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
Time broadens the scope of verses and I know of some which, like music, are everything for all men.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The passage of time allows for a deeper appreciation of poetry, akin to the universal appeal of music.
In this quote, Jorge Luis Borges suggests that as time goes on, the essence and significance of poetry can expand, paralleling the way music resonates universally with people. The statement implies that certain works of art, particularly poetry, become more profound and meaningful as they are experienced over time, connecting with the emotions and thoughts of diverse audiences.
Themes
TimePoetryMusicArtAppreciation
In practice
Example use cases
During a poetry reading, referencing Borges can illustrate how time impacts the understanding of art.
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
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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