# Pío Baroja's sharpest quotes

Man as "a millimetre above the monkey, when not a centimetre below the pig", history as a branch of literature and fools with lots of friends: the most quoted lines of Spanish novelist Pío Baroja, from The Tree of Knowledge, his memoirs and his articles, with the source of each.

- 21 votes · 15 items
- Nov 30, 2022 · la_eltroll
- https://even.best/en/l/5148/pio-baroja-s-sharpest-quotes

## Top 15

1. **Man: a being a millimetre above the monkey, when not a centimetre below the pig.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 281.
2. **History is a branch of literature.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Memoirs (1955).
3. **Literature cannot reflect all the darkness of life. The main reason is that literature chooses and life does not.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Memoirs.
4. **Half angel or half beast, man is a strange animal.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Quoted in Eduardo Palomo, Cita-logía (2013), p. 155.
5. **Only fools have many friends. The greatest number of friends marks the highest reading on the dynamometer of stupidity.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Quoted in Eduardo Palomo, Cita-logía (2013), p. 36.
6. **A crowd is always easier to deceive than a single man.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 484.
7. **Life is a constant struggle, a cruel hunt in which we devour one another.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The Tree of Knowledge (1911).
8. **A custom says much more about the character of a people than an idea.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 106.
9. **Clinging to the Pyrenees, with a graft from the Alps, I feel arch-European.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Quoted by Luis S. Granjel, Baroja y otras figuras del 98 (1960), p. 43.
10. **The public believes the greatest nonsense with the greatest ease.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 53.
11. **I believe one must live with whatever madness one has, tending it and even making use of it.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Tree of Knowledge (1911).
12. **A long novel will always be a succession of short novels.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — "Divagaciones de autocrítica".
13. **I believe that to be a writer it is enough to have something to say, in one's own words or someone else's.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 329.
14. **One must laugh when they say science fails. What fails is the lie; science marches on, sweeping everything aside.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — The Tree of Knowledge (1911).
15. **Most of us men swim in the ocean of vulgarity.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — The Restlessness of Shanti Andía (1911), ch. 1.

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.