Man adapts himself to everything, to the best and the worst.
Jose Ortega Y GassetRead
The past will not tell us what we ought to do, but... what we ought to avoid.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The past serves as a guide for avoiding mistakes rather than dictating future actions.
This quote emphasizes the idea that our history does not impose a specific path on us, but rather highlights the errors and pitfalls we should steer clear of. It suggests that while we can learn from our experiences, it is ultimately up to us to determine our future direction based on the lessons we've learned about what not to repeat.
Themes
PastLessonsWisdomAvoidanceMistakes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the importance of learning from history, this quote can illustrate the value of reflecting on past errors.
More from Jose Ortega Y Gasset
All quotes β"Natural" man is always there, under the changeable historical man. We call him and he comes-a little sleepy, benumbed, without his lost form of instinctive hunter, but, after all, still alive. Natural man is first prehistoric man-the hunter.
Jose Ortega Y GassetRead
We have not reached ethical perfection in hunting. One never achieves perfection in anything, and perhaps it exists precisely so that one can never achieve it. Its purpose is to orient our conduct and to allow us to measure the progress accomplished. In this sense, the advancement achieved in the ethics of hunting is undeniable.
Jose Ortega Y GassetRead
I am myself and what is around me, and if I do not save it, it shall not save me.
Jose Ortega Y GassetRead
We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfection upon another person. One day, the fantasy evaporates and with it, love dies.
Jose Ortega Y GassetRead
Life is a terrible conflict, a grandiose and atrocious confluence. Hunting submerges man deliberately in that formidable mystery and therefore contains something of religious rite and emotion in which homage is paid to what is divine, transcendent, and in the laws of Nature.
Jose Ortega Y GassetRead
Similar quotes
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.
Samuel JohnsonRead
Faith,Waiting in the heart of a seed, Promises a miracle of life which cannot prove at once.
KabirRead
When we take the one seat on our meditation cushion we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness.
Jack KornfieldRead
We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.
George Bernard ShawRead
I'm convinced that the man who has learned to meditate upon the Lord will be able to run on his feet and walk in his spirit. Although he may be hurried by his vocation, that's not the issue. The issue is how fast his spirit is going. To slow it down takes a period of time.
Charles StanleyRead
One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read