The translator’s afterword clearly states the source of the book and other information, which is a nice touch.
- 17th Century Spain, Spain in Decline
- Born in 1601
- Became a Jesuit novitiate at age 18.
- 1637 Heroism On the Ideal Leader
- 35 years old, from here all books are published without the Jesuits’ permission.
- 1646 The Political Theory: On the Greatness of the Kings of Spain
- 1646 Sage Theory: How Wise People Can Survive in a Fallen World
- 1647 The Oracle’s Proposal, on which this translation is based.
- 45 years old.
- 1657 Criticon: A Novel Full of Irony
- Exiled to the countryside after antagonizing the upper echelons of the Jesuits and dying of illness due to poor health.
The book is titled “Philosophy of Success,” but what is success?
- There are two aspects to his life: one is that he wrote a book that will be read 400 years from now, and the other is that he was ostracized and died of illness because his organization did not appreciate him.
- I think you have to think carefully about how you want to live your life and decide how you want to deal with it.
This book contains 200 proverbs selected from the 300 proverbs in the English translation by Christopher Moller of the bottom book and listed in a different order. I’m not sure what order the originals were written in or what they were about.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/aww/
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by Balthasar Gracian
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translated by Joseph Jacobs
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1892
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All 300 cases are listed here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/aww/aww08.htm
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Rochevoucault. It was mentioned as an influence on [Rochevoucault. I don’t know the details of what actually happened, but that’s where the association didn’t connect in my mind, so I made a note of it.
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