Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... What we call art is a game.
– Octavio Paz
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.
– Octavio Paz
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.
– Octavio Paz
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.
– Octavio Paz
Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings.
– Octavio Paz
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
– Octavio Paz
Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two.
– Octavio Paz
To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes to hear it is to see it with our ears.
– Octavio Paz
Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.
– Octavio Paz
Love is an attempt at penetrating another being, but it can only succeed if the surrender is mutual.