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José Ortega y Gasset Quotes

1883–1955 Spain

José Ortega y Gasset (May 9 1883 – October 18 1955) was a Spanish philosopher.

Spain
Academics
Essayists
Philosophers

Also known as: Jose Ortega Y Gasset, José Ortega Y Gasset, José Ortega y Gassett, Ortega y Gasset

Random José Ortega y Gasset quote

62 quotes

Nobility is defined by the demands it makes on us — by obligations, not by rights.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.

The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel (1925)

Man is a substantial emigrant on a pilgrimage of being, and it is accordingly meaningless to set limits to what he is capable of being.

History as a System (1962)

Nationalism is always an effort in a direction opposite to that of the principle which creates nations. The former is exclusive in tendency, the latter inclusive.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

The form most contradictory to human life that can appear among the human species is the "self-satisfied man."

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities.

The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel (1925)

These traits together make up the well-known psychology of the spoilt child.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

"Nobility" does not appear as a formal expression until the Roman Empire, and then precisely in opposition to the hereditary nobles, then in decadence.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

No one knows toward what center human things are going to gravitate in the near future, and hence the life of the world has become scandalously provisional.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

The State is always, whatever be its form — primitive, ancient, medieval, modern — an invitation issued by one group of men to other human groups to carry out some enterprise in common.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

Hatred is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values.

Meditations on Quixote (1914)

Life today is the fruit of an interregnum, of an empty space between two organizations of historical rule — that which was, that which is to be. For this reason it is essentially provisional.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

Contrary to what is usually thought, it is the man of excellence, and not the common man who lives in essential servitude. Life has no savour for him unless he makes it consist in service to something transcendental.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

Why should he listen if he has within him all that is necessary? There is no reason now for listening, but rather for judging, pronouncing, deciding.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

The metaphor alone furnishes an escape; between the real things, it lets emerge imaginary reefs, a crop of floating islands.

The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel (1925)

The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will.

The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

Whether he be an original or a plagiarist, man is the novelist of himself.

History as a System (1962)

Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.

Man and Crisis (1962)

Man must not only make himself: the weightiest thing he has to do is to determine what he is going to be. He is causa sui to the second power.

History as a System (1962)

Man is no thing, but a drama... Man, in a word, has no nature; what he has is... history.

History as a System (1935)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: José Ortega y Gasset (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.