Explore more quotes by Octavio Paz

"Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone."

Being, Fact, Man, Solitude

"Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... What we call art is a game."

Art, Aesthetics, Invention

"Love is an attempt at penetrating another being, but it can only succeed if the surrender is mutual."

Love, Being, Succeed, Surrender

"What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism."

Art, Criticism

"Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two."

Wisdom, Change, Lies

"Man does not speak because he thinks; he thinks because he speaks. Or rather, speaking is no different than thinking: to speak is to think."

Man,

"To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes; to hear it is to see it with our ears."

Sense, Eyes

"Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings."

Criticism, Grammar

"If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time."

Time, Excellence, Metaphor, Universe

"Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation, a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history."

History, Nature, Expression, Feeling

Exlpore more Society quotes

"A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants."

Plato, Greek Philosopher

Society, Mankind, Needs, Self, State

"The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism."

Albert Camus, French Philosopher

Society, Intelligence, Knowledge, Fact, Mind

"Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image."

Charles Dickens, English Novelist

Society, Blush, Man, Old, Pride

"No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will."

Thomas Jefferson, American President

Society, Government, Press, Will

"These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived."

Winston Churchill, English Statesman

Society, Country

"I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit."

Fran Lebowitz, American Journalist

Society, People, Heart, Courtesy, Old

"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new."

Henry David Thoreau, American Author

Society, Old

"Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included."

Karl Marx, German Philosopher

Society, History, Sex, Progress, Ugly

"He is now rising from affluence to poverty."

Mark Twain, American Author

Society, Now, Poverty

"Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor."

Benjamin Disraeli, British Statesman

Society, Sympathy, Feelings, Thoughts, Habits