230 Quotes by Jose Ortega y Gasset

Why write, if this too easy activity of pushing a pen across paper is not given a certain bull-fighting risk and we do not approach dangerous, agile, and two-horned topics?

Let others think what they like: for me, the culmination of life consists of a pure and subtly dramatic passion.

On the Bigotry of Culture:: it presented us with culture, with thought as something justified in itself, that is, which requires no justification but is valid by it's own essence, whatever its concrete employment and content maybe. Human life was to put itself at the service of culture because only thus would it become charged with value. From which it would follow that human life, our pure existence was, in itself, a mean and worthless thing.

If you want to make use of the advantages of civilisation, but are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilisation—you are done.

Let us tear down the romantic trappings that have adorned passion. Let us cease believing that the measure of a man’s love lies in how stupid he has become or is willing to be.

El hombre de cabeza clara mira de frente la vida, se hace cargo de que todo en ella es problemático y se siente perdido. Como vivir es sentirse perdido, el que lo acepta ya ha empezado a encontrarse.

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand. This is the sport, the luxury, special to the intellectual man. The gesture characteristic of his tribe consists in looking at the world with eyes wide open in wonder. Everything in the world is strange and marvelous to well-open eyes.

Since love is the most delicate and total act of a soul, it will reflect the state and nature of the soul. The characteristics of the person in love must be attributed to love itself.

I am I and my circumstance; and, if I do not save it, I do not save myself.