Help others solve their problems; standing farther away, you can often see matters more clearly than they do. . . The greatest service you can render someone else is helping him or her help themselves.
Baltasar GracianRead
It is a novel kind of supremacy, the best that life can offer, to have as servants by skill those who by nature are our masters.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True mastery lies in using one's skills to serve those who would naturally dominate us.
This quote reflects the profound insight that the highest form of control or supremacy comes not from traditional means of power, but from the ability to serve and support those who possess inherent qualities that could make them our superiors. It suggests that by mastering a skill, one can elevate their status in a way that transforms the natural hierarchy, illustrating a deeper understanding of relationships and power dynamics in life.
Themes
SupremacyServantsMastersSkillNatureLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about leadership, this quote can highlight the strength found in servitude.
More from Baltasar Gracian
All quotes βAdvice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
Baltasar GracianRead
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.
Baltasar GracianRead
Two kinds of people are good at foreseeing danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and the clever people who learn a great deal at the expense of others.
Baltasar GracianRead
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
Baltasar GracianRead
Never participate in the secrets of those above you; you think you share the fruit, and you share the stones - the confidence of a prince is not a grant, but a tax
Baltasar GracianRead
Similar quotes
I find myself born into this particular position. I'm determined to make the most of it. And to do whatever I can to help. And I hope I leave things behind a little bit better than I found them.
Prince CharlesRead
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
H. L. MenckenRead
Cynicism is the easiest of all reactions, right? But it's also so disappointing and self-defeating.
Chris HadfieldRead
The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
The fact that one can lose one's sense of self in an ocean of tranquility does not mean that one's consciousness is immaterial or that it presided over the birth of the universe.
Sam HarrisRead
I advocate world government because I am convinced that there is no other possible way of eliminating the most terrible danger in which man has ever found himself. The objective of avoiding total destruction must have priority over any other objective.
Albert EinsteinRead