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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects an appreciation for the dual nature of existence, highlighting the beauty in both knowledge and darkness.
In this quote, Jorge Luis Borges contemplates the paradoxical gifts of books and night bestowed upon him by God. He expresses a profound recognition of how these opposing forces—the light of knowledge found in literature and the metaphorical darkness of night—coexist, shaping his understanding of life and existence. The 'magnificent irony' suggests that even in the struggles and sorrows of life, there exists beauty and mastery in the grand design of existence.
Themes
BooksNightIronyExistenceKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literature in our lives, one might quote Borges to emphasize how books can provide solace in our darkest moments.
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
Then I reflect that all things happen, happen to one, precisely now. Century follows century, and things happen only in the present. There are countless men in the air, on land and at sea, and all that really happens happens to me.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
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Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does.
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