Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is … - Octavio Paz

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Modern building has become so universally conditioned by optimized technology that the possibility of creating significant urban form has become extremely limited.

Octavio Paz

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature - if that word can be used in reference to man, who has ‘invented’ himself by saying ‘no’ to nature - consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude.

Communion, Facts, Knows, Men, Profoundest, Solitude

Same Author Quotes

The Mexican. . . is familiar with death. [He] jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love.

Jokes, Mexican, Sleep, Steadfast, Toys

What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and pecularities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life

Civilization, Death, Differences, Interplay, Uniformity, Views

Believing ourselves to be possessors of absolute truth degrades us: we regard every person whose way of thinking is different from ours as a monster and a threat and by so doing turn our own selves into monsters and threats to our fellows.

Absolute, Believe, Monster, Thinking, Threat, Truth

Beyond myself, somewhere, I wait for my arrival.

Arrival, Arrivals, Wait, Waiting

The supreme value is not the future but the present. The future is a deceitful time that always says to us, 'Not Yet,' and thus denies us. . . Whoever builds a house for future happiness builds a prison for the present.

Future, Future Happiness, House, Present, Prison, Value