And yet, and yet… Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are apparent desperations and secret consolations. Our destiny … is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges. Jorge Luis Borges
About This Quote

This is one of my favorite quotes. It is by the famous Latin American writer Jorge Luis Borges. He tells us that the world is not frightening because it is unreal, but because it is real and irreversible. We are all swept along in time, but we are also the time itself. Our lives will change over time, but we will live on through time.

Source: Labyrinths: Selected Stories And Other Writings

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More Quotes By Jorge Luis Borges
  1. Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.

  2. I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.

  3. You have wakened not out of sleep, but into a prior dream, and that dream lies within another, and so on, to infinity, which is the number of grains of sand. The path that you are to take is endless, and you will die before...

  4. Whatever one man does, it is as if all men did it. For that reason, it is not unfair that one disobedience in a garden should contaminate all humanity; for that reason it is not unjust that the crucifixion of a single Jew should be...

  5. Let not the rash marble riskgarrulous breaches of oblivion's omnipotence, in many words recallingname, renown, events, birthplace. All those glass jewels are best left in the dark. Let not the marble say what men do not. The essentials of the dead man's life--the trembling hope,...

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