You can't measure time by days, the way you measure money by dollars and cents, because dollars are all the same while every day is different and maybe every hour as well.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
Israelites, Christians and Muslims profess immortality, but the veneration they render this world proves they believe only in it, since they destine all other worlds, in infinite number, to be its reward or punishment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that despite beliefs in immortality, humans often prioritize earthly life over spiritual existence.
Jorge Luis Borges' quote presents a thought-provoking perspective on the beliefs of Israelites, Christians, and Muslims regarding immortality. He implies that while these religions profess a belief in an afterlife, the way individuals value and engage with the material world indicates a deeper belief in the significance of this life alone. Essentially, the quote critiques the human tendency to focus on worldly concerns rather than the promised spiritual realms of reward or punishment.
Themes
ImmortalityBeliefWorldSpiritualityExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical debate about the meaning of life.
More from Jorge Luis Borges
All quotes →To say good-bye is to deny separation; it is to say Today we play at going our own ways, but we'll see each other tomorrow. Men invented farewells because they somehow knew themselves to be immortal, even while seeing themselves as contingent and ephemeral.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part of the authorities to act slowly and impersonally, in the manner of planets or vegetables.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
This felicitous supposition declared that there is only one Individual, and that this indivisible Individual is every one of the separate beings in the universe, and that these beings are the instruments and masks of divinity itself.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
Let neither tear nor reproach besmirch this declaration of the mastery of God who, with magnificent irony, granted me both the gift of books and the night.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
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