“The nineteenth century, utilitarian throughout, set up a utilitarian interpretation of the phenomenon of life which has come down to us and may still be considered as the commonplace of everyday thinking. ... An innate blindness seems to have closed the eyes of this epoch to all but those facts which show life as a phenomenon of utility” ThinkingMayStillsFactsShowsSeemsEyeCenturyEverydayInterpretationPhenomenonBlindnessInnateUtilityCommonplaceNineteenth CenturyEpochUtilitarian Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
“In this initial illimitableness of possibilities that characterizes one who has no nature there stands out only one fixed, pre-established, and given line by which he may chart his course, only one limit: the past.” MayPastCoursesGivenLinesPossibilityLimitsFixedStanding OutInitials Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
“We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.” ThinkingMayOrderSucceedContrarySurviving Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
“There may be as much nobility in being last as in being first, because the two positions are equally necessary in the world, the one to complement the other.” WorldFirstsMayTwoLastsPositionNobilityComplement Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
“Beliefs constitute the basic stratum, that which lies deepest, in the architecture of our life. By them we live, and by the same token we rarely think of them.... One may symbolize the individual life as a bank of issue. The bank lives on the credit of a gold reserve which is rarely seen, which lies at the bottom of metal coffers hidden in the vaults of the building. The most elementary caution will suggest that from time to time the effective condition of these guaranties--of these credences, one might say, that are the basis of credit--be passed in review.” ThinkingMayMightLyingIndividualBeliefIssuesOur LivesConditionsBuildingGoldBasesBottomCreditArchitectureReviewsMetalsReservesCautionTokensVaultsIndividual LifeCredence Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
“I do not deny that there may be other well-founded causes for the hatred which various classes feel toward politicians, but the main one seems to me that politicians are symbols of the fact that every class must take every other class into account.” FeelsWellsMayFactsSeemsPoliticsCausesClassSocietyPoliticianHatredAccountsVariousDenySymbols Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
“The truth is that no horizon is especially interesting by itself, by virtue of its peculiar content, and that any horizon, wide or narrow, brilliant or dull, varied or monotonous, may possess an interest of its own which merely requires a vital adjustment to be discovered.” MayInterestInterestingVirtueTruth IsWideBrilliantDullHorizonPeculiarAdjustmentMonotonous Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
