Quotes by Jorge Luis Borges

About Jorge Luis Borges:

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature. His work embraces the "character of unreality in all literature". His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, and religion. Literary critics have described Borges as Latin America's monumental writer.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Casi no soy, pero mis versos ritman la vida y su esplendor. Yo fui Walt Whitman.

Jorge Luis Borges

Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I'd rather boast about the ones I've read.

Jorge Luis Borges

Hay quienes no pueden imaginar un mundo sin pájaros; hay quienes no pueden imaginar un mundo sin agua; en lo que a mi se refiere, soy incapaz de imaginar un mundo sin libros.

Jorge Luis Borges

Reading . . . is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual.

Jorge Luis Borges

The image of the Lord has been replaced by a mirror.

Jorge Luis Borges

Unappreciated because too many of his [Rudyard Kipling's] peers were socialists.

Jorge Luis Borges

. . . In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, an...

Jorge Luis Borges

La amistad une; también el odio sabe juntar.

Jorge Luis Borges

One of the schools in Tlön has reached the point of denying time. It reasons that the present is undefined, that the future has no other reality than as present hope, that the past is no more than present memory.

Jorge Luis Borges

I believe the secret of the success of psychoanalysis resides in people's vanity.

Jorge Luis Borges

When a writer dies, he becomes his books.

Jorge Luis Borges

Many of the characters are fools and they're always playing tricks on me and treating me badly.

Jorge Luis Borges

The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that sooner or later all men will do and know all things.

Jorge Luis Borges

The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb.

Jorge Luis Borges

Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.

Jorge Luis Borges

To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.

Jorge Luis Borges

Author Bio

  • NameJorge Luis Borges
  • DescriptionArgentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature.
  • AliasesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges; Jorge Luis Borges
  • BornAugust 24, 1899
  • DiedJune 14, 1986
  • CountryArgentina
  • ProfessionTranslator; Poet; Linguist; Librarian; Literary Critic; Screenwriter; Essayist; Short Story Writer; Writer
  • AwardsGrand Merit Cross Of The Order Of Merit Of The Federal Republic Of Germany; Knight Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire; Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca; Legion Of Honour; Prix Formentor; World Fantasy Award For Life Achievement; Order Of Merit Of The Italian Republic; Alfonso Reyes International Prize; Jerusalem Prize; Miguel De Cervantes Prize; Balzan Prize