Life is an operation which is done in a forward direction. One lives toward the future, because to live consists inexorably in doing, in each individual life making itself.
Category Archive: Jose Ortega y Gasset
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.
Rancor is an outpouring of a feeling of inferiority.
There is but one way left to save a classic; to give up revering him and use him for our own salvation.
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.
We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.
Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration; they are a sort of magic wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly.
An ‘unemployed’ existence is a worse negation of life than death itself.
Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.
The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will.