Solitude lies at the lowest depth of the human condition. Man is the only being who feels himself to be alone and the only one who is searching for the Other.
Octavio PazRead
Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the illusion of rational thought, suggesting that it can lead to irrational outcomes and suffering.
Octavio Paz reflects on the modern man's perception of his own reasoning capabilities, asserting that while individuals believe their thinking is fully conscious and rational, it may actually lead them into complex problems reminiscent of a nightmare. He points out that this type of thinking can trap people in a cycle of pain and turmoil, showcased metaphorically through 'torture chambers' that recur in the distorted reflections of their own reasoning.
Themes
ThinkingReasonIllusionPhilosophySuffering
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of technology on human reasoning, this quote can highlight the pitfalls of over-reliance on 'logical' thinking.
More from Octavio Paz
All quotes →By suppressing differences and peculiarities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death
Octavio PazRead
The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the Press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it he cannot grow or mature.
Octavio PazRead
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 PazRead
If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.
Octavio PazRead
Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of our time, is a marvelous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past.
Octavio PazRead
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