The central problem of novel-writing is causality. Jorge Luis Borges More Quotes by Jorge Luis Borges More Quotes From Jorge Luis Borges There is no exercise of the intellect which is not, in the final analysis, useless. A philosophical doctrine begins as a plausible description of the universe; with the passage of the years it becomes a mere chapter if not a paragraph or a name in the history of philosophy. Jorge Luis Borges philosophicalexercisephilosophy I know of one semibarbarous zone whose librarians repudiate the "vain and superstitious habit" of trying to find sense in books, equating such a quest with attempting to find meaning in dreams or in the chaotic lines on the palms of one's hand. Jorge Luis Borges dreambookhands In fact I'm in too much of a mental muddle to know where I am - an idealist or not. I'm a mere man of letters, and I do what I can with those subjects. Jorge Luis Borges too-muchlettersmen Films are even stranger, for what we are seeing are not disguised people but photographs of disguised people, and yet we believe them while the film is being shown. Jorge Luis Borges filmbelievepeople I think of myself primarily as a reader, then also a writer, but that's more or less irrelevant. I think I'm a good reader, I'm a good reader in many languages, especially in English, since poetry came to me through the English language, initially through my father's love of Swinburn, of Tennyson, and also of Keats, Shelley and so on - not through my native tongue, not through Spanish. It came to me as a kind of spell. I didn't understand it, but I felt it. Jorge Luis Borges languagekindthinking Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned. Jorge Luis Borges achievementaskingwriting Reality is partial to symmetry and slight anachronisms Jorge Luis Borges anachronismsymmetryreality To think, analyze and invent, he [Pierre Menard] also wrote me, “are not anomalous acts, but the normal respiration of the intelligence. To glorify the occasional fulfillment of this function, to treasure ancient thoughts of others, to remember with incredulous amazement that the doctor universal is thought, is to confess our languor or barbarism. Every man should be capable of all ideas, and I believe that in the future he will be." (Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote, 1939) Jorge Luis Borges menbelievethinking Captivated by its discipline, humanity forgets and goes on forgetting that it is the discipline of chess players, not of angels. Jorge Luis Borges disciplineangelplayer On the floor, and hanging on to the bar, squatted an old man, immobile as an object. His years had reduced and polished him as water does a stone or the generations of men do a sentence. Jorge Luis Borges watermenyears Once I am dead, there will be no lack of pious hands to throw me over the railing; my grave will be the fathomless air; my body will sink endlessly and decay and dissolve in the wind generated by the fall, which is infinite. Jorge Luis Borges airhandsfall The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part of the authorities to act slowly and impersonally, in the manner of planets or vegetables. Jorge Luis Borges vegetablesdesiremorning The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing. Jorge Luis Borges flatteryposteritycontemporary God must not engage in theology. The writer must not destroy by human reasonings the faith that art requires of us. Jorge Luis Borges theologyhumansart I can’t talk about my books. I have written them and tried to forget them. I have written once, and readers have read me many times, no? I try to think of what I wrote, it’s very unhealthy to think about the past, the case of elegies is very sad, as much as the case of complaints. Jorge Luis Borges bookpastthinking It seemed incredible that this day, a day without warnings or omens, might be that of my implacable death. Jorge Luis Borges incredibleswarningmight A book is more than a verbal structure or series of verbal structures; it is the dialogue it establishes with its reader and the intonation it imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves in his memory. A book is not an isolated being: it is a relationship, an axis of innumerable relationships. Jorge Luis Borges axesmemoriesbook Life and death have been lacking in my life. Jorge Luis Borges lackinglife-and-deathhas-beens Let neither tear nor reproach besmirch this declaration of the mastery of God who, with magnificent irony, granted me both the gift of books and the night. Jorge Luis Borges tearsnightbook Whatever one man does, it is as if all men did it. For that reason, it is not unfair that one disobedience in a garden should contaminate all humanity; for that reason it is not unjust that the crucifixion of a single Jew should be sufficient to save it. Jorge Luis Borges gardenhumanitymen
