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70 phrases by Antonio Machado: a unique philosophy of life

70 phrases by Antonio Machado: a unique philosophy of life

April 17, 2024

The thoughts and phrases of Antonio Machado have remained a legacy for humanity . This Spanish playwright and poet, member of the literary movement called the generation of 98, started in the modernist current and later transformed into a lyric with symbolic and philosophical content. His works are among the most important in literature in Spanish, and seeing the author's clarity of thought, it is easy to guess why.

Among his writings are Soledades, Campos de Castilla and Nuevas Canciones, and in these books, as in the rest of his works, there are nuances full of humanistic reflections and a remarkable civic commitment. The phrases of Antonio Machado reflect a patriotic feeling of a country in crisis and human commitment.


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The most remembered phrases of Antonio Machado

To know the thoughts of this poet and playwright, we have prepared a compilation of the best phrases of Antonio Machado on various aspects of his life.

1. In the heart I had the thorn of a passion. I managed to tear it off one day: I no longer feel my heart

A way to explain the emptiness and suffering after a love break.

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2. To talk, ask first; after ... listen

This sentence talks about the importance of listening to understand us and communicate in some way.


3. Everything that is ignored is despised

One of the phrases of Antonio machado that pull us when you do not know the value of something you reject.

4. I have my friends in my solitude, when I am with them, how far they are

Machado in this sentence, speaks of loneliness in the company.

5. Every fool confuses value and price

There are things that have a type of value can not be purchased.

6. Unwind and good lyrics, that doing things well, matters more than doing them

Emphasizing that time and dedication is what matters.

7. Learn to doubt and you will end up doubting your own doubt; in this way God rewards the skeptic and the believer

Let doubt not separate us from the path of curiosity.

8. If it is good to live, it is still better to dream, and best of all, to wake up

The desire to achieve and imagine something superior without leaving reality aside.


9. Today is always still

Of all the phrases of Antonio Machado, this one in particular talks to us about hope .

10. Benevolence does not mean tolerance of the mean, or conformity with the inept, but good will

This phrase explains that goodwill is what should prevail.

11. Men of Spain, neither the past has died nor is there tomorrow, nor yesterday, written

Machado shows hope in the political situation that his country was experiencing at that time.

12. Pay attention: a lonely heart is not a heart

In a way we all need someone's company.

13. The truth is what it is, and it remains true even if you think backwards

Machado dedicated many writings to address the concept of truth.

14. There are two kinds of men: those who live talking about the virtues and those who just have them

It is better to make our virtues known through our actions.

15. They say that man is not a man while he does not hear his name from a woman's lips

In this sentence Machado exposes sensuality and romanticism.

16. Death is something we should not fear because, while we are, death is not and when death is, we are not

That constant fear of death does not block us from the experience of living our reality.

17. After the truth, nothing is as beautiful as fiction

Another phrase where Machado addresses the issue of truth by comparing it with that magical realism that he captured in his writings.

18. Help me understand what I say and I'll explain it better

The importance of cooperative learning and observe from the look of the other.

19. It is typical of men with medium heads to attack against everything that does not fit in the head

Reject something that is difficult to understand.

20. In Spain, of every ten heads, nine strike and one thinks

Machado in this sentence, returns to show his position before the political situation of the country.

21. In politics, only those who put the candle where the air blows prevail; never who tries to blow the air where he puts the candle

In politics doing things the right way leads to success.

22. Walker there is no road, the road is made by walking

One of the most famous phrases of Antonio Machado that tells us to move forward following our own compass and building our own route.

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23. As much as a man is worth, he will never have a higher value than being a man

He mentions the value of the person in himself, above his social, economic, racial and cultural condition.

24The concepts belong to everyone and are imposed on us from the outside; the intuitions are always ours

Sometimes following the opinions of others takes us away from ourselves.

25. Your truth? no, the truth and come with me to look for it. Yours, keep it

The importance of making prevail between our opinion and that of the other.

26. Without time, that invention of Satan, the world would lose the anguish of hope and the consolation of hope

The appreciation of the passage of time, is always personal.

27. Did you say half truth? They will say you lie twice if you say the other half

In this reflection, Machado refers once again to the concept of honesty , focusing on the use of half truths.

28. Flee from stages, pulpits, platforms and pedestals. Never lose contact with the ground; because only then will you have an approximate idea of ​​your stature

Being in touch with that reality that allows us to see who we are clearly.

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29. Our hours are minutes when we expect to know, and centuries when we know what can be learned

Machado in this phrase, returns to touch the subject of time as a particular experience from different perspectives.

30. In matters of culture and knowledge, only what is saved is lost, only what is given is earned

Machado's position on culture and education is that you can make progress when we decide to share them.

31. Worse than seeing the black reality, it is not seeing it

When we decide to remain passive in the face of an unpleasant situation.

32. Blessed is he who forgets the reason for the trip and, in the star, in the flower, in the clouds, he leaves his soul on

Phrase on the importance of living the process and the learning it generates.

33. To judge or to correct us supposes to apply the measurement other people's own cloth

Avoid disqualifying yourself with unnecessary comparisons.

