Baroque philosopher Balthasar Gracian&rsquo;s <i>The Art of Worldly Wisdom</i> consists of three hundred maxims spanning a wide range of topics relating to all aspects of life and human behavior. Gracian was a Spanish Jesuit Priest whose sermons and writings were disapproved of by his superiors. Admired by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche for the depth and subtlety of his observations, Gracian&rsquo;s collection of pithy insights deserves place alongside similar classic manuals of self-improvement from antiquity like the <i>Enchiridion </i>of Epictetus and Seneca&rsquo;s <i>Letters</i>.