Jorge Luis Borges on Philosophy
1899–1986 Argentina
← All quotes by Jorge Luis Borges
9 quotes
Any life, however long and complicated it may be, actually consists of a single moment — the moment when a man knows forever more who he is.
No one is anyone, one single immortal man is all men. Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist.
The Immortal (1949)
I will pause to consider this eternity from which the subsequent ones derive.
It is venturesome to think that a coordination of words (philosophies are nothing more than that) can resemble the universe very much.
Discussion (1932)
The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . . Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.
Poetry (1977)
The original is unfaithful to the translation.
On William Thomas Beckford's Vathek (1782)
The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries, with vast air shafts between, surrounded by very low railings.
There is nothing very remarkable about being immortal; with the exception of mankind, all creatures are immortal, for they know nothing of death. What is divine, terrible, and incomprehensible is to know oneself immortal.
Do you want to see what human eyes have never seen? Look at the moon. Do you want to hear what ears have never heard? Listen to the bird's cry. Do you want to touch what hands have never touched? Touch the earth. Verily I say that God is about to create the world.