In the twelfth book of this continuously engaging series, we once again encounter aphorisms. Unlike the ones in the fifth book by Nietzsche, however, these are concerned less with philosophical questions than with the practical problems of life. After wandering through ancient China with the Tang dynasty poets and medieval Japan with Kenko, Penguin Little Black Classics number 12 brings us to seventeenth-century Spain.

Its author, Baltasar Gracián, was a Jesuit priest writing for the royal courts of Spain. Yet as I read him, I couldn’t help thinking he would have felt remarkably at ease in a modern office.

His advice often sounds unsettling.

“Never outshine your superior.”

“One failure outweighs many successes.”

“Know everyone’s weak point.”

“Learn how to refuse.”

At first, I thought I was reading a manual on manipulation. Then I realised that Gracián’s advice wasn’t cynical so much as pragmatic. Before telling us how to behave, he tries to understand how people actually do behave.

Take his advice never to outshine your superior. Our instinct is to reject it. Surely the answer is to work for better leaders. But Gracián’s advice grows out of an observation about human nature. Anyone who has spent enough time in an organisation has probably encountered someone whose insecurity mattered more than competence. Whether we like it or not, Gracián is asking us to reckon with the world as it is rather than as we wish it to be.

The same practical wisdom appears in another aphorism that stayed with me.

“One failure outweighs many successes.”

I wish it weren’t true. Yet a single mistake can often erase months of dependable work in the minds of others. Whether in offices, politics or public life, reputations are built slowly and damaged quickly.

The most remarkable thing about Gracián was that beneath all the strategy lies an insistence on self-mastery. In one aphorism he says – “Live as circumstances demand”. He knows that the world is not going to be to your desire, you need to be ready to adjust.

Again and again he returns to composure, restraint, good judgement and understanding people before trying to influence them. Read quickly, he appears cynical. Read carefully, he appears to be a careful observer of human nature.

The title of this Penguin selection is How to Use Your Enemies. But Gracián doesn’t limit himself to enemies. Not long afterwards comes another aphorism: Know How to Use Your Friends.

His advice, in one form or another, seems to be this: look around yourself and see where the edge lies.

And then, after all this strategic counsel, the little book ends with an unexpected instruction:

In a word, a saint.

Gracián explains that the surest way to reach the place where people love you and you are also happy is to live like one. He then explains what he means by a saint. The description is striking:

“Virtue links all perfections and is the centre of all happiness. It makes a person prudent, circumspect, shrewd, sensible, wise, brave, restrained, upright, happy, praiseworthy, a true and comprehensive hero.”

It is a surprising conclusion. After pages spent discussing reputation, influence and advantage, he finally argues that character is the greatest advantage of all. After reading it, I realised this little book wasn’t really about using enemies. It was about becoming the sort of person others never forget. It could just as easily have been titled How to Make Yourself Unforgettable.