Octavio Paz Quotes

Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Mexican Poet
Born: Mar 31, 1914
Died: Apr 19, 1998
Language Man Nature Time Work World
Related authors: Emily Dickinson Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Khalil Gibran Maya Angelou Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost Sophocles Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman is the only great modern poet who does not seem to experience discord when he faces his world. Not even solitude - his monologue is a universal chorus. Octavio Paz
Great Experience Solitude World Poet Seem Faces Only He Does Discord His Modern Walt Walt Whitman Whitman Who Even Chorus Universal Monologue
The presence and the present of America are a future; our continent is, by its nature, the land which does not exist on its own, but as something which is created and invented. Octavio Paz
Future Nature Own Our Something Invented Does Continent Exist America Which Land Created Presence Present
Writers, you know, are the beggars of Western society. Octavio Paz
You Society Writers Know Western Beggars Western Society
To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes; to hear it is to see it with our ears. Octavio Paz
Eyes Our Ears See Poem Poetry Read Hear
Despite the often illusory nature of essays on the psychology of a nation, it seems to me there is something revealing in the insistence with which a people will question itself during certain periods of its growth. Octavio Paz
Nature Me People Will Nation Despite Insistence Seems Something Periods Revealing Question Itself Essays Often Psychology Which Certain Illusory Growth
The object of poetic activity is essentially language: whatever his beliefs and convictions, the poet is more concerned with words than with what these words designate. Octavio Paz
Words Language Poet Whatever Convictions Object More Poetic Concerned His Than Essentially Beliefs Activity Designate
To us, the value of a work lies in its newness: the invention of new forms, or a novel combination of old forms, the discovery of unknown worlds or the exploration of unfamiliar areas in worlds already discovered - revelations, surprises. Octavio Paz
Work Old Value Invention Worlds Unknown Lies Area Combination New New Forms Revelations Surprises Discovered Discovery Unfamiliar Newness Forms Us Exploration Novel
In the works of Duchamp, space begins to walk and take on form; it becomes a machine that spins arguments and philosophizes; it resists movement with delay and delay with irony. Octavio Paz
Walk Space Delay Argument Machine Take Becomes Duchamp Begins Irony Movement Form Works
We go along, without a fixed itinerary, yet at the same time with an end (what end?) in mind, and with the aim of reaching the end. A search for the end, a dread of the end: the obverse and the reverse of the same act. Octavio Paz
Time Mind Aim Dread Along Reaching Without Go Reverse End Fixed Same Same Time Act Search
Yes, I am well aware that nature - or what we call nature: that totality of objects and processes that surrounds us and that alternately creates us and devours us - is neither our accomplice nor our confidant. Octavio Paz
Nature Our Neither Totality Objects Well Call Am Nor Accomplice Yes Surrounds Confidant Processes Us Creates Aware
It is not proper to project our feelings onto things or to attribute our own sensations and passions to them. Can it also be improper to see in them a guide, a way of life? Octavio Paz
Life Feelings Own Our Project Guide Way See Proper Onto Also Attribute Passions Sensations Them Things
Poems - crystallizations of the universal play of analogy, transparent objects which, as they reproduce the mechanism and the rotary motion of analogy, are waterspouts of new analogies. Octavio Paz
Analogy Objects Poems New Motion Reproduce Which Transparent Rotary Mechanism Play Universal
Human writing reflects that of the universe; it is its translation, but also its metaphor: it says something totally different, and it says the same thing. Octavio Paz
Writing Same Thing Translation Universe Says Totally Something Also Metaphor Reflects Same Human Different Thing
All poems say the same thing, and each poem is unique. Each part reproduces the others, and each part is different. Octavio Paz
Same Thing Others Say Poem Poems Part Same Different Unique Each Thing
Poetry is the experience of liberty. The poet risks himself, chances all on the poem's all with each verse he writes. Octavio Paz
Risks Experience Liberty Poet Poem Poetry Writes He Himself Verse Each Chances
In order for sensation to accede to the objectivity of things, it must itself be changed into a thing. The agent of change is language: the sensations are turned into verbal objects. Octavio Paz
Change Language Changed Must Objectivity Objects Verbal Itself Sensation Sensations Order Turned Agent Thing Things
To be a great painter means to be a great poet: someone who transcends the limits of his language. Octavio Paz
Great Language Poet Someone Limits His Transcends Means Who Painter
Poetry is not a genre in harmony with the modern world; its innermost nature is hostile or indifferent to the dogmas of modern times, progress and the cult of the future. Octavio Paz
Future Nature World Progress Harmony Indifferent Poetry Hostile Genre Cult Times Modern Modern Times Modern World Innermost
An understanding of Sor Juana's work must include an understanding of the prohibitions her work confronts. Her speech leads us to what cannot be said, what cannot be said to an orthodoxy, the orthodoxy to a tribunal, and the tribunal to a sentence. Octavio Paz
Work Understanding Tribunal Must Leads Said Cannot Sentence Us Include Her Orthodoxy Speech
We twentieth-century Mexicans, even those of pure Indian descent, look on the pre-Columbian world as a world on the other side, not only distant in time but across the cultural divide. Octavio Paz
Time World Pure Other Side Distant Those Indian Only Divide Look Cultural Mexicans Across Descent Even
As it defines itself, every society defines other societies. That definition almost always takes the form of a condemnation: the 'other' is the barbarian. Octavio Paz
Every Society Other Defines Definition Takes Almost Always Condemnation Itself Form Barbarian Societies
Our judgment and moral categories, our idea of the future, our opinions about the present or about justice, peace, or war, everything, without excluding our rejections of Marxism, is impregnated with Marxism. Octavio Paz
War Future Justice Peace Judgment Our Everything Moral About Marxism Idea Excluding Categories Without Opinions Present Rejections
For a man of my generation, our century has been a long intellectual and political struggle in favor of freedom. Octavio Paz
Freedom Man Struggle Generation Political Long Our Favor Has-Been My Generation Been Intellectual Century
The work of art is always unfaithful to its creator... Art lays at a higher level; it says something more, and almost always, it says something different from what the artist wanted to say. Octavio Paz
Work Art Say Says Something More Higher Higher Level Lays Almost Always Artist Unfaithful Different Wanted Creator Level
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