You can't measure time by days, the way you measure money by dollars and cents, because dollars are all the same while every day is different and maybe every hour as well.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
There are no moral or intellectual merits. Homer composed the Odyssey; if we postulate an infinite period of time, with infinite circumstances and changes, the impossible thing is not to compose the Odyssey, at least once.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Borges suggests that creativity and achievement may occur given enough time and conditions, questioning the uniqueness of great works.
In this quote, Borges argues that the creation of significant works like Homer's Odyssey is not solely an indication of moral or intellectual superiority but rather a matter of chance over an infinite timeline. He posits that if one considers an endless series of possibilities and variables, it becomes statistically inevitable that such masterpieces will emerge, thus challenging our notion of the exceptionalism of great creators.
Themes
CreativityChanceInfinityMasterpiecesPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a classroom setting to discuss the nature of creativity and the role of chance in artistic achievement.
More from Jorge Luis Borges
All quotes βTo say good-bye is to deny separation; it is to say Today we play at going our own ways, but we'll see each other tomorrow. Men invented farewells because they somehow knew themselves to be immortal, even while seeing themselves as contingent and ephemeral.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
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 BorgesRead
This felicitous supposition declared that there is only one Individual, and that this indivisible Individual is every one of the separate beings in the universe, and that these beings are the instruments and masks of divinity itself.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
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 BorgesRead
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