The 70 best sentences of José Luis Sampedro
José Luis Sampedro (1917 - 2013) was a philosopher, economist and writer born in Barcelona. His humanist vision of social reality led him to become an intellectual reference point for the Spanish left.
His critique of the capitalist economy was based on the idea that this economic system dehumanizes and turns people into slaves of consumerism. Anarchist and militant of the left, his books explain critically what we can do in Western societies to improve our quality of life based on a more humane economic and social model.
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Phrases and reflections by José Luis Sampedro
Raised in Tangier, Morocco until he was thirteen, Sampedro's life was long but intense. Among the multiple recognitions that he obtained, he stands out the National Prize of the Spanish Letters, honor that was granted him in the year 2011.
In today's article we will know more deeply this humanist of the hand of the 70 best sentences of José Luis Sampedro .
1. They govern us through fear.
On the power's capacity to inculcate the fear of political and social change.
2. We are nature. Putting money as the supreme good leads us to catastrophe.
A society that only moves for money is a society with a corrupt ethic.
3. May 15 has to be something more than an oasis in the desert; It must be the beginning of an arduous struggle until we are effectively not being taken for "merchandise in the hands of politicians and bankers". Say "no" to financial tyranny and its devastating consequences.
About the 15-M movement and its objectives.
4. The Western life system is ending.
On the last throes that, in the opinion of José Luis Sampedro, is giving current capitalism.
5. The Hispanic religious cult has given way to a new faith, in which the priests emerge from an underground cavity and officiate with their feet.
A scathing and verse-like criticism of religion in Spain.
6. I have learned that buses from Barcelona will not be able to have publicity for condoms during the Pope's visit to Spain. Nor can love be made during the Pope's visit to Spain?
Another irony about the capacity of the Catholic Church to censor all kinds of expressions that do not agree with its doctrine.
7. When I say Humanity I exaggerate, because I believe that Humanity is not there; There are human beings. We have been two thousand years since Ancient Greece, it has progressed technically in a fabulous way, almost implausible, but we continue to kill each other, not knowing how to live together on this planet. The man has not matured enough.
A great reflection of Sampedro about the barbarity that wars suppose.
8. There are peripheral cultures where being something is more important than having something. While here you are not more than what you have and what you do not have is not.
On the egocentrism and the materialism of European society.
9. One writes based on being a miner of himself.
Interesting thinking about the expression of your own ideas.
10. What they call "Public Opinion" is a media opinion: an opinion created by education and by the media.
Difficult to have our own criteria in a society so mediated and in which education restricts us the range of possibilities to think and rethink our way of life.
11. Without freedom of thought, freedom of expression is useless.
In fact, they are two principles with a great connection.
12. Although the Vatican holds that chastity is the supreme value, in any case, it seems to me the greatest sexual aberration.
As animals that we are, we must be sexual, at least if we wish.
13. Capitalism is exhausted.
Another phrase of José Luis Sampedro in relation to the capitalist system.
14. It is amazing that Humanity still does not know how to live in peace, that words like 'competitiveness' are those that command words like 'coexistence'.
The law of the market makes us insensitive to others.
15. That people accept cuts and see them almost necessary is due to one of the most important forces that motivate man; the fear. Governing based on fear is very effective. If you threaten the people with whom you are going to cut their throats, and then do not kill them, but you explode them, you hook them to a car ... They will think; Well, at least he did not cut our throat.
The role of fear in the absence of social protests is absolutely fundamental.
16. From childhood we are taught; First to believe what the authorities tell us, the priests, the parents ... And then to reason about what we have believed. Freedom of thought is the other way around, the first thing is to reason and then we will believe what we think is right about what we reason.
A great way to indicate that the unlearning of the values and norms learned supposes a contranatura act.
17. There are two types of economists: those who work to make the rich richer and those who work to make the poor less poor.
One of the most remembered phrases of José Luis Sampedro.
18. In April 1939, I realized that they had not won mine. Neither one nor the other was mine.
It is strange, but Sampedró fought on the national side.
