Never hurry and never lose your temper.

The sentence belongs to maxim 55 of The Art of Worldly Wisdom (Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia), entitled “A man who knows how to wait”. Knowing how to wait, says Gracián, “argues a great heart, with ample reserves of sufferance”, that is, of patience, in the old sense of the word. Several sayings follow that complete the idea: be first master of yourself, and you will afterwards be master of others; “prudent delay seasons successes and ripens secrets”; “God himself does not punish with a stick, but with the right season”. Gracián also quotes a “great saying”: “Time and I against any other two.” Two maxims earlier he had recommended “running slowly”, the old motto of making haste slowly.

The Oráculo manual was published in Huesca in 1647 under the name of Lorenzo Gracián, the Jesuit’s brother. Calculated patience is one of his constant themes: the prudent man neither rushes nor lets himself be carried away by passion, because time works for those who know how to wait.

Today the sentence is repeated as a rule of self-control; in Gracián it is, above all, a strategy.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (Oráculo manual), maxim 55, “A man who knows how to wait”, 1647

Original text checked word for word in the work; the translation is by quotesay.

Read the passage in the work