Jorge Luis Borges

Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator (1899–1986)

Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986) was an Argentine writer. He was best known in the English-speaking world for his short stories and fictive essays. Borges was also a poet, critic, translator and man of wisdom.

Jorge Luis Borges
Borges in the Hotel Beaux, Paris, 1968
Borges in the Hotel Beaux, Paris, 1968
Born(1899-08-24)August 24, 1899
Buenos Aires, Argentina
DiedJune 14, 1986(1986-06-14) (aged 86)
Geneva, Switzerland
Occupationwriter, poet, critic, librarian

He was influenced by authors such as Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, Franz Kafka, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Schopenhauer and G. K. Chesterton.

Quotations change

  • "The earth we inhabit is an error, an incompetent parody. Mirrors and paternity are abominable because they multiply and affirm it." — (dogma of a fictional religion in "Hakim, the masked dyer of Merv". Part of this quote is also attributed to a heresiarch of Uqbar in "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius".)
  • "The central fact of my life has been the existence of words and the possibility of weaving those words into poetry."
  • "I do not write for a select minority, which means nothing to me, nor for that adulated platonic entity known as 'The Masses'. Both abstractions, so dear to the demagogue, I disbelieve in. I write for myself and for my friends, and I write to ease the passing of time." — Introduction to The Book of Sand
  • "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."

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