Quotes from Jorge Luís Borges

If an eternal traveler should journey in any direction, he would find after untold centuries that the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder-which, repeated, becomes order: the Order. My solitude is cheered by that elegant hope.

La Recoleta ... Aqui não estarei eu. Estarão o meu cabelo e as minhas unhas, que não saberão que o resto estará morto, e continuarão a crescer e serão pó. Aqui não estarei eu, que serei parte do esquecimento que é a frágil substância de que é feito o universo.

I understood that the work of the poet was not in poetry; it was in the invention of reasons for poetry to be admirable; Naturally, this further work modified the work for him, but not for another.

T]he aesthetic act cannot be carried out without some element of astonishment, and that to be astonished by rote is difficult.

Temí que no quedara una sola cosa capaz de sorprenderme, temí que no me abandonara jamás la impresión de volver. Felizmente, al cabo de unas noches de insomnio me trabajó otra vez el olvido.

Sentí, en la última página, que mi narración era un símbolo del hombre que yo fui, mientras la escribía y que, para redactar esa narración, yo tuve que ser aquel hombre y que, para ser aquel hombre, yo tuve que redactar esa narración, y así hasta lo infinito.

Un atributo de lo infernal es la irrealidad, un atributo que parece mitigar sus terrores y que los agrava tal vez.

I feared that there would not be a single thing left capable of surprising me, I feared that the impression of returning would never leave me. Happily, after a few sleepless nights, forgetfulness worked on me again.

in one's memory, all days tend to be the same, but that there is not a day... which does not bring surprises

Os espelhos e a paternidade são abomináveis porque o multiplicam e o divulgam (o universo).

if the future and the past are infinite, there can not really be a when; in space, because if every being is equidistant from the infinite and the infinitesimal, neither can there be a where.

There's nothing old under the sun. Everything happens for the first time, but in an eternal fashion. He who reads my words is inventing them.

We touch a sphere, see a heap of dawn colored light, our mouths enjoy a tingling sensation, and we lie to ourselves that those three disparate things are only one thing called an orange.

This frightened man mortified me, as if I were the coward, not Vincent Moon. Whatever one man does, it is as if all men did it.

The world unfortunately is real and I, unfortunately, am Borges

En la honda noche universal que apenas contradicen los faroles

Un hombre se confunde, gradualmente, con la forma de su destino; un hombre es, a la larga, sus circunstancias.

Haiku'yu biliyorum, iki üç hecede Bir an?, bir yank?y?, bir esriyiÅŸi yakalayan.

Jam në Buenos Aires. Shpresoj t'ju shoh sonte, shpresoj t'ju shoh nesër. E di që ne do t'jemi të lumtur bashkë (të lumtur dhe ndonjëherë memecë dhe madhështisht budallenj).

Vi alguna lágrima. El hombre alzaba o alejaba la voz y los acordes casi iguales eran monótonos o, mejor aún, infinitos. Yo hubiera querido que el canto siguiera para siempre y fuera mi vida. ...

Miró los árboles y el cielo subdivididos en rombos turbiamente amarillos, verdes y rojos.

las pruebas de la muerte son estadísticas y nadie hay que no corra el albur de ser el primer inmortal

I presume that in the heaven of the Blessèd there are those who believe that the advantages of that locale are much exaggerated by theologists, who have never been there themselves. And perhaps in hell the damned are not always happy.

Then I reflected that everything happens to a man precisely, precisely now. Centuries of centuries and only in the present do things happen; countless men in the air, on the face of the earth and the sea, and all that really is happening is happening to me.