Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	wise_a	word_n	world_n	64	3	3.7812	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41733	The courtiers manual oracle, or, The art of prudence written originally in Spanish by Baltazar Gracian, and now done into English.; Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia. English	Gracián y Morales, Baltasar, 1601-1658.	1685 (1685)	Wing G1468; ESTC R6724	108,245	306

short life to much merit in others All they who by right ought to live always fail in good fortune and such as are good for nothing you 'll find to be eternal whether because they appear to be so or because in effect they are so It seems that destiny and death are agreed to forget the unfortunate MAXIME CXCI. Not to be gull'd with excessive Courtesie For it 's a kind of Cheat. There are some who stand not in need of the herbs of Thessaly to bewitch with for they charm fools and vain people merely with a low Bow They make a Traffick of Honour and pay for it with the wind of some fair words He that promises all promises nothing and promises are so many slippery steps for fools True Courtesie is a debt that which is affected and uncommon is a Cheat. It is not a civility but a dependance They make not the Bow to the Person but to the Fortune Their flattery is not an acknowledgment of merit but a bait to the profit which they hope for See the Maxime 118. MAXIME CXCII The peaceable man is the long lived man Live and let live Peacefull men not onely live but reign We must hear and see but withal hold our peace The day spent without contention makes us spend the night in sleep To live much and to live with pleasure is the life of two and it is the fruit of internal peace That man hath all who does not at all care for what concerns him not There is nothing more impertinent than to lay to heart that which touches us not or not to be affected with that which concerns us MAXIME CXCIII Watch strictly over him that engages in thy interests to come off with his own There is no better preservative against Cunning than Caution A word to the wise Some doe their own business by seeming to doe another man's So that if one have not the key of intentions he is forced at every turn to burn his own fingers to save other men's goods from the fire MAXIME CXCIV To have a modest Opinion of ones self and of his affairs especially when he does but begin the world All People have high Conceits of themselves and especially they who signify least Every one fansies to himself a brave Fortune and imagines himself to be a Prodigy Hope engages rashly and then experience seconds it in nothing Reality is the executioner of a vain imagination by undeceiving it Prudence then ought to correct such extravagances and though it be allowable to desire the best yet we ought always to expect the worst that so we may take all that happens patiently It is dexterity to take ones aim a little higher that he may hit the juster but he ought not to shoot so high as to fail at the first shot That reformation of imagination is necessary for vanity without experiences makes men onely to dote A good understanding is the most universal remedy against all impertinences Let every one know the sphere of his own activity and condition That will teach a man to square the opinion of himself according to reality MAXIME CXCV. To be able to judge There is no man but may be another's Master in some thing He that exceeds finds always some body that exceeds him To know how to pick out the best of every thing is a usefull knowledge The Wise Man esteems all men because he knows what 's good in every one and what things cost in doing of them well The Fool despises all in respect that he is ignorant of what is good and always chuses the worst MAXIME CXCVI. To know ones Planet There is no man so miserable but that he hath his Planet and if he be unfortunate it is because he knoweth it not Some have access to Princes and great Men and know neither how nor why unless it be that their luck hath made way for them So that they need onely a little industry to preserve favour There are others born as it were to please the Wise One man hath been more acceptable in one Countrey than another and better received in this City than in that One man happens also to be more fortunate in one employment than in all others though he be neither more nor less capable of all Destiny makes and unmakes how and when it pleases Every one then ought to labour to know his Destiny and to try his Minerva on which depends all the loss and all the gain Let him know how to comply with his fate and take good heed he attempt not to change it For that would be to forsake the North-star in his course MAXIME CXCVII Never to be hampered with Fools It is a perplexity not to know them and much more for him that knows them not to rid his hands of them It is dangerous to keep them Company and pernicious to admit them to our Confidence For though their own timerousness and the Eye of another may for some time keep them in awe yet their extravagance will break out at long-run seeing they have onely deferred the shewing of it that they might doe it with more solemnity It is very difficult for him that cannot keep his own Credit to maintain another Man's Besides Fools are extremely unhappy For misery is fastened to impertinence as the skin to the bone They have onely one thing that is not so very bad And that is that as the Wisedom of others signifies nothing to them so on the contrary they are very usefull to the Wise whom they instruct and caution at their own proper cost MAXIME CXCVIII. To know how to transplant ones self There are some who to set off their own value are obliged to change Countries especially if they aspire to great places Ones Countrey is the Step-mother to eminent Qualities Envy reigns there as in its Native Land Men remember better the imperfections that one had in the beginning than the merit whereby he is advanced to grandeur A Pin hath been esteemed a thing of value when carried from one world into another and sometimes a glass brought from a-far hath made a Diamond to be undervalued Every thing that is foreign is esteemed whether because it comes from a far Countrey or because it is found to be complete and in its perfection We have seen men who have been the refuse of a little Canton and are now the honour of the World being equally reverenced by their Countrey-men and Strangers by the one because they are far off and by the others because they are come from a-far He will never have great veneration for a Statue who hath seen it the stump of a Tree in a Garden MAXIME CXCIX To be a Wise Man and not an intrieguing Man The shortest way to attain to Reputation is the way of merit If industry be founded on merit it is the true way of obtaining it Integrity alone is not sufficient and the onely Intrieguer deserves it not inasmuch that matters are then so defective

