. (except Zarathustra and Untimely Essays) Gracian's Art of Worldly Wisdom also is written in short paragraphs, and I'd say filler-free. It's a guide to living, maybe the best one I know. There are a lot of wonderful aphorisms in Emerson, Boswell's Johnson, Kierkegaard, Oscar…
on “Ask HN: Good non-fiction books without filler?” ↗…The Political Economy of the Mass Media" - Franklin Foer "World Without Mind The Existential Threat of Big Tech" - Ben Goldacre "Bad science" - Emil Cioran "The Book of Delusions" - Gracian "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" - Heidegger Martin "The Question Concerning Technology" - Jacques Ellul "Propaganda The Formation of Mens Attitudes" - Mumford Lewis "The Culture of Cities" - Orwell "1984", "Down and Out in…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗…books like "Leadership BS", "Bullshit Jobs" etc.) and we need to change our approach completely based on actual realities rather than wishful thinking. To that end i found the following books useful; The Art of Worldly Wisdom (aka The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence) by Balthasar Gracian - A set of aphorisms with penetrating insight into Human Nature. Why we do what we do: Understanding Self-Motivation by Edward Deci -…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Gracian http://gen.lib.rus.ec/search.php?req=art+of+worldly+wisdom
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite short and concise books?” ↗Go read Baltasar Gracian's art of worldly wisdom. https://sacred-texts.com/eso/aww/index.htm xxi The Art of being Lucky. There are rules of luck: it is not all chance with the wise: it can be assisted by care. Some content themselves with placing…
on “Career advice for people with bad luck” ↗…order (lookup their reviews on Amazon/elsewhere on the web for details); 1) The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence by Baltasar Gracian translated by Jeremy Robbins. This book is also available as "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" translated by many others. Of these the one by Christopher Maurer is noteworthy. 2) A Pocket Mirror for Heroes by Baltasar Gracian translated by Christopher Maurer. 3) The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.…
on “Notes from a Sun Tzu Skeptic (2019)” ↗The War of Art by Pressfield, Natural Meditation by Dean Sluyter, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián are books I often come back to ever couple of years.
on “Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?” ↗The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián really is a hidden gem
on “Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?” ↗