Nicolás Gómez Dávila Quotes

Colombian writer and philosopher (1913–1994)

Nicolás Gómez Dávila (18 May 1913 – 17 May 1994) was a Colombian writer and thinker considered one of the most intransigent political theoreticians of the twentieth century. He became known during the last few years of his life, particularly through German translations of his works. Gómez Dávila was one of the most radical critics of modernity; his work consists almost entirely of aphorisms he called escolios (that is, glosses or annotations).

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Alternative Names: Nicolas Gomez Davila

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God prefers an uncircumcised heart to a castrated mind.

The racist is annoyed because he secretly suspects that the races are equal. The anti-racist is annoyed because he secretly suspects that they are not.

The incoherent interlocutor is more irritating than the hostile one.

Love of the people is an aristocratic calling. The democrat only loves the people at election time.

To be civilized is to be able to criticize what we believe without ceasing to believe in it.

There is an illiteracy of the soul that no diploma cures.

La técnica no cumple los viejos sueños del hombre, sino los remeda con sorna. (p. 12)

Nowadays public opinion is not the sum of private opinions. On the contrary, private opinions are an echo of public opinion.

With God there are only individuals.

In general, "historical necessity" turns out to be merely a name for human stupidity.

Of God one doesn't speak with any precision or seriousness except in poetry.

The modern world seems invincible. Like the extinct dinosaurs.

The punishment of the idealist consists in the triumph of his cause.

In an age in which the media broadcast countless pieces of foolishness, the educated man is defined not by what he knows, but by what he doesn't know.

En lugar de humanizar la técnica el moderno prefiere tecnificar al hombre. (p. 123)