We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter who makes no demands on himself. Jose Ortega y Gasset More Quotes by Jose Ortega y Gasset More Quotes From Jose Ortega y Gasset Meditation on any theme, if positive and honest, inevitably separates him who does the meditating from the opinion prevailing around him, from that which can be called "public" or "popular" opinion. Jose Ortega y Gasset opinionmeditationdoe An idea is a putting truth in check-mate. Jose Ortega y Gasset truthlyingideas Human vitality is so exuberant that in the sorriest desert it still finds a pretext for glowing and trembling. Jose Ortega y Gasset glowingvitalitydesert In these years we are witnessing the gigantic spectacle of innumerable human lives wandering about lost in their own labyrinths, through not having anything to which to give themselves. Jose Ortega y Gasset motivationgivingyears Poetry has become the higher algebra of metaphors. Jose Ortega y Gasset algebrametaphorpoetry Beliefs constitute the basic stratum, that which lies deepest, in the architecture of our life. By them we live, and by the same token we rarely think of them.... One may symbolize the individual life as a bank of issue. The bank lives on the credit of a gold reserve which is rarely seen, which lies at the bottom of metal coffers hidden in the vaults of the building. The most elementary caution will suggest that from time to time the effective condition of these guaranties--of these credences, one might say, that are the basis of credit--be passed in review. Jose Ortega y Gasset issueslyingthinking Commonplaces are the tramways of intellectual transportation. Jose Ortega y Gasset mundanetransportationintellectual What, by a word lacking even in grammar, is called amorality, is a thing that does not exist. If you are unwilling to submit to any norm, you have, nolens volens , to submit to the norm of denying all morality, and this is not amoral, but immoral. It is a negative morality which preserves the empty form of the other. Jose Ortega y Gasset moralitydoenegative Today violence is the rhetoric of the period. Jose Ortega y Gasset violenceperiodstoday The nineteenth century, utilitarian throughout, set up a utilitarian interpretation of the phenomenon of life which has come down to us and may still be considered as the commonplace of everyday thinking. ... An innate blindness seems to have closed the eyes of this epoch to all but those facts which show life as a phenomenon of utility Jose Ortega y Gasset everydayeyethinking He [the "specialist"] is one who, out of all that has to be known in order to be a man of judgment, is only acquainted with one science, and even of that one only knows the small corner in which he is an active investigator. He even proclaims it as a virtue that he takes no cognisance of what lies outside the narrow territory specially cultivated by himself, and gives the name of "dilettantism" to any curiosity for the general scheme of knowledge. Jose Ortega y Gasset menorderlying Liberalism... is the noblest cry that has ever resounded in this planet. Jose Ortega y Gasset liberalismplanetscry The form most contradictory to human life that can appear among the human species is the "self-satisfied man." Jose Ortega y Gasset complacencyselfmen The tapestry of history that seems so full of tragedy when viewed from the front has countless comic scenes woven into its reverse side. In truth, tragedy and comedy are the twin masks of history - its mass appeal. Jose Ortega y Gasset woventragedyhistory We have not reached ethical perfection in hunting. One never achieves perfection in anything, and perhaps it exists precisely so that one can never achieve it. Its purpose is to orient our conduct and to allow us to measure the progress accomplished. In this sense, the advancement achieved in the ethics of hunting is undeniable. Jose Ortega y Gasset huntingprogressperfection All life is the struggle, the effort to be itself. Jose Ortega y Gasset effortstrugglelife-is Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an equilibrium which is set up from within. Jose Ortega y Gasset governmentpressureorder The person portrayed and the portrait are two entirely different things. Jose Ortega y Gasset portraitsdifferenttwo Life is the external text, the burning bush by the edge of the path from which God speaks. Jose Ortega y Gasset burninginspirelife Life is a series of collisions with the future. Jose Ortega y Gasset short-lifeinspirationallife
