“Never bind yourself to a person you can lose.”Baltasar Gracián · Oracolul manual · 1647 · Oracolul manual, aforismul 22
Gracián is not talking about love here but about strategic dependence: at court, tying your whole position to one patron's favor was postponed suicide. The mechanism is the vulnerability created by monopoly: if everything you have depends on a single person, their power over you becomes absolute, and their fall drags you down too. An employee relying on one client or one protector knows what this means. The advice is not to avoid loving, but never to make one person your only foundation.
Why it matters The line warns anyone who places their whole career, income, or identity in a single relationship to diversify their support.