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Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz Quotes

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Famous Octavio Paz Quotes

“Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature - if that word can be used in reference to man, who has ‘invented’ himself by saying ‘no’ to nature - consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude.”

IfsKnowsMenHumansFactsUsedRealizingConditionsSolitudeLongingNostalgiaHuman ConditionCommunionAnother ManSaying No
Author:Octavio Paz
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“Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason.”

ThinkingMenReasonModernMirrorsTerrorismWideLikesAwakeTortureNightmareChamberMazesModern ManWide Awake
Book:The Labyrinth of Solitude: And the Other Mexico ; Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude ; Mexico and the United States ; The Philanthropic Ogre
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“Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of our time, is a marvelous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past.”

MenMaySometimesPastFallLostSpeakLanguageMarkOriginalsKingdomsInnocenceOur TimePossessedMarvelous
Book:Alternating Current
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“The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the Press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it he cannot grow or mature.”

MenWantPersonsRealitySchoolAmericaMotherCertainGrowsProcessChurchPrinciplesWifeChildhoodMen And WomenAspectPressesPlantRadioMatureFormulasSchemesAdaptationSinisterInexorable
Book:The Labyrinth of Solitude: And the Other Mexico ; Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude ; Mexico and the United States ; The Philanthropic Ogre
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