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Octavio Paz Quotes

Poet

Octavio Paz (March 31, 1914 - April 19, 1998) was a renowned Mexican poet, essayist, and diplomat. He is considered one of the greatest Spanish-language poets of the 20th century, known for his unique poetic style and profound intellectual depth.

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All Art Poetry World Humans Language Men Love Is Reality Solitude Ifs Speak Thinking Two Amor Octavio Paz Way Criticism Death Different Disappear

Famous Octavio Paz Quotes

“The world is born when two people kiss”

People World Two Born Kissing

Book:The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987

Source: The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987

“Distraction is our habitual state. Not the distraction of the person who withdraws from the world in order to shut himself up in the secret and ever-changing land of his fantasy, but the distraction of the person who is always outside himself, lost in the trivial, senseless, turmoil of everyday life.”

World Persons States Order Lost Secret Fantasy Land Everyday Distraction Everyday Life Turmoil Habitual

Author:Octavio Paz

“A glass pitcher, a wicker basket, a tunic of coarse cloth. Their beauty is inseparable from their function. Handicrafts belong to a world existing before the separation of the useful and the beautiful.”

World Beautiful Function Glasses Separation Pitcher Inseparable Baskets Coarse Handicrafts

Author:Octavio Paz

“Eroticism is first and foremost a thirst for otherness. And the supernatural is the supreme otherness. This is perhaps the most noble aim of poetry, to attach ourselves to the world around us, to turn desire into love, to embrace, finally what always evades us, what is beyond, but what is always there – the unspoken, the spirit, the soul.”

World Firsts Soul Spirit Desire Turns Aim Embrace Noble Supreme Thirst Unspoken Otherness

Author:Octavio Paz

“I thought that the world was a vast system of signs, a conversation between giant beings. My actions, the cricket's saw, the star's blink, were nothing but pauses and syllables, scattered phrases from that dialogue. What word could it be, of which I was only a syllable? Who speaks the word? To whom is it spoken?”

World Action Speak Stars Saws Conversation Dialogue Phrases Giants Pauses Cricket Blink Syllables

Author:Octavio Paz

“Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life”

World Culture Community Views Possibility Disappear Diminish

Author:Octavio Paz

“Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.”

World Way Facts Reality Lying Perfect Technology Power Expression Nihilism Will Power

Author:Octavio Paz

“What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and pecularities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life”

“Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall-that of our consciousness-between the world and ourselves.”

World Self Consciousness Wall Discovery Self Discovery Opening Realization Transparent

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

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

“What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions; life is plurality, death is uniformity.”

World Life Life Is Differences Attraction Uniformity Repulsion Attraction And Repulsion

Author:Octavio Paz

“To love is to battle, to open doors, to cease to be a ghost with a number forever in chains, forever condemned by a faceless master; the world changes if two look at each other and see.”

Ifs World Love Looks Two Love Is Doors Battle

Author:Octavio Paz

About the Author

Born: March 31, 1914
Died: April 19, 1998
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 171

Books & Sources

Alternating CurrentRelated source material

The Double Flame: Love and EroticismRelated source material

The Labyrinth of Solitude: And the Other Mexico ; Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude ; Mexico and the United States ; The Philanthropic OgreRelated source material

Selected poemsRelated source material

The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other WritingsRelated source material

The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987Related source material

Sombras De ObrasRelated source material

Освящение мигаRelated source material

1904-1912Related source material

A Draft of Shadows and Other PoemsRelated source material

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