When hypocrisy is a character trait, it also affects one's thinking, because it consists in the negation of all the aspects of reality that one finds disagreeable, irrational or repugnant. Octavio Paz affectaspectcharacter Change image and share on social
Words are things, but things which mean. We cannot do away with meaning without doing away with signs, that is, with language itself. Moreover, we would have to do away with the universe. All the things man touches are impregnated with meaning. Octavio Paz impregnatelanguageman share on social
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 categoryexcludefuture share on social
The idea of modernity is beginning to lose its vitality. It is losing it because modernity is no longer a critical attitude but an accepted, codified convention. Octavio Paz acceptattitudebegin Change image and share on social
To the poet fated to be a poet, self-expression is as natural and as involuntary as breathing is to us ordinary mortals. Octavio Paz breatheexpressionfate Change image and share on social
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 chorusdiscordexperience Change image and share on social
If contemporary artists sincerely seek to be original, unique, and new, they should begin by disregarding the notions of originality, individuality, and innovation: they are the cliches of our time. Octavio Paz artistbegincliche Change image and share on social
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 centurycolumbiancultural Change image and share on social
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 attributefeelingguide Change image and share on social
Picasso is what is going to happen and what is happening; he is posterity and archaic time, the distant ancestor and our next-door neighbor. Speed permits him to be two places at once, to belong to all the centuries without letting go of the here and now. Octavio Paz ancestorarchaicbelong share on social
