Living is nothing more or less than doing one thing instead of another. Jose Ortega y Gasset More Quotes by Jose Ortega y Gasset More Quotes From Jose Ortega y Gasset Hating someone is feeling irritation by their mere existence. Jose Ortega y Gasset irritationhatefeelings Romantic poses aside, let us recognize that "falling in love"...is an inferior state of mind, a form of transitory imbecility. Jose Ortega y Gasset falling-in-lovemindlove-is The direction of society has been taken over by a type of man who is not interested in the principles of civilisation. Not of this or that civilisation but from what we can judge today of any civilisation. The type of man dominant today is a primitive one, a Naturmensch rising up in the midst of a civilised world. Jose Ortega y Gasset rising-uptakenmen To learn English you must begin by thrusting the jaw forward, almost clenching the teeth, and practically immbilizing the lips. In this way the English produce the series of unpleasant little mews of which their language consists. Jose Ortega y Gasset teethinsultinglittles The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him. All our faculties keep us within the realm of the real, of what is already there. The most we can do is to combine things or break them up. The metaphor alone furnishes an escape; between the real things, it lets emerge imaginary reefs, a crop of floating islands. Jose Ortega y Gasset realislandsmen Life is an operation which is done in a forward direction. One lives toward the future, because to live consists inexorably in doing, in each individual life making itself. Jose Ortega y Gasset donemoving-forwardlife Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room. Jose Ortega y Gasset doctorsbeachpeople There may be as much nobility in being last as in being first, because the two positions are equally necessary in the world, the one to complement the other. Jose Ortega y Gasset maytwoworld Civilization is nothing else but the attempt to reduce force to being the last resort. Jose Ortega y Gasset resortslastscivilization All we are given is possibilities — to make ourselves one thing or another. Jose Ortega y Gasset one-thingpossibilitygiven Stupefaction, when it persists, becomes stupidity. Jose Ortega y Gasset persistsurprisestupidity There is but one way left to save a classic; to give up revering him and use him for our own salvation. Jose Ortega y Gasset giving-upuseway If the human intellect functions, it is actually in order to solve the problems which the man's inner destiny sets it. Jose Ortega y Gasset destinywisdommen To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand. This is the sport, the luxury, special to the intellectual man. Jose Ortega y Gasset luxurysportsmen The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him. Jose Ortega y Gasset inspiringmeninspire Liberalism is that principle of political rights, according to which the public authority, in spite of being all-powerful, limits itself and attempts, even at ist own expense, to leave room in the state over which it rules for those to live who neither think nor feel as it does, that is to say as do the stronger, the majority. Jose Ortega y Gasset powerfulrightsthinking We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving. Jose Ortega y Gasset mayorderthinking The difficulties which I meet with in order to realize my existence are precisely what awaken and mobilize my activities, my capacities. Jose Ortega y Gasset adversityinspirationalorder I have always thought that clarity is a form of courtesy that the philosopher owes; moreover, this discipline of ours considers it more truly a matter of honor today than ever before to be open to all minds ... This is different from the individual sciences which increasingly [interpose] between the treasure of their discoveries and the curiosity of the profane the tremendous dragon of their closed terminology. Jose Ortega y Gasset disciplinedragonsdiscovery To rule is not so much a question of the heavy hand as the firm seat. Jose Ortega y Gasset firmheavyhands
