Baltasar Gracian Quotes
When desire dies, fear is born.
Gracián, Baltasar. The Art of Worldly Wisdom. Translated by Joseph Jacobs, Macmillan and Co., 1892.
This is the opposite viewpoint from most sages, wise men and philosophers. They maintain that people’s fears are almost always worse than the reality. However, Thompson was a great pessimist, sometimes an occupational hazard for a muckraker or an investigative journalist. When he really dug down deep enough in politics, there was usually something very unsavory he would find that most people did not expect.
Baltasar Gracián y Morales, S.J., better known as Baltasar Gracián, was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragon). His writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.
