Jose Ortega y GassetThinkers

Adaptation is an inherent characteristic of man. He adapts himself to everything, to the best and the worst.

The Artist is an artist in those moments when he ceases to take seriously the very serious person he is when he is not an artist.

Biography is a system in which the contradictions of a human life are unified.

Civilization is nothing more than the effort to reduce the use of force to the last resort.

The Classic is able to be saved only if we give up revering it and use it for our own salvation.

The Concept is, by its very nature, an exaggeration; an exaggeration which is at the very heart of thinking in that, by speaking, by thinking, we undertake to clarify things, and that forces us to exacerbate them, dislocate them, schematize them. Every concept is in itself an exaggeration.

A Conviction is firm in proportion to its level of being suspect.

Culture's initial act is the choice of a point of view.

The Cynic is a parasite of civilization who lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail.

Cynicism is a parasite of civilization. The cynic lives by denying civilization for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail.