292 Quotes by Octavio Paz

I do not know if the story repeats itself: I only know that people change little.

To reduce poetry to its reflections of historical events and movements would be like reducing the poet’s words to their logical or grammatical connotations.

A saint speaks with God or with himself, two forms of silence.

It is not proper to project our feelings onto things or to attribute our own sensations and passions to them. Can it also be improper to see in them a guide, a way of life?

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. A constant coming and going: wisdom lies in the momentary.

Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall - that of our consciousness - between the world and ourselves.

Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation, a recourse against a sense of something missing.

Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers. What we call art is a game.

When a society decays, it is language that is first to become gangrenous. As a result, social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings.