The 34 best quotes by Jorge Luis Borges, an unrepeatable writer.

The famous author from Buenos Aires gives us multiple thoughts of great philosophical and literary value.

Jorge Luis Borges (Buenos Aires, 1899 - Geneva, 1986) was one of the most outstanding Latin American writers of the 20th century.

His incomparable prose made this Argentinian of illustrious origin already in his time an author worthy of analysis and study. He came to sound strongly to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, although he never won it, probably because of his right-wing ideals. He did obtain, among many other distinctions, the Miguel de Cervantes Prize.

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The most famous phrases of Borges

In this article we are going to know the most famous phrases of Borges.. These are famous quotes that we have extracted from his numerous books, interviews and conferences.

1. You have to be careful when choosing your enemies because you end up looking like them.

If we confront someone, we are likely to end up adopting their same defense strategies. Great reflection.

2. Let every man build his own cathedral. Why live off other people's ancient works of art?

An ode to self-realization and not to be carried away by the conquests of the past.

3. Universal History is that of a single man.

A sentence to free interpretation.

4. There may be enemies of my opinions, but I myself, if I wait a while, can also be an enemy of my opinions.

It is only a question of giving oneself time to find weaknesses in one's own thoughts...

5. You are not what you are because of what you write, but because of what you have read.

The greatness of reading is that it makes us wiser. Writing is only the logical consequence.

6. I don't know to what extent a writer can be revolutionary. For the time being, he is working with language, which is a tradition.

A curious reflection that can make us think.

7. I would like to be brave. My dentist assures me that I am not.

An ironic phrase from the great Borges.

8. "Always" is a word that is not allowed to men.

The mere conception of something eternal is, in itself, a utopia.

9. You are not ambitious: you are content to be happy.

How do you interpret this sentence of Borges?

10. There are communists who maintain that to be anti-communist is to be fascist. This is as incomprehensible as saying that not to be Catholic is to be Mormon.

A reductio ad absurdum, about one of the most used fallacies to delegitimize someone else's opinion.

11. If we really saw the Universe, maybe we would understand it.

Perhaps we live too absorbed in ways of life that take us completely away from understanding what surrounds us.

12. How else can one be threatened other than with death? The interesting thing, the original thing, would be for someone to threaten one with immortality.

Another irony of the Argentine genius.

13. We all walk towards anonymity, only the mediocre ones arrive a little earlier.

A solemn reflection on the needlessness of fame.

14. Literature is nothing but a directed dream.

On the conjunction between prose and building a castle in our own mind.

15. Death is a life lived. Life is a death that comes.

On the future, the past, and its ultimate reality.

16. I think it is better to think that God does not accept bribes.

About the Church (and other religions) and its eagerness to accumulate wealth and goods.

17. I have not cultivated my fame, which will be ephemeral.

A great phrase of Borges, always reluctant to the supposed honeys of fame and popular acceptance.

18. We are our memory, we are that chimerical museum of inconstant forms, that heap of broken mirrors.

Always brilliant and creative, with this famous quote full of poetry.

19. Only that which is gone is what belongs to us.

Perhaps in allusion to the place occupied by people and experiences that are gone, but remain in our minds.

20. Happiness does not need to be transmuted into beauty, but misfortune does.

Intriguing reflection that can make us think.

21. Dollars: They are those imprudent American bills that have different value and the same size.

On the value of money, very present in his work and little among his hobbies.

22. I am alone and there is no one in the mirror.

A certain nihilism floods this thought.

23. Time is the best anthologist, or perhaps the only one.

A particularly famous phrase that perfectly sums up the meaning of life.

24. Dreaming is the most ancient aesthetic activity.

To recreate and to imagine realities that our unconscious draws.

25. One is in love when one realizes that another person is unique.

About falling in love: something we have all felt at one time or another.

26. For the Argentinian, friendship is a passion and the police a mafia.

A brief uncomfortable portrait of the average Argentine citizen, in the eyes of the porteño.

27. I have ever suspected that the only thing without mystery is happiness, because it justifies itself.

A brilliant reflection that could only come from the pen of the writer born in Buenos Aires.

28. Over the years I have observed that beauty, like happiness, is frequent. Not a day goes by when we are not, for an instant, in paradise.

Poetic and beautiful thought that can give us courage on a cloudy day.

29. I am not talking about revenge or forgiveness, forgetting is the only revenge and the only forgiveness.

Impressive his way of rationalizing and giving a positive outlet for these negative feelings.

30. The verb to read, like the verb to love and the verb to dream, does not support 'the imperative mode'.

"The letter enters with blood" would be, according to Borges, a tremendous error of our educational system.

31. I have committed the worst sin one can commit. I have not been happy.

Tormented and lonely, Borges regretted not having lived with more enthusiasm.

32. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't listen to the radio, I don't take drugs, I eat very little. I would say that my only vices are El Quijote, La divina comedia and not to read Enrique Larreta or Benavente.

About your few but curious vices.

33. Fatherhood and mirrors are abominable because they multiply the number of men.

A brushstroke of his misanthropy.

34. Tyrannies foster stupidity.

Simple but vehement phrase charging against dictatorships.