21 Quotes by Augusto Roa Bastos

The things that have come into being change continually. The man with a good memory remembers nothing because he forgets nothing.

What happens is that your wretched memory remembers the words and forgets what's behind them

There were epochs in the history of humanity in which the writer was a sacred person. He wrote the sacred books, universal books, the codes, the epic, the oracles. Sentences inscribed on the walls of the crypts; examples in the portals of the temples. But in those times the writer was not an individual alone; he was the people.

Facts can't be recounted; much less twice over, and far less still by different persons. I've already drummed that thoroughly into your head.

There is always time to take more time.

Man is an idiot. He doesn't know how to do anything without copying, without imitating, without plagiarizing, without aping. It might even have been that man invented generation by coitus after seeing the grasshopper copulate.

In all nations an exceptional man exists that compensates the deficiencies of the remainder. In those moments, when humanity is found collectively in a state of decadence, there always remain those exceptional beings as point of reference.

Letters couldn’t care less whether what is written with them is true or false.

Man is an idiot. He doesn’t know how to do anything without copying, without imitating, without plagiarizing, without aping. It might even have been that man invented generation by coitus after seeing the grasshopper copulate.