70 quotes by Antonio Machado: a unique philosophy of life

This Spanish author, famous for his poetry collections, left great reflections as a legacy.

Antonio Machado's thoughts and phrases have remained as a legacy for humanity.. This Spanish playwright and poet, a member of the literary movement known as the generation of '98, began in the modernist movement and then transformed into a lyric with symbolic and philosophical content. His works are among the most important in Spanish literature, and seeing the clarity of thought of the author it is easy to see why.

Among his writings are Soledades, Campos de Castilla and Nuevas Canciones, and in these books, as in the rest of his works, there are nuances full of humanist reflections and a remarkable civic commitment. Antonio Machado's phrases reflect a patriotic feeling of a country in crisis and human of a country in crisis and human commitment.

The most remembered phrases of Antonio Machado

To know the thoughts of this poet and playwright, we have prepared a compilation of the best phrases of Antonio Machado on various nuances of his life.

1. In my Heart I had the thorn of a passion. I managed to tear it out one day: I no longer feel the heart.

A way of explaining the emptiness and suffering after a love breakup.

2. To dialogue, ask first; then... listen.

This phrase talks about the importance of a listening attitude in order to understand each other and communicate in some way.

3. Everything that is ignored is despised.

One of Antonio Machado's phrases that tell us that when you don't know the value of something you reject it.

4. I have my friends in my loneliness, when I am with them, how far away they are.

Machado, in this phrase, speaks to us of solitude in company.

5. Every fool confuses value and price

There are things that have a kind of value that cannot be bought.

6. Slow and steady, because doing things well is more important than doing them.

Emphasizing that time and care is what matters.

7. Learn to doubt and you will end up doubting your own doubt; in this way God rewards the skeptic and the believer.

May doubt not keep us from the path of curiosity.

8. If it is good to live, it is still better to dream, and best of all, to awaken

The desire to reach and imagine something higher without leaving reality aside.

9. Today is always still

Of all the phrases of Antonio Machado, this one in particular speaks to us about hope..

10. Benevolence does not mean tolerance of the wicked, or conformity to the unfit, but the will to good.

This phrase explains that good will is what should prevail.

11. Men of Spain, neither the past is dead nor is tomorrow, nor yesterday, written

Machado shows hope in the face of the political situation his country was going through at the time.

12. Pay attention: a lonely heart is not a heart.

In a certain way we all need the company of someone.

13. The truth is what it is, and it remains true even if you think the other way around

Machado devoted many writings to the concept of truth.

14. There are two kinds of men: those who live by talking about virtues and those who limit themselves to having them.

It is better to make our virtues known through our actions.

15. They say that a man is not a man until he hears his name from the lips of a woman.

In this phrase Machado exposes sensuality and romanticism.

16. Death is something we should not fear because, while we are, death is not, and when death is, we are not.

May the constant fear of death not block us from the experience of living our reality.

17. After the truth, nothing is as beautiful as fiction.

Another phrase in which Machado deals with the theme of truth by comparing it to the magical realism that he captured in his writings.

18. Help me to understand what I am saying and I will explain it to you better.

The importance of cooperative learning and observe from the other's point of view.

19. It is typical of men with medium heads to attack everything that does not fit in their heads.

To reject something that is difficult to understand.

20. In Spain, of every ten heads, nine charge and one thinks.

Machado, in this phrase, once again shows his position on the political situation of the country.

21. In politics only triumphs he who puts the candle where the air blows; never he who pretends that the air blows where he puts the candle.

In politics, doing things the right way leads to success.

22. Walker there is no path, the path is made by walking

One of Antonio Machado's most famous phrases that talks about moving forward following our own compass and building our own route.

23. No matter how much a man is worth, he will never have a higher value than being a man.

Mentions the value of the person himself, above his social, economic, racial and cultural status.

24. Concepts belong to everyone and are imposed on us from outside; intuitions are always our own.

Sometimes following the opinions of others takes us away from ourselves.

25. Your truth? no, the truth and come with me to look for it. Yours, keep it to yourself

The importance of making prevail between our opinion and that of the other.

26. Without time, that invention of Satan, the world would lose the anguish of waiting and the consolation of hope.

The appreciation of the passage of time is always personal.

27. Did you tell half the truth? They will say you lie twice if you tell the other half.

In this reflection, Machado refers once again to the concept of honesty, focusing on the use of half-truths.focusing on the use of half-truths.

28. Flee from stages, pulpits, platforms and pedestals. Never lose contact with the ground; for only in this way will you have an approximate idea of your stature.

Be in touch with that reality that allows us to see who we are with clarity.

29. Our hours are minutes when we hope to know, and centuries when we know what can be learned.

Machado, in this phrase, returns to the theme of time as a particular experience from different perspectives.

30. In matters of culture and knowledge, only what is kept is lost, only what is given is gained.

Machado's position on culture and education is that progress can be made when we decide to share them.

31. Worse than seeing the black reality, is not seeing it.

When we decide to remain passive in the face of an unpleasant situation.

32. Blessed is the one who forgets the reason for the journey and, in the star, in the flower, in the sky, leaves his soul attached to the star, in the flower, in the sky.

A phrase about the importance of living the process and the learning it generates.

33. To judge or correct ourselves is to apply the measure of others to one's own cloth.

Avoid disqualifying oneself with unnecessary comparisons.

