The 45 best quotes by Eduardo Galeano, an unforgettable writer.

This great Latin American writer made us dream with his stories and reflections.

Through the different literary genres, human beings are able to develop, collect and transmit their thoughts, knowledge, opinions and beliefs or those of their environment or culture, or to give free rein to their creativity and emotions.

Literature is one of the arts, with exponents in all cultures. One of the most representative authors in Latin America has been Eduardo GaleanoEduardo Galeano, writer and journalist whose works deal with diverse themes, largely linked to the history and tradition of his culture.

This author has left throughout his writings interesting reflections on multiple topics, which is why in this article we present various phrases of Eduardo Galeano, the legendary Uruguayan writer.

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Forty-five reflections by Eduardo Galeano

The following is a series of quotes by Eduardo Galeano on topics as diverse as love, freedom, feelings or identity.

There are those who believe that destiny rests on the knees of the gods, but the truth is that it works, like a burning challenge, on the consciences of men.

Our future depends above all on our efforts, not on chance or divine intervention.

2. In the end, we are what we do to change what we are.

It is our efforts, our actions, that define us.

3. Each person shines with his or her own light among all the others. No two fires are alike. There are big fires and small fires and fires of all colors.

This phrase reflects that we are all unique and different, with different ways of seeing reality.

4. There is only one place where yesterday and today meet and recognize and embrace each other. That place is tomorrow

The present will end up being the past, just as the future will end up being the present, as time goes by.

5. A cultured person is not one who reads books. A cultured person is one who is capable of listening to others.

Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that the cultured person is the one who reads or studies. In reality it is necessary to understand the world and what surrounds us.

6. Only fools believe that silence is an emptiness. It is never empty. And sometimes being silent is the best way to communicate.

Silence, although it may seem the absence of communication, communicates much more than it seems. What we keep silent and do not say also reflects a lot of information.

7. A lot of little people, in their little places, doing little things, can change the world.

However small what we do may seem, it all adds up to change things.

8. Charity is humiliating because it is exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.

Solidarity implies helping others by considering them as equals. To give charity is to look at them from above, with compassion.

10. May we have the courage to be alone and the courage to take the risk of being together.

This phrase expresses the need to have the courage to risk both to have a relationship and to fight for it and to be able to be alone.

11. He who is not a prisoner of need is a prisoner of fear: some do not sleep because of the anxiety of having the things they do not have, and others do not sleep because of the panic of losing the things they do have.

Today, our consumer culture drives us to constantly acquire and maintain goods and services, which can reach obsessive levels.

12. The nascent cybercommunity finds refuge in virtual reality, while cities tend to become immense deserts full of people, where everyone watches over his or her own saint and everyone is in their own bubble.

Today we can see how people are more and more isolated in their own world, or in the networks, without paying attention to what is happening in real life.

13. Violence breeds violence, as we know; but it also breeds profits for the violence industry, which sells it as a spectacle and turns it into an object of consumption.

Violence is often used as an object and a spectacle.

14. Utopia is on the horizon. I walk two steps, it moves two steps away. I walk ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further. No matter how far I walk I will never reach it, so what is utopia for? For that, it serves to walk

Although utopias and perfection are unattainable, they drive us to struggle and try to reach them, to develop and grow.

15. Don't you have any enemies? why not? have you never spoken the truth, nor ever loved justice?

We all have enemies, since what we believe and defend, what we do, say or even think will not please everyone and will meet with opposing positions.

16. In order not to be mute, we must begin by not being deaf.

In order to be free and express ourselves, we must begin by no longer ignoring others. We cannot simply ignore what is happening around us.

17. I like sentimental people, who do not separate reason from the heart. Who feel and think at the same time. Without divorcing the head from the body, nor emotion from reason.

We can often encounter people who only follow reason or emotion. But it is possible to listen to both. This is what leads us to be happy: to be who we are, complete and integrated beings.

18. Free are those who create, not those who copy, and free are those who think, not those who obey.

This phrase is intended to stimulate critical thinking and creativity instead of just following what is imposed and conforming.

19. The devil has a large closet and does not only wear red.

There is no such thing as a bad "them". We can find all kinds of people everywhere. Cruelty and hatred can appear in any person regardless of their ideology.

20. Motorists are afraid of walking and pedestrians are afraid of being hit by cars.

This phrase reflects that we fear what we consider the opposite of what we do or live, or simply what we do not know.

21. I believe that we were born children of the days, because each day has a story and we are the stories we live.

Every day of our life, we live new and different experiences that help us to form and develop ourselves.

