José Ortega y Gasset's most famous quotes
The top 3 according to 400 votes from people: I am I and my circumstance, and if I do not save it, I do not save myself. · Between wanting to be and believing one already is lies the distance from the tragic to the comic. · The vulgar soul, knowing itself vulgar, has the nerve to assert the right to vulgarity and impose it everywhere.. (Updated Jul 2, 2019.)
'I am I and my circumstance' and other lines by José Ortega y Gasset, from Meditations on Quixote, Invertebrate Spain and The Revolt of the Masses, with the work they come from (and one or two attributed).
Automatically translated (original in Español). See the original
Top 10
-
1
I am I and my circumstance, and if I do not save it, I do not save myself.
Meditations on Quixote (1914).
-
2
Between wanting to be and believing one already is lies the distance from the tragic to the comic.
Meditations on Quixote (1914).
-
3
The vulgar soul, knowing itself vulgar, has the nerve to assert the right to vulgarity and impose it everywhere.
The Revolt of the Masses (1930).
-
4
I am convinced that speaking is a far more illusory operation than is usually believed.
The Revolt of the Masses, 'Prologue for French readers' (1937).
-
5
Some people know how to live like sleepwalkers. I have never managed to learn that comfortable style of existence.
Invertebrate Spain, preface to the fourth edition.
-
6
Morality is man's very being when he is on his own hinges and at his vital best.
Complete Works, volume IV.
-
7
I do not ask for Spain to be organised for reasons of the past, but for reasons of the future.
Invertebrate Spain (1921).
-
8
A piece of stupidity can only be refuted with another.
Attributed; in Luis Señor's Diccionario de citas (1997).
-
9
Studying is something constitutively contradictory and false. The student is a forgery of a man.
Some Lessons in Metaphysics (course of 1932-33).
-
10
Whenever you teach, teach at the same time to doubt what you teach.
Attributed; found in dictionaries of quotations.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (2)
Todo el mundo cita lo de «yo soy yo y mi circunstancia» y casi nadie la segunda parte, que es la importante.
Lo del estudiante como falsificación del hombre se lo leí a un profe de filosofía en 2º de bachillerato y nos quedamos todos mirándonos jaja