Quote

Man does not speak because he thinks he thinks because he speaks. Or rather, speaking is no different than thinking: to speak is to think.

Octavio Paz

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Octavio Paz
Age: 84 †
Born: 1914
Born: March 31
Died: 1998
Died: April 2
Diplomat
Essayist
Lyricist
Philosopher
Poet
Politician
Translator
Writer
Mexico City
Mexico
Octavio Paz Lozano
Men
Speaks
Think
Speaking
Thinking
Thinks
Conversation
Rather
Speak
Doe
Different

More quotes by Octavio Paz

Image
Death is the mother of forms.
Octavio Paz
Image
I don't believe that there are dangerous writers: the danger of certain books is not in the books themselves but in the passions of their readers.
Octavio Paz
Image
Cubism had been an analysis of the object and an attempt to put it before us in its totality both as analysis and as synthesis, it was a criticism of appearance. Surrealism transmuted the object, and suddenly a canvas became an apparition: a new figuration, a real transfiguration.
Octavio Paz
Image
Eroticism is first and foremost a thirst for otherness. And the supernatural is the supreme otherness. This is perhaps the most noble aim of poetry, to attach ourselves to the world around us, to turn desire into love, to embrace, finally what always evades us, what is beyond, but what is always there – the unspoken, the spirit, the soul.
Octavio Paz
Image
The woman who died night after night and her dying was a long goodbye, a train that never left.
Octavio Paz
Image
A civilization that denies death ends by denying life.
Octavio Paz
Image
Poet: gardener of epitaphs.
Octavio Paz
Image
Believing ourselves to be possessors of absolute truth degrades us: we regard every person whose way of thinking is different from ours as a monster and a threat and by so doing turn our own selves into monsters and threats to our fellows.
Octavio Paz
Image
Art is what remains of religion: the dance above the yawning abyss.
Octavio Paz
Image
Love is the revelation of the other person's freedom.
Octavio Paz
Image
To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes to hear it is to see it with our ears.
Octavio Paz
Image
Writers, you know, are the beggars of Western society.
Octavio Paz
Image
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
Octavio Paz
Image
Solitude is the profoundest fact
Octavio Paz
Image
Loving means getting rid of names.
Octavio Paz
Image
There can be no society without poetry, but society can never be realized as poetry, it is never poetic. Sometimes the two terms seek to break apart. They cannot.
Octavio Paz
Image
By diminishing the value of silence, publicity has also diminished that of language. The two are inseparable: knowing how to speak has always meant knowing how to keep silent, knowing that there are times when one should say nothing.
Octavio Paz
Image
Deserve your dream.
Octavio Paz
Image
I thought that the world was a vast system of signs, a conversation between giant beings. My actions, the cricket's saw, the star's blink, were nothing but pauses and syllables, scattered phrases from that dialogue. What word could it be, of which I was only a syllable? Who speaks the word? To whom is it spoken?
Octavio Paz
Image
Tradition is no longer a continuity but a series of sharp breaks. The modern tradition is the tradition of revolt.
Octavio Paz