34. Man is by nature a paradoxical beast, an absurd animal that needs logic.

This phrase speaks to us about the importance of the use of logic.

35. Out of every ten heads, nine charge and one thinks.

The author stresses once again the importance of the use of reason.

36. Fruit picked without seasoning is not worth anything.... Even if a brute praises you, he must not be right...

Things must be spontaneous if they do not lose their essence.

37. I disdain the romances of hollow tenors and the chorus of crickets singing to the moon. To distinguish I stop the voices of the echoes, and I hear only, among the voices, one.

This sentence reflects the relationship of the author with his poetry.

38. You say that nothing is created? Potter, to your pots. Make your cup and don't care if it can't make clay.

About the attitude of creating something of your own and original.

39. Don't trust words: In this life you will find many people who live badly and speak well.

We must put a filter to the criticisms and messages that come from outside.

40. The eyes because you sigh, know it well, the eyes in which you look at yourself are eyes because they see you.

From this phrase of Antonio Machado it is clear that in our look we can project what we feel.

41. Whenever I deal with country men, I think of how much they know and we ignore, and how little it matters to them to know how much we know.

In this sentence we can see the author's position on the right to share knowledge and education.

42. In my solitude I have seen very clear things that are not true.

In a space of intimacy it is possible to reflect on aspects that are experienced as real and turn out not to be true.

43. In asking what you know, you do not have to waste time... And who can answer unanswered questions?

It is not necessary to put a lot of energy in things of which we do not have control.

44. No one should be afraid of what he thinks, even if his thinking appears to be in conflict with the most elementary laws of logic.

This phrase encourages spontaneity and the recognition of one's own. One of Antonio Machado's phrases of moral character.

45. Our Spanish yawns

Referring to the crisis that the Spanish people lived through due to the political situation of the country.

46. In the despair and melancholy of your memory, Soria, my heart is watered.

The author's pessimistic attitude towards the political situation of his country at that time.

47. No one knows anymore what is known, although we all know that there is no one who knows everything.

This phrase speaks about the way they approached knowledge in those times.

48. The hand of the pious one always takes away our honor; but the hand of the fighter never offends by giving us his hand.

Machado somehow wanted to expose the position of man in front of the authority of the powerful.

49. Given the choice between truth and the pleasure of seeking it, we would choose the latter.

Machado exposing the fragility of the human being.

50. Joy consists in having health and an empty mind.

Joy as a result of a physical well-being and free from thoughts that bind.

51. The lack of vices adds very little to virtue.

From time to time it is good to have certain habits that give us experience.

52. But look in your mirror for the other

The link with another human being is projection.

Our hours are minutes when we hope to know, and centuries when we know what can be learned.

About the relativity of time. When a situation surpasses the threshold of our attention, time feels shorter.

54. Coin that is in the hand, perhaps it should be kept. The coin of the soul is lost if it is not given.

There are spaces that only correspond to our intimacy and others that only make sense if they are shared.

55. One of the most effective remedies so that things never change on the inside is to constantly renew them on the outside.

To recognize that the environment has an impact on our interior.

56. Of what men call virtue, justice and goodness, one half is envy, and the other half is not charity.

Again Machado exposing in this phrase hypocrisy and falsehood in the human being..

57. In the psychological analysis of the great betrayals you will always find Judas Iscariot's mindlessness.

The little judgment to take decisions that in decant in betrayals.

58. Light of the soul, divine light, lighthouse, torch, star, sun... A man gropes his way; he carries a lantern on his back.

This phrase speaks about the weight of knowledge.

59. Those who are always back from everything are those who have never gone anywhere.

To set out on a path toward contact with diverse situations that only when you return from them, you take with you the experience of what happened.

60. Virtue is the joy that soothes the most serious heart and unwrinkles the frown of Cato.

Once again, physical well-being is related to emotional well-being.

61. In case of life or death one should be with one's closest neighbor

On the importance of affective bonds and how they nourish us.

62. I converse with the man who always goes with me. He who talks to himself hopes to talk to God one day.

Machado manages to describe part of his personality in this phrase.

63. The richest area of our souls, and certainly the most extensive, is that which is usually forbidden to knowledge by our self-love.

To open ourselves to the unknown, leaving behind fears, prejudices and selfishness.

64. The cinema... that invention of the devil

For Machado, the cinema was a tool of mental control by the dictatorial government..

65. Spaniard who comes into the world, may God keep you, one of the two Spains must freeze your heart.

This phrase reflects the pessimistic atmosphere and the hopelessness in the face of the problems of polarization in Spain.

66. I have seen fierce claws in the polished hands; I have seen merciless rooks and lyrical sows.... The most knave takes the hand to the heart, and the thickest brute is charged with reason

The human being when he contrasts his polarities.

67. Everything passes and everything remains, but ours is to pass, to pass making roads, roads over the sea.

Machado exposes the passage of time and the traces left by each experience.

68. He is the best of the good who knows that in this life everything is a matter of measure: a little more, a little less....

To give the right energy to each situation as it requires.

69. The good one is the one who keeps, as the sale of the road, for the thirsty one the water, for the drunkard the wine.

An invitation to wait, because for each thing there is the right time.

70. When we met for the first time, we did nothing but remember each other. Although it may seem absurd to you, I have cried when I became aware of my love for you, for not having loved you all my life.

Machado in this phrase shows us the contradictions of love.