5 Fantastic Quotes By Jorge Luis Borges

You can fill many pages when trying to choose the best quotes by Jorge Luis Borges. His sharpness of wit and charm gave us some wonderful reflections, which always amaze us when we give in to the temptation to read them .

The very name of this Argentine is unique and strange: Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo. He was born almost at the same time as the 20th century, in Buenos Aires. The most interesting thing about his large amount of work is that he resists any classification. Borges is Borges. There are no schools or doctrines within which he fully fits.

One of the great mysteries in the literary world is that, although Borges has been read and loved all over the world, he has never won a Nobel Prize. But his name is always on the list of favorites to receive it. It has always been said that this was due to his political position, cataloged as conservative by many in the world.

In the strict literary sense , few have achieved the universality of ideas, the perfection of language and the originality of arguments that Borges has. Not to mention his poetry, which is always among the most exalted. As a tribute to this author and as a small literary banquet for readers, we include five fascinating quotes by Jorge Luis Borges here in this article.

Time, a recurring theme in Borges

Jorge Luis Borges makes time one of the raw materials in his work. The past, present and future paraded before him and inspired this wonderful sentence: “The future is as unattainable as the rigid yesterday. There is not one thing that is not a silent letter in this incomprehensible eternal scripture whose book is time. ”

Borges defines time as a book, where each page is a continuation of the previous one and determines the next. The present is not in it, at least not as many see it. We are a past moving towards a future that is also already delimited by that yesterday.

2. The anonymity we want to be

If there’s one thing that characterizes Borges, it’s a nice and intelligent humor. He turned irony into an art. This is reflected in this beautiful and powerful sentence: “We all go towards anonymity, only that the mediocre come forward a little earlier”.

In fact, we are all heading for oblivion. For each achievement made, time erases the name of the author. Those who do not perform transcendental acts or work are victims of being forgotten in the past. But the others do not escape either: no matter how great an achievement, there will always be someone to do better.

3. Democracy and statistics

This is one of the most classic sentences from Jorge Luis Borges about politics: “For me, democracy is an abuse of statistics. And besides, I do not think it has any value. Do you think that in order to solve a mathematical or aesthetic problem, you need to consult the majority of people? ”

With his usual sense of humor, Borges talks to us about the fragile lifeblood of democracy: the will of the majority. It reflects an unpleasant truth: majorities do not have to have, in principle, more cause than minorities. It’s just a matter of statistics being imposed.

4. Liquid memory

Borges reminds us that memory is a dynamic reality, mutant and imprecise. As science has shown, we remember what we want, the way we want. Memory is not true to facts.

All this is reflected in one of the sentences of Jorge Luis Borges: “We are our memory, we are the chimerical museum of inconsistent forms, the pile of broken mirrors”. It shows us that memory is a puzzle, which always needs a lot of pieces and does not stop being magical.

5. How far do you get alone?

Traveling alone, not in the literal sense, but in a figurative way, makes the way to lose meaning. This is what Borges emphasizes here: ” If I started a journey alone, I would spend my life circulating… and I would come to a customs office, to an airport, possibly arrive in Ezeiza, and I would not go further than Ezeiza” .

It is as if he told us that traveling alone is a way to get anywhere. There are only transitions, intermediate points, but no goals. To travel a lonely road is to walk around without meaning, and never finish leaving.

Jorge Luis Borges was one of the privileged minds of the modern world. His reflections and his clear call to truth have left us a legacy. A legacy that surely, despite the fact that time has passed, means that we are still not done evaluating it properly. Borges is one of those writers who is always worth having close, very close: on the bedside table.