Today is the 100th birthday of Nicolás Gómez Dávila. If you don’t know his work, probably the best place to start is this page. If you don’t think you have time to take on a new author, you’re wrong: he wrote almost nothing except aphorisms - thousands of them, so you won’t run out any time soon, either. Here’s a personal favorite:

Sólo debemos leer para descubrir lo que debemos releer eternamente.

We ought to read only to discover what we ought to reread forever.

(Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 1.214)

Is Gómez Dávila worth rereading forever? You won’t know until you read some more, will you?

Tim was so learned, that he could name a Horse in nine Languages; So ignorant, that he bought a Cow to ride on.

(Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1750)

Proud Modern Learning despises the antient: School-men are now laught at by School-boys.

(Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1758)

He sido para mí, discípulo y maestro. Y he sido un buen discípulo, pero un mal maestro.

I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master.

(Antonio Porchia, Voices, tr. W. S. Merwin, 2003, pp. 86-7)

Oddly, though he provides the Spanish text on the left-hand pages and mentions the Buenos Aires editions of 1943 and 1966, Merwin never gives the Spanish title of the book. Was it perhaps Voces? Thanks to the web, that’s now an easy question to answer, and the answer is yes. There is a whole website devoted to Porchia’s work, with pictures of various editions and numerous quotations, apparently English only. Is the 3rd edition of Voces missing because a copy could not be located?

Les seules bonnes copies sont celles qui nous font voir le ridicule des méchants originaux.

The only good copies are those which show up the absurdity of bad originals.

(La Rochefoucauld, Maximes 133, translated by Leonard Tancock)

La plupart des jeunes gens croient être naturels, lorsqu’ils ne sont que mal polis et grossiers.

Most young people think they are being natural when really they are just ill-mannered and crude.

(La Rochefoucauld, Maximes 372, translated by Leonard Tancock)

If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.

(Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Aphorisms, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, C 54)

Here is the German:

Wenn mann nur einmal in der Welt anfangen wollte, das bloß Nötige zu tun, so müßten Millionen Hungers sterben.

(Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Sudelbücher, C 370)

El cinismo es una filosofía de adolescente inteligente.

Cynicism is a philosphy of the bright adolescent.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Notas, 393)

What snobbism — he wanted to be the Grand Eunuch.

(Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Unkempt Thoughts, tr. Jacek Galazka, New York, 1962, p. 153)

A sure sign of a good book is that the older we grow the more we like it. A youth of 18 who wanted and above all could say what he felt would say of Tacitus something like the following: Tacitus is a difficult writer who knows how to depict character: and sometimes gives excellent descriptions, but he affects obscurity and often introduces into the narration of events remarks that are not very illuminating; you have to know a lot of Latin to understand him. At 25 perhaps, assuming he has in the interim done more than read, he will say: Tacitus is not the obscure writer I once took him for, but I have discovered that Latin is not the only thing you need to know to understand him — you have to bring a great deal with you yourself. And at 40, when he has come to know the world, he may perhaps say: Tacitus is one of the greatest writers who ever lived.

(Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Aphorisms, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, E 43)

Lichtenberg was still in his early thirties when he wrote this. I take it that the 18-year-old cannot always say what he thinks because he is still in school. Here is the German:

Ein sicheres Zeichen von einem guten Buch ist, wenn es einem immer besser gefällt je älter man wird. Ein junger Mensch von 18, der sagen wollte, sagen dürfte und vornehmlich sagen könnte was er empfindet, wüde von Tacitus etwa folgendes Urteil fällen: Tacitus ist ein schwerer Schriftsteller, der gute Charaktere zeichnet und vortrefflich zuweilen malt, allein er affektiert Dunkelheit und kommt oft mit Anmerkungen in die Erzählung der Begebenheiten herein, die nicht viel erläutern, man muß viel Latein wissen um ihn zu verstehn. Im 25^ten vielleicht, vorausgesetzt, daß er mehr getan hat als gelesen, wird er sagen: Tacitus ist der dunkle Schriftsteller nicht für den ich ihn ehmals gehalten, ich finde aber, daß Latein nicht das einzige ist was man wissen muß um ihn zu verstehen, man muß sehr viel selbst mitbringen. Und im 40^ten, wenn er die Welt hat kennen lernen, wird er vielleicht sagen, Tacitus ist einer der ersten Schriftsteller, die je gelebt haben.

(Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Sudelbücher, E 197 — 2nd half)

The book which most deserved to be banned would be a catalogue of banned books.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Aphorisms (G 37 in R. J. Hollingdale’s translation and numeration)

The theory taught in graduate schools of modern literature is like mortadella: it’s expensive, imported, beautifully packaged, made with loving care by experts who have devoted their lives to their work and do it very well . . . but it’s still bologna.

El paganismo es el otro Antiguo Testamento de la Iglesia.

Paganism is the other Old Testament of the Church.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 1.206)

Las escuelas filosóficas fueron las órdenes monásticas de la antigüedad.
El pitagorismo, por ejemplo, se parece más a la reforma cluniacense que al idealismo alemán.

The philosophical schools were the monastic orders of antiquity.
Pythagoreanism, for example, has more resemblance to the Cluniac reform than to German idealism.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 1.218)

El léxico del verdadero escritor no está en ningún diccionario.

The lexicon of the true writer is not in any dictionary.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 1.137)

Hombre culto es aquel para quien nada carece de interés y casi todo de importancia.

An educated man is the one for whom nothing lacks interest and nearly everything lacks importance.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 1.399)

Existen normas del buen gusto, pero no podemos conocerlas.
Sólo podemos aplicarlas.

Standards of good taste exist, but we cannot know them.
We can only apply them.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 2.330)

As one of my teachers in college put it, “De gustibus non est disputandum does not mean that everyone’s taste is equal. It means that some people are wrong, and others are right, even if they can’t prove it.” This is a loose paraphrase of something said 30+ years ago, but the gist is accurate.

La “instrucción” es toxina letal para el espíritu.

“Education” is a lethal toxin for the soul.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 2.179)

El pueblo fue rico espiritualmente hasta que los semieducados resolvieron educarlo.

The People were spiritually rich until the half-educated decided to educate them.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 2.178)

El hombre actual no vive en el espacio y en el tiempo. Sino en la geometria y los cronómetros.

Modern man does not live in space and time. Rather in geometry and clocks.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 2.178)