Quotes About Legacy

Tres suertes puede correr un libro de versos: puede ser adjudicado al olvido, puedo no dejar una sola línea pero sí una imagen total del hombre que lo hizo, puede legar a las antologías unos pocos poemas...

Mi empresa no es difícil, esencialmente. Me bastaría ser inmortal para llevarla a cabo. Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote

Others died, but it happened in the past, The season (as all men know) most favorable for death. Is it possible that I, subject of Yaqub Almansur, Must die as roses had to die and Aristotle?

The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.

La ya avanzada edad me ha enseñado la resignación de ser Borges

Each writer creates his precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.

Sólo perduran en el tiempo las cosas Que no fueron del tiempo.

O Time thy pyramids.

A classic book is a book which generations of men, driven by various reasons, read with that same initial fervor and that same mysterious loyalty.

What will die with me the day I die? What pathetic or frail image will be lost to the world?

My undertaking is not difficult, essentially. I should only have to be immortal to carry it out.

The indecipherable dust, once Shakespeare.

Ciegamente reclama duración el alma arbitraria cuando la tiene asegurada en vidas ajenas, cuando tú mismo eres la continuación realizada de quienes no alcanzaron tu tiempo y otros serán (y son) tu inmortalidad en la tierra.

Cuando esté muerto, copiarás a otro y luego a otro

Os meus livros Os meus livros (que não sabem que existo) São uma parte de mim, como este rosto De têmporas e olhos já cinzentos Que em vão vou procurando nos espelhos E que percorro com a minha mão côncava. Não sem alguma lógica amargura Entendo que as palavras essenciais, As que me exprimem, estarão nessas folhas Que não sabem quem sou, não nas que escrevo. Mais vale assim. As vozes desses mortos Dir-me-ão para sempre.

Un gran libro como la Divina Comedia no es el aislado o azaroso capricho de un individuo; muchos hombres y muchas generaciones tendieron hacia él. Investigar sus precursores no es incurrir en una miserable tarea de carácter jurídico o policial; es indagar los movimientos, los tanteos, las aventuras, las vislumbres y las premoniciones del espíritu humano.

17 La vieja mano sigue trazando versos para el olvido

I am returning to the language my ancestors spoke fifty generations ago; I am returning to that language; I am reclaiming it. It is not the first time I speak it; when I had other names this was the language I spoke.

Todo hombre memorable corre el albur de ser amonedado en anécdotas ['Every memorable man runs the risk of being minted in anecdotes']

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.

The pettiest will be generous And the most craven will be brave: Nothing improves a reputation Like confinement to a grave.

Deeds which populate the dimensions of space and which reach their end when someone dies may cause us wonderment, but one thing, or an infinite number of things, dies in every final agony, unless there is a universal memory as the theosophists have conjectured. In time there was a day that extinguished the last eyes to see Christ; the battle of Junín and the love of Helen died with the death of a man. What will die with me when I die, what pathetic or fragile form will the world lose?

Yo, Quijano, seré paladín. Seré mi sueño. En esa vieja casa hay una adarga antigua y una hoja de Toledo y una lanza y los libros verdaderos que a mi brazo prometen la victoria.

A book of genius is a book that can be read in a slightly or very different way by each generation. - The Enigma of Shakespeare