Jorge Luis Borges Quotes

Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator (1899–1986)

Jorge Luis Borges (24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine writer who is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. Most famous in the English speaking world for his short stories and fictive essays, Borges was also a poet, critic, translator and man of letters.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: B. Suarez Lynch • H. Bustos Domecq

Alternative Names: Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges • Chorche Louis Borches • Jorge Luis Borges Acevedo • Horhe Luis Borhes • J. L. Borges • Khorkhe Luyis Borkhes • Borges • Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo

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I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.

Yo no hablo de venganzas ni perdones, el olvido es la única venganza y el único perdón.

Que el cielo exista, aunque mi lugar sea el infierno.

Besides, time, which despoils castles, enriches verses . . . Time broadens the scope of verses and I know of some which, like music, are everything for all men.

The impossibility of penetrating the divine pattern of the universe cannot stop us from planning human patterns, even though we are conscious they are not definitive. The analytic language of Wilkins is not the least admirable of such patterns.

The heresies we should fear are those which can be confused with orthodoxy.

¿De qué otra forma se puede amenazar que no sea de muerte? Lo interesante, lo original, sería que alguien lo amenace a uno con la inmortalidad.

It is venturesome to think that a coordination of words (philosophies are nothing more than that) can resemble the universe very much. It is also venturesome to think that of all these illustrious coordinations, one of them — at least in an infinitesimal way — does not resemble the universe a bit more than the others.

En mi juventud probé la mescalina y la cocaína pero enseguida me pasé a los pastillas de menta que me parecieron más estimulantes. Si las drogas producen el mismo efecto que el alcohol, no me interesan. Un borracho es evidentemente ridículo. He estado borracho algunas veces y lo recuerdo como una experiencia muy desagradable para los demás y para mí.

We accept reality so readily - perhaps because we sense that nothing is real.

The mind was dreaming. The world was its dream.

No estoy seguro de que yo exista, en realidad. Soy todos los autores que he leído, toda la gente que he conocido, todas las mujeres que he amado. Todas las ciudades que he visitado, todos mis antepasados...

Myth is at the beginning of literature, and also at its end.

To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.

He sospechado alguna vez que la única cosa sin misterio es la felicidad, porque se justifica por sí sola.