that they infect the Reputation It is then requisite both to have merit and to know how to bring ones self into play MAXIME CC. To have always something still to desire that one may not be unhappy in his happiness The body breaths and the mind aspires If one enjoyed all things he would be disgusted with every thing Nay it is even necessary for the satisfaction of the understanding that there remain always something to be known for feeding Curiosity Hope gives life and the glut of pleasure makes the life a burthen In matter of reward it is prudent not to give it all at once When there is no more to be desired every thing is to be feared and that is an unhappy felicity Fear beginneth where desire endeth MAXIME CCI. All who appear Fools are so and one half also of those who appear not to be Folly hath taken possession of this World and if there be the least wisedom in it it is more folly in respect of the wisedom from above But the greatest Fool is he that thinks himself wise and accuses all others of folly To be wise it is not sufficient to seem so and far less to seem so to ones self He is so that thinks not himself to be so and he who perceives not that others see sees not himself Though the world be so full of Fools and Blockheads yet no body believes himself to be one nor so much as suspects it MAXIME CCII. Sayings and Actions render a Man accomplished We must speak well and act well The one shews a good head and the other a good heart and both spring from a superiority of mind Words are the shadow of actions Saying is the Female and doing the Male. It is better to be the subject of a Panegyrick than the Panegyrist It is better to receive praises than to give them To say is easie but to doe difficult Brave actions are the substance of life and good sayings the ornament of it The excellence of actions is permanent that of words transient Actions are the fruit of reslexions Some are wise others valiant MAXIME CCIII To know the Excellencies of ones Age. They are not very numerous There is but one Phoenix in the world Hardly is there to be found in an age a great General a perfect Oratour a Sage And an excellent King is to be lookt for in many ages Mediocrities are common both for number and for esteem but Excellencies are every way rare because they require an accomplished perfection and the higher the form the harder it is to get to be Captain of it Many have usurped the Sirname of Great from Caesar and Alexander but all in vain For without the actions the voice of the people is but a little air There have been but few Seneca's and Fame hath celebrated but one Apelles MAXIME CCIV. What is easie ought to be set about as if it were difficult and what is difficult as if it were easie The one for fear of slackening through too much confidence and the other for fear of losing courage through too much apprehensiveness The way to fail in doing of a thing is to reckon it already done on the contrary diligence surmounts impossibility As to great enterptizes we must not stand reasoning it is enough that we embrace them when they present lest the consideration of their difficulty make us abandon the attempt MAXIME CCV To know how to make use of Contempt The true secret for obtaining the things which one desires is to undervalue them Commonly they are not to be found when they are sought whereas they offer themselves when one cares not for them As the things of this World are the shadow of those in Heaven so have they that property of a shadow that they fly from him that follows them and pursue him who flies from them Contempt also is the most politick revenge It 's the general Maxime of the wise never to defend themselves with the Pen because it leaves tracts that turn more to the glory of their Enemies than to their humiliation Besides that that kind of defence gives more honour to envy than mortification to insolence It 's cunning in inconsiderable persons to vie with great men that they may get themselves Credit by an indirect way when they cannot have it by right Many men had never been known if excellent Adversaries had not taken notice of them There is no higher revenge than Oblivion For it is the burying of these men under the dust of their own nullity Rash blades imagine to purchase to themselves an eternal fame by setting fire to the Wonders of the world and ages The art of repressing Calumny is not to mind it To answer it is to doe prejudice to ones self To be offended thereat is to discredit ones self and to give envy ground of satisfaction For there needs no more but that shadow of defect if not for obscuring a perfect beauty entirely at least for depriving it of its liveliest lustre MAXIME CCVI. We must know that the vulgar humour is every where Even at Corinth and in the most accomplished Family Every one hath the experience of it in his own house There is not onely a vulgar but a doubly vulgar humour which is worse This hath the same properties with the Rabble just so as the pieces of a broken Looking-glass have all the same transparency but it is far more dangerous It speaks foolishly and censures impertinently It is the great Disciple of ignorance the Godfather of silliness and the near Cosin of quacking We must not mind what it says and far less what it thinks It is convenient to know it that we may get rid of it so that we be neither it's companion nor object For all silliness is of the nature of the Rabble and the vulgar is onely made up of Fools MAXIME CCVII. To use Retention We ought to mind what we doe especially on unexpected occasions The eruptions of Passions are so many slippery places that make Prudence to slide There lies the danger of being undone A man engages farther in a minute of rage or pleasure than in many hours of indifference Sometimes a little pelting fret costs a repentance that lasts as long as life Other men's Malice lays ambushes for Prudence that it may discover footing It makes use of that kind of rack for extorting the most hidden secret of the heart Retention then must raise the counter-battery and particularly on hot occasions There needeth much reflexion to keep a Passion in order He is a wise man that leads it by the Bridle Who knows there is danger counts his steps A word seems as offensive to him that catches at it and weighs it as it appears of little consequence to him that spake it MAXIME CCVIII Not to die the death of a Fool. Wise Men die commonly poor in Wisedom on the contrary Fools die rich in Council To die like a Fool is to die of too much Logick Some die