19. At nine years old I tried to be a Jesuit. At 19, an anarchist.
His change of mentality was radical.
20. We are in a crisis that I call barbarism, because it is a barbarism.
The economic crisis was devastating in Spain. Hence the comment of Sampedro.
21. The system is broken and lost, that's why you have a future.
Precisely because of the possibility of inaugurating a new time.
22. In your hunger you send.
To reflect.
23. We would have to be annoyed 1,000 times more.
Of course, the political situation in Spain is to be angry with the system.
24. Letting go is: while the river of humanity continues historically ahead, I sit in the gutter and watch them go by. Because I do not need addictions, I am left with everything that humanity has done up to now, for many years.
A praiseworthy philosophical attitude.
25. Austerity is very sad when they impose it on us, but it does not cost any work when you have it.
A great qualification on the concept of austerity, so badly used by economic forces.
26. We are living a tragic moment. The current minister is a threat to Spanish education. He is a man whose politics must be defined as "Counter-Reformation". In the history of Spain there is a moment in the sixteenth century, when Protestants, Luther and others, start in Europe, establishing the Counter-Reformation, as opposition to the advance. Wert represents the Counter-Reformation and with it it is not possible to form free citizens.
About Juan Ignacio Wert, Minister of Culture of the Partido Popular.
27. I do not say that the past is the best. I say that capitalism at the time was nascent, but now it is unsustainable. The best definition of its decadence was given by Bush. He said: "I have suspended the rules of the market to save the market." That is, the market is incompatible with its own rules.
Lethal conclusion about the exhaustion of the system.
28. What has impressed me the most in this twentieth century that ends is human stupidity and brutality.
A century plagued by bad times.
29. Europe is like a boss who never gets on the phone.
It is there, but it never resolves conflicts when they arise.
30. I always have an open notebook, where I write down what I'm thinking, but I do not do it every day. Not every day there are things worthy of being recorded. If you force that task and do it daily, you expose yourself to writing texts that are not important.
On the art of prioritizing truly relevant ideas or events.
31. After this crisis, the near future will be another crisis.
This is the logic of the current market.
32. I'm not interested in happiness and I do not think it depends on more or less intelligence. But of course not demanding too much makes it easier to get along with oneself, which is my substitute for happiness.
An austere life is the best potion to be happy.
33. Are people crazy? No, people are manipulated.
We let ourselves be influenced too easily.
34. [The Republic] infected hope, illusion (except for those who wanted undue privileges), and I experienced it as natural. That's why Francoism was so unnatural, antihuman! [In the war] the north fell in 1937 ... and I was mobilized as a Francoist soldier: seeing bishops blessing cannons convinced me that this side defended privileges and pesetas. (About the Civil War).
Speaking about the first half of the 20th century in Spain.
35. This world is betraying life.
One of those phrases of José Luis Sampedro as raw as authentic.
36. The day you are born, you begin to die a little. We are used to seeing death as something negative, and I am so close that I can not stop thinking about this matter. but I think with vital joy. What they do not teach us is that the day one is born, one begins to die, and death accompanies us every day.
About death and how we perceive it in our society.
37. Do we have a lot of free time to live, or do we constantly ask that we live? We have not learned to live!
Sampedro is pessimistic about how we face existence.
38. Freedom is like a comet. Fly because it is tied.
A paradox that other authors have already explained previously.
39. Because it is bottoming, even in bitterness and degradation, where one comes to know who he is. and where then begins to stand firm.
When we have a strong shock is when we understand where we are and where we can go.
40. The system has organized a casino so that they always win the same.
A metaphor about the market system.
41. They educate us to be producers and consumers, not to be free men.
A direct criticism of the educational system of our time.
42. We are at a time when many problems are being discussed. For the most serious today is the Ministry of Education. With their cuts and insensitivity deprived children are deprived of opportunities, hours of study, classes, classrooms and support teachers. The intelligence of these children is being castrated by closing the doors for the future while religious education is favored with lay money.
Criticizing specifically the educational system of Spain.
43. You can only educate if you have well-disposed resources in a good educational system.
Another phrase giving importance to the education of each country.
