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.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects an appreciation for the dual nature of existence, highlighting the beauty in both knowledge and darkness.
In this quote, Jorge Luis Borges contemplates the paradoxical gifts of books and night bestowed upon him by God. He expresses a profound recognition of how these opposing forces—the light of knowledge found in literature and the metaphorical darkness of night—coexist, shaping his understanding of life and existence. The 'magnificent irony' suggests that even in the struggles and sorrows of life, there exists beauty and mastery in the grand design of existence.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literature in our lives, one might quote Borges to emphasize how books can provide solace in our darkest moments.
More from Jorge Luis Borges
All quotes →To 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.
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.
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.
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.
Then I reflect that all things happen, happen to one, precisely now. Century follows century, and things happen only in the present. There are countless men in the air, on land and at sea, and all that really happens happens to me.
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The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita, unknown territory.
Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.
It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.
It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take Hofstadter's Law into account.