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
Reality is not always probable, or likely.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the distinction between reality and probability, suggesting that reality can often defy expectations.
Jorge Luis Borges' quote highlights the complexity of reality, pointing out that our perceptions of what is probable or likely do not always align with the actual nature of existence. It challenges the reader to consider the unpredictable and often incomprehensible facets of life that transcend ordinary reasoning and expectations.
Themes
RealityProbabilityExistencePerceptionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of existence, this quote can be used to illustrate that people often underestimate the complexity of what is real.
More from Jorge Luis Borges
All quotes βTo 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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