Solitude lies at the lowest depth of the human condition. Man is the only being who feels himself to be alone and the only one who is searching for the Other.
Octavio PazRead
Fixity is always momentary. But how can it always be so? If it were, it would not be momentary - or would not be fixity.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the paradox of fixity and change, suggesting that what seems stable is actually transient.
Octavio Paz is exploring the concept of fixity, arguing that if something is always fixed, it contradicts the very nature of being momentary. This paradox invites us to contemplate the fluidity of existence, where what we perceive as constant is subject to change, emphasizing the dynamic nature of reality.
In practice
This quote could be used in a philosophical discussion about the nature of reality and existence.
Solitude lies at the lowest depth of the human condition. Man is the only being who feels himself to be alone and the only one who is searching for the Other.
By suppressing differences and peculiarities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death
The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the Press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it he cannot grow or mature.
Poetry is not a genre in harmony with the modern world; its innermost nature is hostile or indifferent to the dogmas of modern times, progress and the cult of the future.
If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.
Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of our time, is a marvelous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past.
When God's righteousness is mentioned in the gospel, it is God's action of declaring righteous the unrighteous sinner who has faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness by which a person is justified (declared righteous) is not his own but that of another, Christ.
Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel.
We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that, as grown-ups, we tell the truth and live in fact. But, of course, the reality is we take the facts that we know, and then we fill in all the blanks.
I have no idea where I'm going but here's the real question: What am I doing here in the first place?
Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
A person's life from infancy to old age is nothing else than an advance from the world towards heaven, the last stage of which is death; the actual transition from one life to the next.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.