Jose Ortega y Gasset 1883 – 1955
Jose Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish philosopher, essayist, and the most influential Spanish thinker of the twentieth century. Educated in Marburg under the neo-Kantians, he returned to Madrid to teach metaphysics and to lead the philosophical review Revista de Occidente, which introduced contemporary European thought to the Spanish-speaking world. His Meditations on Quixote opened with the celebrated formula yo soy yo y mi circunstancia, and The Revolt of the Masses offered a critical diagnosis of mass society. He spent the years of the Civil War and Second World War in exile in Argentina and Portugal.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Spanish
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Continental
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset:
“I am I and my circumstance, and if I do not save it, I do not save myself.”
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Attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset:
“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.”
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Attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset:
“Civilization is, before all else, the will to live in common.”
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Attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset:
“Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.”
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Attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset:
“Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.”