22. If I fell it is because I was walking. And walking is worth it, even if you fall.

This phrase pushes us to move forward, it is worthwhile to move forward and persist in our search for a future.

23. The moral code of the end of the millennium does not condemn injustice, but failure.

Often what is socially criticized is failure to achieve objectives, sometimes regardless of the fact that not failing means using unfair methods that harm others.

24. In a world of plastic and noise, I want to be made of mud and silence.

Today's society is based on superficiality, appearances, coldness and excessive individuality that leads to isolation.

25. To teach is to teach to doubt

We need to be able to be critical of what is proposed to us. We need to learn to think for ourselves and to be able to make our own judgments of reality.

26. As you can see, I'm a sucker for love. I know it is not enough. There are many of us who walk around with our affection spoiled, but it takes courage to take it out of us, spoils and all.

Even if we have been hurt, we must be able to overcome and give the best of ourselves.

27. The first condition for changing reality is to know it.

Once again, this sentence urges us to pay attention to what surrounds us and to take an interest in it if we want to be able to change the world.

28. We live in a world where the funeral matters more than the dead, the wedding more than love, and the physical more than the intellect.

We rely too much on appearances, ignoring what lies beneath. This is true in most things, including personal relationships.

29. And today, more than ever, it is necessary to dream. To dream, together, dreams that are dreamless and in mortal matter incarnate.

Dreaming allows us to visualize what we want to achieve, and to strive to achieve it.

30. Memory will keep what is worthwhile. Memory knows more about me than I do, and it does not lose what is worth saving.

Under normal conditions we remember what is most important to us. That which we believe to be relevant will be remembered, and only the details that we consider insignificant will fade away.

31. The consumer culture, the culture of disengagement, trains us to believe that things happen just because they do

Over time, we have lost part of our feeling that things happen thanks to our effort.

32. Sometimes the idol does not fall in one piece. And sometimes, when it breaks, people devour the pieces of it.

This phrase criticizes the change of opinion of those who at first praise and idolize someone to later criticize or laugh at him when he fails.

33. I let go of my embrace, I go out into the street. In the sky, already getting lighter, the moon is thinly drawn. The moon is two nights old. I, one

This phrase reflects the importance of affective relationships, showing how they make us feel as if we were beginning to live.

34. There are many things that are born in one sense and end up living in another.

Things do not always turn out as they seem to, and can lead us down paths very different from those we expected.

35. The only thing I know is this: art is art or it's shit.

Art is only art when it is created expressing something. Otherwise it cannot be considered as such.

36. The word politics has been so manipulated that it means everything and means nothing.

The author criticizes the hypocrisy and manipulation of politics, as well as its excessive use, which has made it a controversial and confusing aspect for a large majority of the population.

37. It seemed as if they were about to fall, but they were not: when she stumbled, he supported her; when he swayed, she straightened him up... They held on to each other tightly, glued to each other in the ups and downs of the world.

This phrase tells us about love, and how the members of a couple support each other and help each other to develop.

38. Because everyone, everyone, has something to say to others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others.

We have all done something in our lives, whether good or bad. No one is useless.

39. I write for friends I don't yet know. Those I do know are sick and tired of listening to me.

The author strives to make it possible for others to get to know him.

40. Poor children are the ones who suffer most from the contradiction between a culture that commands consumption and a reality that prohibits it.

Especially those without resources suffer severe consequences derived from the relationship between states of deprivation and the promotion of the consumer society.

41. Groupers, and other fish, are virtuosos in the art of changing sex without surgery. Females become males and males become females with astonishing ease; and no one is mocked or accused of betraying nature or God's law.

This phrase expresses that in nature aspects such as sex or sexual identity are not a motive for mockery or punishment in other species, contrary to what often happens in ours.

42. Is it permissible to confuse the depth of a class with the welfare of a country?

A single social class is not a country, it is not representative. In order to measure well-being, the well-being of all those who are part of it must be measured.

43. And there was nothing wrong with it, and there was nothing strange in the fact that my Heart was broken from so much use.

Although to love can hurt, this pain is not bad because it derives from what we feel.

44. The poor criminals are the villains in the movie; the rich criminals write the script and direct the actors.

The author criticizes the fact that not everyone is looked at with the same magnifying glass: the poor with little power are crushed and blamed, while those with great power benefit from it.

45. The best that the world has is in the many worlds that the world contains, the different musics of life, its pains and colors: the thousand and one ways of living and saying, believing and creating, eating, working, dancing, playing, loving, suffering and celebrating... The world is diverse, and in this diversity, the world is diverse.

The world is diverse, and in this we find its greatest richness and beauty.