“To write poems in order to justify an aesthetic theory, however good it may be, is completely absurd and monstrous.”

Original: Escribir poemas para justificar una teoría estética, por buena que sea, es completamente absurdo y monstruoso. — Insisting that poems should not be manufactured merely to prove theories · Article, Los jóvenes del Ultra, 1919 (Spanish)

• Creativity
• Criticism
• Poetry

“Never had people written worse in Spain than they did ten years ago.”

Original: Nunca se había escrito peor en España que hace diez años. — A deliberately severe judgement on the literary style preceding modernism · Survey on Modernism, El Nuevo Mercurio, 1907 (Spanish)

• Criticism
• Literature
• Style

“I call my verses only semi-poetry, and my realities, subject to the laws of ordinary mortal life, I dare call nothing more than possibility.”

Original: Yo no llamo a mis versos sino semi-poesía, y a mis realidades, que obedecen a la ley de vida de los simples mortales, no oso llamar otra cosa que posibilidad. — Characterising his work with modesty and an awareness of human limitation · Academy address, Semi-poesía y posibilidad, 1938 (Spanish)

• Humility
• Life
• Poetry