Baltasar Gracián

(1601 - 1658)

After entering the Society of Jesus at the age of eighteen in 1619, Baltasar Gracián often clashed with his superiors. His Criticón, published in three parts in 1651, 1653, and 1657, is considered a masterwork of the Spanish Golden Age and was cited as a favorite of both Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. In 1657 Gracián was reprimanded by the Jesuits for continually publishing books without permission and ordered to leave his faculty chair in Saragossa.