34. Man is by nature the paradoxical beast, an absurd animal that needs logic

This phrase tells us about the importance of the use of logic.

35. Of every ten heads, nine strike and one thinks

The author emphasizes again the importance of the use of reason.

36. Nothing worth the fruit caught without seasoning ... Even if you praise a brute must be right

Things must be spontaneous if they do not lose their essence.

37. I despise the romances of the hollow tenors and the chorus of crickets that sing to the moon. To distinguish I stop the voices of the echoes, and I listen only, between the voices, a

This phrase reflects the author's relationship with his poetry.

38. You say that nothing is created? Potter, your pots. Make your drink and do not mind if you can not make mud

On the attitude of creating something own and original.

39. Do not trust the words: In this life you will find many people who live badly and speak well.

We must filter the criticisms and messages that come from outside.

40. The eyes because you sigh, I know well, the eyes you look at are eyes because they see you

It is clear from this phrase of Antonio Machado that in our eyes we can project what we feel.

41. Whenever I deal with men from the countryside, I think about how much they know and we ignore, and how little it matters to them to know what we know.

In this sentence we can see the position that the author had regarding the right to share knowledge and education.

42. In my solitude I have seen very clear things that are not true

In a space of intimacy one can reflect on aspects that are lived as real and turn out to be not true.

43. In asking what you know, the time you do not have to lose ... And to unanswered questions, who can answer you?

We do not have to put a lot of energy into things that we have no control over.

44. No one should be afraid of what he thinks, although his thinking appears to be in conflict with the most elementary laws of logic.

This phrase encourages spontaneity and recognition of one's own. One of the phrases of Antonio Machado of moral character.

45. Our Spanish yawns

Regarding the crisis that lived the Spanish people for the political situation in the country.

46. ​​In the despair and in the melancholy of your memory, soria, my heart wakes up

The pessimistic attitude of the author, before the political situation of his country at that time.

47. Nobody knows what is already known, even though we all know that there is someone who knows everything

This phrase talks about the way they approached knowledge in those times.

48. The hand of the pious always takes away honor; but never offends when giving us his hand the luchador

Machado somehow wanted to expose the position of man against the authority of the powerful.

49. Posts to choose between the truth and the pleasure of looking for it, we would choose the second

Machado exposing the fragility of the human being.

50. Joy consists in having health and an empty head

Joy as a result of physical well-being and free of thoughts that bind.

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51. The lack of vices adds very little to virtue

From time to time, certain habits that give us experience come well.

52. But look in your mirror for the other

The link with another human being is projection.

53Our hours are minutes when we expect to know, and centuries when we know what can be learned

On the relativity of time. When a situation exceeds the threshold of our attention, time feels shorter.

54. Currency that is in the hand, maybe it should be saved. The monedita of the soul is lost if it is not given

There are spaces that only correspond to our privacy and others that only make sense if they are shared.

55. One of the most effective remedies so that things never change inside is to constantly renew them from the outside

Recognize that the environment has an impact on our interior.

56. Of what men call virtue, justice and goodness, one half is envy, and the other is not charity

Again Machado exposing in this sentence hypocrisy and falsehood in the human being .

57. In the psychological analysis of the great betrayals you will always find the mentecatez of Judas Iscariot

The little judgment to make decisions that decant into treachery.

58. Light of the soul, divine light, lighthouse, torch, star, sun ... A man groping walks; carries a bluff on his back

This phrase talks about the weight of knowledge.

59. Those who are always back of everything are the ones who have never gone anywhere

Undertaking a path to contact with various situations that only when you return from these, you get the experience of what happened.

60. Virtue is the joy that soothes the deepest heart and unchains the cathoon frown

Once again the physical well-being is added by adding the emotional one.

61. In case of life or death you should be with your neighbor

On the importance of affective bonds and how they nourish us.

62. I converse with the man who always goes with me. Who speaks alone, expects to speak with God one day

Machado manages to describe part of his personality in this sentence.

63. The richest area of ​​our souls, of course the most extensive, is that which is usually forbidden to knowledge by our own love

Open ourselves to the unknown leaving behind fears, prejudices and selfishness.

64. The cinema ... that invention of the devil

For Machado, the cinema was a tool of mental control by the dictatorial government .

65. Spanishito you come to the world God keep you, one of the two Spains has to freeze your heart

This phrase reflects the pessimistic atmosphere and the despair before the problems of polarization in Spain.

66. I have seen fierce claws in the polished hands; I know marionic and lyrical rooks marranos ... The most trickster takes the hand to the heart, and the thickest brute is loaded with reason

The human being when he contrasts his polarities.

67. Everything happens and everything remains, but our thing is to pass, to spend doing roads, paths on the sea

Machado exposes the passage of time and the traces left by each experience.

68. It is the best of the good who knows that in this life everything is matter of measure: a little more, something less ...

Give the adequate energy to each situation as required.

69. The good is the one who guards, as a sale of the road, for the thirsty the water, for the drunkard the wine

An invitation to wait, because for each thing there is the right time.

70. When we saw each other for the first time, we did nothing but remind ourselves. Although it seems absurd, I cried when I was aware of my love for you, for not having loved you all my life

Machado in this sentence shows us the contradictions of love.


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