Quotes from Jorge Luís Borges

Everything is: the shadows in the glass Which, in between the day's two twilights, you Have scattered by the thousands, or shall strew Henceforward in the mirrors that you pass. And everything is part of that diverse Crystalline memory, the universe; — Jorge Luis Borges, from "Everness," transl. Richard Wilbur,, Wilbur's New and Collected Poems (HBJ, 1988)

O Time thy pyramids.

El tiempo está viviéndome. (Jactancia de quietud - Luna de enfrente)

Yo querría que este momento durara siempre -murmuré. -Siempre es una palabra que no está permitida a los hombres -afirmó Ulrica (…)

It is venturesome to think that a coordination of words (philosophies are nothing more than that) can resemble the universe very much.

Ta?no u tom trenutku ?ovek pomisli: Šta ne bih dao za sre?u da budem pored tebe na Islandu u velikom nepomi?nom danu i da delim sadašnjost kao što se deli muzika ili ukus ploda. Ta?no u tom trenutku ?ovek je bio sa njom na Islandu.

The curious thing about The Ring and the Book, to which I will now return, is that although each character recounts the same events, and although there is no difference in what they tell, there is a fundamental difference, which belongs to the realm of human psychology, the fact that each of us believes we are justified. For example, the count admits he is a murderer, but the word "murderer" is too general. We know this from reading other books.

El hecho es que la participación de un dragón en la epopeya de Beowulf parece disminuirla a nuestro ojos. Creemos en el león como realidad y como símbolo; creemos en el minotauro como símbolo, ya que no como realidad; pero el dragón se el menos afortunado de los animales fabulosos.

Money is abstract, I said over and over, money is future time. It can be an evening just outside the city, or a Brahms melody, or maps, or chess, or coffee….

Tanr?sal bir çiçeÄŸin ya da düÅŸüncedeki bir çiçeÄŸin, geleceÄŸin çiçeÄŸi olmas?, güncel zamanda atomlar? henüz birleÅŸmemiÅŸ ve farkl? yerlerde bulunan çeliÅŸkili bir çiçek olmas? daha da inan?lmaz.

notai che le armature di ferro di plaza Costituciòn avevno cambiato non so quale pubblicità di sigarette; il fatto mi dispiacque, perché compresi che l'incessante e vasto universo già si separava da lei e che quel mutamento era il primo di una serie infinita.

A circle drawn on a blackboard, a right triangle, a rhombus--all these are forms we can fully intuit; Ireneo could do the same with the stormy mane of a young colt, a small herd of cattle on a mountainside, a flickering fire and its uncountable ashes, and the many faces of a dead man at a wake. I have no idea how many stars he saw in the sky.

Poetry is given to the poet. I don't think a poet can sit down at will and write. If he does, nothing worthwhile can come of it.

Un buon lettore è raro quanto un bravo scrittore.

No hay cosas que no esté como perdida entre infatigables espejos.

Bir ÅŸeyi görebilmek için onu anlamak gerekir. Koltuk insan bedenini, eklemlerini ve tüm organlar?n? önceden kabullenir; makas da kesme eylemini. Bir lamba ya da bir ta??t için ne demeli? Bir vahÅŸi, misyonerin Ä°ncil'ini alg?layamaz; bir gemi yolcusu halatlar? tayfalar?n gördüÄŸü gibi göremez. Evreni gerçekten görebilmiÅŸ olsayd?k belki onu anlard?k.

Felices los amados y los amantes y los que pueden prescindir del amor. Felices los felices.

En av lärorna på Tlön går så långt att den förnekar tiden: den tänker sig att nuet är oändligt, att framtiden inte är verklig annat än som en förväntan i nuet, att det förflutna inte är verkligt annat än som ett minne i nuet.

Russel /.../ antar att planeten har blivit skapad för några minuter sedan, >utrustad< med en mänsklighet som >minns< ett illusoriskt förflutet.

El ejecutor de una empresa atroz debe imaginar que ya la ha cumplido, debe imponerse un porvenir que sea irrevocable como el pasado.

My father and he had cemented (the verb is excessive) one of those English friendships which begin by avoiding intimacies and eventually eliminate speech altogether.

La cosa certa è che viviamo rimandando tutto ciò che può essere rimandato; forse tutti sappiamo che siamo immortali e che prima o poi, ogni uomo farà ogni cosa e saprà tutto

The certitude that everything has been written negates us or turns us into phantoms.

I foresee that man will resign himself each day to more atrocious undertakings; soon there will be no one but warriors and brigands; I give them this counsel: The author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.