Whether he be an original or a plagiarist, man is the novelist of himself. Jose Ortega y Gasset More Quotes by Jose Ortega y Gasset More Quotes From Jose Ortega y Gasset Life is a series of collisions with the future. Jose Ortega y Gasset short-lifeinspirationallife In order to master the unruly torrent of life the learned man meditates, the poet quivers, and the political hero erects the fortress of his will. Jose Ortega y Gasset heromenorder The surrealist thinks he has outstripped the whole of literary history when he has written (here a word that there is no need to write) where others have written "jasmines, swans and fauns." But what he has really done has been simply to bring to light another form of rhetoric which hitherto lay hidden in the latrines. Jose Ortega y Gasset swanswritingthinking On the Bigotry of Culture: : it presented us with culture, with thought as something justified in itself, that is, which requires no justification but is valid by it's own essence, whatever its concrete employment and content maybe. Human life was to put itself at the service of culture because only thus would it become charged with value. From which it would follow that human life, our pure existence was, in itself, a mean and worthless thing. Jose Ortega y Gasset essencemeanculture Love is exclusivity, selection. Jose Ortega y Gasset exclusivityselectionlove-is Abasement, degradation is simply the manner of life of the man who has refused to be what it is his duty to be. Jose Ortega y Gasset aggravationfrustrationmen The preoccupation with what should be is estimable only when the respect for what is has been exhausted. Jose Ortega y Gasset preoccupationexhaustedshould Why write if this too easy activity of pushing a pen across paper is not given a certain bullfighting risk and we do not approach dangerous, agile and two-horned topics? Jose Ortega y Gasset riskwritingtwo A revolution only lasts fifteen years, a period which coincides with the effectiveness of a generation. Jose Ortega y Gasset effectivenessmarijuanayears It is not obligatory for a generation to have great men. Jose Ortega y Gasset great-mengenerationsmen Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made. Jose Ortega y Gasset barbarismabsencemade With morality we correct the mistakes of our instincts, and with love we correct the mistakes of our morals. Jose Ortega y Gasset moralitymoralmistake The essence of man is, discontent, divine discontent; a sort of love without a beloved, the ache we feel in a member we no longer have. Jose Ortega y Gasset essencelovemen The hunter who accepts the sporting code of ethics keeps his commandments in the greatest solitude, with no witness or audience other than the sharp peaks of the mountain, the roaming cloud, the stern oak, the trembling juniper, and the passing animal. Jose Ortega y Gasset huntingcloudsanimal One age cannot be completely understood if all the others are not understood. The song of history can only be sung as a whole. Jose Ortega y Gasset agesonghistory The hero's will is not that of his ancestors nor of his society, but his own. This will to be oneself is heroism. Jose Ortega y Gasset ancestorsocietyhero Man has to live with the body and soul which have fallen to him by chance. Jose Ortega y Gasset soulacceptancemen The world is the sum-total of our vital possibilities. Jose Ortega y Gasset possibilitydreamworld We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its urgency, 'here and now' without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank. Jose Ortega y Gasset motivationinspirationallife "Natural" man is always there, under the changeable historical man. We call him and he comes-a little sleepy, benumbed, without his lost form of instinctive hunter, but, after all, still alive. Natural man is first prehistoric man-the hunter. Jose Ortega y Gasset huntinghistoricalmen
