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I am I plus my surroundings; and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself.
Jose Ortega Y Gasset
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Our identity is shaped by the environment around us, and neglecting it means losing a part of ourselves.

This quote emphasizes the interconnectedness between an individual and their environment, suggesting that a person's identity cannot exist in isolation from their surroundings. If we fail to care for and maintain the conditions and relationships that constitute our environment, we may inadvertently compromise our own sense of self and well-being.

Themes

IdentityEnvironmentSelfSurroundingsPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about sustainability, one might say, 'As Jose Ortega Y Gasset suggested, I am I plus my surroundings, urging us to protect our environment.

More from Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Man adapts himself to everything, to the best and the worst.
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"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.
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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.
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I am myself and what is around me, and if I do not save it, it shall not save me.
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We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfection upon another person. One day, the fantasy evaporates and with it, love dies.
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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

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