The Thoughtfully Modernized Edition
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
This book changed my life.
In 300 short chapters, a 400-year old philosopher lays down a road map for any man or woman to change their behavior in order to become the kind of person who strives for excellence.
I came to a p[oint in my life when I realized I was not the person I wanted to be, and had to change. This book was the recipe for change I needed.
I believe every man and woman should read this book – ideally, one chapter each morning. To this end, I have modernized the text and recorded the entire book in 300 videos and an posting them for free on Vimeo.
At the same time, I am posting a version of each chapter with my commentary – that series is also on Vimeo.
The book with my entire modernized text will be available in late 2021.
Gracian’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom
The Philosopher
Who was
Gracian?
Baltasar Gracián was a Jesuit priest in Spain between 1601 and 1658 – and a philosopher. He penned several famous and important works that were influential up to modern times. Among his fans were His writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.
The book that has lasted up to this day is “The Art of Worldly Wisdom,” a collection of 300 short pieces of wisdom about dealing with yourself and your fellow man if you want to achieve excellence in what you do in life.
The “Thoughtfully Modernized Edition” is based on the Joseph Jacobs translation of 1892 – for modern readers, I simplified some of the language to make it clearer, added context to some of obscure references, turned “a man who …” into “a man or woman who …,” and generally made the text more readable without compromising the majestic and elegant language that both Jacobs and Gracian were masters of.
Gracian’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom
The Art of Worldly Wisdom Daily
The Videos
I believe everyone should be able to read this book – ideally one chapter every morning.
To that end, I have turned every chapter into a video anyone can watch for free on YouTube or Vimeo. In addition to that, I am producing a version of each chapter with my commentary – that will be made available on Vimeo.
Gracian’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom
My Thoughts on The Art of Worldly Wisdom
I’m no guru.
I have no secret for success. But I have been striving for success all my life, and have learned a lot about it.
I am – almost – everything I always wanted to be – a successful professional writer of fiction and non-fiction living and writing in an exotic foreign place (I am American and live in Berlin, Germany).
But I am still not where I want to be – every day I strive to improve, strive to find the secret of success that everyone defines differently – my idea of what I want to be is much different from anyone else’s, yet, in another way, it is also the same.
I can’t tell you how to live our life, but I can tell you a little bit about the experiences, the ups and downs, the luck and misfortunes, the mistakes and the successes.
In this video series, I take one chapter out of Gracian – the entire chapter – and add my thoughts on it. Sometimes my thoughts are related directly to the Gracian text, other times they are only loosely associated. But always, I try to make them relevant to a man or woman striving to be the best he or she can.