Jose Ortega y Gasset Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset, organized by topic.
Browse Jose Ortega y Gasset by topic
Jose Ortega y Gasset on Knowledge
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“Original: " La vida no puede esperar a que las ciencias expliquen científicamente el Universo . No se puede vivir ad kalendas graecas . El atributo más esencial de la existencia es su perentoriedad: la vida es siempre urgente. Se vive aquí y ahora sin posible demora ni traspaso. La vida nos es disparada a quemarropa. Ya la cultura, que no es sino su interpretación, no puede tampoco esperar.”
Life cannot wait until the sciences may have explained the universe scientifically. We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: it is always urgent, "here and now" without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank. And culture, which is but its interpretation, cannot wait any more than can life itself. -
“Yo soy yo y mi circumstancia, y si no la salvo a ella no me salvo yo.”
I am I and my circumstance , and if I don't save it I don't save myself. -
“Hatred is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values.”
Cited in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Subject , ed. Susan Ratcliffe (2010), p. 223
Jose Ortega y Gasset on Life
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“I am I and my circumstance, and if I do not save it, I do not save myself.”
Yo soy yo y mi circumstancia, y si no la salvo a ella no me salvo yo. -
Attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset:
“Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.”
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“Life cannot wait until the sciences may have explained the universe scientifically. We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: it is always urgent, "here and now" without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank. And culture, which is but its interpretation, cannot wait any more than can life itself.”
Original: " La vida no puede esperar a que las ciencias expliquen científicamente el Universo . No se puede vivir ad kalendas graecas . El atributo más esencial de la existencia es su perentoriedad: la vida es siempre urgente. Se vive aquí y ahora sin posible demora ni traspaso. La vida nos es disparada a quemarropa. Ya la cultura, que no es sino su interpretación, no puede tampoco esperar. | Miss -
“Life is fired at us point blank.”
More context: "To live or to be alive or, what is the same thing, to be a man, does not admit of any preparations or preliminary experiments. Life is fired at us point blank. ... Where and when we are born, or happen to find ourselves after we were born, there and then, like it or not, we must sink or swim. | Man and People [ El hombre y la gente ] (1957), p. 42, translated by Willard R. Trask. IS -
“More context: "To live or to be alive or, what is the same thing, to be a man, does not admit of any preparations or preliminary experiments. Life is fired at us point blank. ... Where and when we are born, or happen to find ourselves after we were born, there and then, like it or not, we must sink or swim.”
Life is fired at us point blank.
Jose Ortega y Gasset on Mind
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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.”
Jose Ortega y Gasset on Nature
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“When shall we open our minds to the conviction that the ultimate reality of the world is neither matter nor spirit, is no definite thing, but a perspective?”
Wikiquote
Jose Ortega y Gasset on Politics
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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:
“The mass crushes everything that is different, that is excellent, individual, qualified, and select.”
Jose Ortega y Gasset on Virtue
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Attributed to Jose Ortega y Gasset:
“Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.”