Jose Ortega y Gasset Quotes

Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration; they are a sort of magic wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly.

Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.

I am I plus my circumstances.

Law is born from despair of human nature.

Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.

Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.

Love is that splendid triggering of human vitality the supreme activity which nature affords anyone for going out of himself toward someone else.

Our firmest convictions are apt to be the most suspect, they markour limitations and our bounds. Life is a pretty thing unless itis moved by the indomitable urge to extend its boundaries.

The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.

We cannot put off living until we are ready.