44. We should live as many times as the trees, which after a bad year throw new leaves and start again.
Getting rid of vices should be as easy as shedding dry leaves.
45. Getting a free mind in today's society is difficult because democracy is perverted and kidnapped.
The media are good to blame for this.
46. In a sudden impulse they embraced, embraced, embraced. Putting each one in his chest the other until kissing with hearts. They felt beating, they let go and, without another word, the old man climbed into the car. The two eyes still embraced, through the glass, while Renato started.
A fragment of "The Etruscan smile".
47. How could I believe in sin, an idea so a daughter of pride? If God is the creator of the entire Universe, can he be offended by a bug that went wrong and scratches the surface of a small planet? It is necessary to have an exaggerated idea of what man is to believe him capable of offending an infinite creator.
Another highlighted fragment.
48. Man is the measure of all things, as the classical philosopher said. But now the mania is to forget him, to bury him under an avalanche of things. You must travel with the Kodak, because it is about the camera seeing; gets sick of failure if you do not have papers in the bank or impressive car; lives are exhausted in accumulating titles, pesetas, ribbons, chirimbolos, quotes in newspapers ... As if the essential thing was not just the opposite: to surround things of man!
Philosophical reflection on the prevailing narcissism in the 21st century.
49. In the old man's sleepy lips, a smile has landed, like a butterfly: the idea that fluttered in his heart when the dream enveloped him: Great, life!
Vitalist thought of the great Sampedro.
50. I'm not interested in happiness. It is enough for me to be good with myself.
A certain resignation is the key to being happy and not worrying too much.
51. The current system is dominated by three other magic words: Productivity, competitiveness and innovation, which should be replaced by sharing, cooperation and recreation.
Three key points to change and improve our societies.
52. Even if you lie to me, tell me you love me. I repeated it to him, and many sweet things ... (...) Surely he was happy, yes, surely ... It was nice, you know ?; making happy is nice ...
A fragment in which Sampedro talks about love.
53. Time is invincible because he destroys himself at every moment.
Great thought about time and its essence.
54. You can always, when you want.
If you want you can. If you do not want, you look for excuses.
55. The child is always looking. Then, if he does not feel wanted, he will necessarily think that the world fails and rejects him.
About the attention that children deserve.
56. What does my closed mouth matter, when you think with the soul they hear you!
Everything is transmitted even if we do not want to.
57. Remember well what I tell you, child; Do not forget: women will always surprise you. You think you already know the whole deck, from the queen to the jack, and you get a new card.
About women and their amazing behaviors.
58. Much is said about the right to life, but not about how important it is to live it.
Turn of the nut to the question of abortion.
59. My pedagogy was always reduced to two words: love and provocation.
A way to synthesize their pedagogical approaches.
60. It is necessary to create a more humane, more supportive economy, capable of contributing to the development of the dignity of peoples.
On the urgent need to improve the economy.
61. Public opinion is influenced by the media and the media are in the hands of those who rule and those who rule favor those who say what is convenient for them and erase everything that does not suit them. So public opinion is, above all, media opinion.
Another sentence by José Luis Sampedro criticizes the work of the media.
62. Life is a difficult navigation without a good compass.
We all need to have a north from which to guide us.
63. To the powerful, the more concessions are made to them, the more they demand, they are insatiable.
That is why it is convenient to have strong and resistant counterpowers.
64. Democracy is not the government of the people anywhere. What is voted? What make us vote
Unfortunately, the people vote without knowing why or for what.
65. ... In these times it is easier to divulge immorality than decency.
Ethics has been lost along the way.
66. The definitive step is already taken, the memory ceases to be nostalgia for liberation ...
Time heals everything.
67. I never intended to make history, but rather to understand love and power, those two great passions of all times.
Its two main intellectual objectives.
68. The key is the inner development of each one, and not the outside.
On personal development, key to a harmonious life.
69. Time is not gold; Time is life.
Motivating and vitalist phrase of the great Sampedro.
70. Because only you have the wings for the flight that kills and gives life.
A great poetic phrase that should make us reflect.
