Baltasar Gracián Quotes

Baltasar Gracián y Morales, SJ was an Aragonese Jesuit and baroque prose writer. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud. His proto-existentialist writings were lauded by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. The son of a doctor, in his childhood Gracián lived with his uncle, who was a priest. He studied at a Jesuit school in 1621 and 1623 and theology in Zaragoza. He was ordained in 1627 and took his final vows in 1635. In 1651, he published the first part of the Criticón without the permission of his superiors, whom he disobeyed repeatedly. This attracted the Society's displeasure. Ignoring the reprimands, he published the second part of Criticón in 1657, as a result was sanctioned and exiled to Graus at the beginning of 1658. Soon Gracian wrote to apply for membership in another religious order. His demand was not met, but his sanction was eased off: in April of 1658 he was sent to several minor positions under the College of Tarazona. His physical decline prevented him from attending the provincial congregation of Calatayud and on December 6, 1658, Gracian died in Tarazona, near Zaragoza in the Kingdom of Aragon. The Aragonese village where he was born, changed its name to Belmonte de Gracian in his honour.