The 15 best quotes by Luis de Góngora (and verses)

A compilation of the best poems and thoughts of the Spanish playwright.

Luis de Góngora y Argote (Córdoba, 1561 - 1627) was one of the most outstanding Spanish playwrights and writers of the Spanish Golden Age.) His poetry and prose marked a style, perhaps the most representative of the golden age of Spanish literature.

Luis de Góngora's Famous Phrases

In this article we will review some of the most famous verses, thoughts and phrases of Góngora.. This compilation includes excerpts from his most famous works, such as Soledades (1613) o Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea (1612).

1. That he who knows the most aphorisms is the most serious doctor, may well be; but that he who has died the most is not the most expert, cannot be.

An ironic phrase that can have different readings.

2. What an impertinent closure and what an error, to fabricate the bars of your prison out of other people's mistakes!

A metaphorical phrase by Góngora that invites reflection.

3. This is a dangerous and violent way of amending customs.

A sample of his conservatism.

4. That a rich miser collects doubloons a hundredfold may well be; but that the gentile successor does not spend them a thousandfold, cannot be.

On the financial mismanagement of the heirs of great fortunes.

4. Even wisdom sells the University.

A scathing critique of educational institutions, although it is hard to guess what exactly it refers to.

5. Love sends in its fatigue to sit down and not be said; but I am happier if it is said and not felt.

One of those romantic sentences taken from the poetic work of Góngora.

6. Naked the young man, as much as the ocean's dress has already drank, to restore him to the sands.

Another excerpt from his poetry.

7. Give me now, sacred sea, an answer to my demands, which you can, if it is true that the waters have tongues.

Góngora demonstrates his mastery of the maritime metaphor in this verse.

8. Mourning the absence of the traitorous lover, the moon finds her and the sun leaves her, always adding passion to passion, memory to memory, Pain to pain.

On the lack of love and suffering.

9. So light the roe deer is, that it gives no less anger to follow it with the eyes than to reach it with the feet; and so on my account I find that, if you consent to it, it did more than you in herillo, the arrow in reaching it. But let your arm be happy, camila, because from today, although impossible, you can say that you have wounded the wind.

One of his best known poems and studied in the faculties of philology.

10. Serense tus ojos, y más perlas no des, porque al sol le le está mal lo que a la aurora bien.

His love verses are still the subject of study.

11. I no longer sing, mother, and if I sing, my songs are very sad; because the one who left, with what he took, left the silence, and took the voice with him.

When loneliness appears, the inner silence can be deafening.

12. Jealous are you, the girl, jealous are you of that happy one, for you seek him, blind, for he does not see you.

Another verse about unrequited love.

13. Live happily," he said, "long course of age never prolix; and if prolix, in love knots always live, husband and wife.

On the hopeful future of a budding love.

14. After seeing them gone, as I am the one who is interested, I know how to say that it does not weigh me down that they are favored.

Extracted from one of his dramaturgical works par excellence.

15. Mute admiration, speaks silently, and, blind, a river follows, that -lucent of those mountains son- with twisted speech, although prolix tyrannizes the fields usefully.

A thoughtful reflection on admiration.