Fear Yourself

"Never lose your self-respect or grow too familiar with yourself. Let your own integrity keep you righteous. You should owe more to the severity of your own judgment than to all external precepts. Avoid what is indecorous, not because others will judge you harshly, but because you fear your own prudence. Grow to fear yourself and you will have no need of Seneca's imaginary witness."

Source: The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián. Trans. Christopher Maurer.
 (Seneca's imaginary witness is your own conscience.)

Discreet Wisdom

 "Be well informed. The discreet arm themselves with a store of courtly, tasteful learning: not vulgar gossip, but a practical knowledge of current affairs. They salt their speech with witticisms, and their actions with gallantry, and know how to do so at the right moment. Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than through grave teaching. The wisdom passed along in conversation has meant more to some than the seven arts, no matter how liberal."

A saying from The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle 

by Baltasar Gracian and translated by Christopher Maurer.

"The discreet" wow . . . if only . . . how does one become discreet if not born with it already as a disposition? Or if not exposed to it in the family of origin? Is becoming discreet something to be learned? It seems intentional and purposeful. It seems like quick thinking in the moment. Oh, to have this gift--the gift of discreet wisdom.