Quotes from Nicolás Gómez Dávila

The greatest modern error is not to proclaim that God died, but to believe that the devil has died.

The most ominous of modern perversions is the shame of appearing naïve if we do not flirt with evil. (La más ominosa de las perversiones modernas es la vergüenza de parecer ingenuos si no coqueteamos con el mal.)

Finding himself,' for modern man, means dissolving himself in any collective entity.

The intelligent man quickly reaches reactionary conclusions. Today, however, the universal consensus of fools turns him into a coward. When they interrogate him in public, he denies being a Galilean.

Only he lives his life who observes it, thinks it, and says it; the rest let life live them.

Modern man's misfortune lies not in having to live a mediocre life, but in believing that he could live one that is not mediocre.

Instead of looking for explanations for the fact of inequality, anthropologists should look for the explanation for the notion of equality.

Al repudiar los ritos, el hombre se reduce a animal que copula y come.

Why deceive ourselves? Science has not answered a single important question.

The barbarian either totally mocks or totally worships. Civilization is a smile that discreetly combines irony and respect.

To tolerate does not mean to forget that what we tolerate does not deserve anything more

The modern world seems invincible. Like the extinct dinosaurs.

In the intelligent man faith is the only remedy for anguish. The fool is cured by "reason," "progress," alcohol, work.

Modern man defends nothing energetically except his right to debauchery.

Without economic concerns the fool dies from boredom.

The two terms of the democratic alternative today—oppressive bureaucracy or repugnant plutocracy—are canceling each other out. Combining into a single term: opulent bureaucracy. At once repugnant and oppressive.

The idea of "the free development of personality" seems admirable as long as one does not meet an individual whose personality has developed freely.

Ideologies were invented so that men who do not think can give their opinions.

Revolution is progressivist and seeks the strengthening of the state; rebellion is reactionary and seeks its disappearance. The revolutionary is a potential government official; the rebel is a reactionary in action.

Modern stupidities are more irritating than ancient stupidities because their proselytes seek to justify them in the name of reason.

To deny that a "human nature" exists is the ideological trick the optimist employs to defend himself against history.

Intelligence consists not in handling intelligent ideas, but in handling any idea intelligently.

The tissues of society become cancerous when the duties of some are transformed into the rights of others.

Revolutions are carried out in order to change the ownership of property and the names of streets. The revolutionary who seeks to change "man's condition" ends up being shot for being a counter-revolutionary.