“The one who feels seizes an idea, clothes it in a form, casts it into the realm of knowledge, and passes on.”

Original: El que la siente se apodera de una idea, la envuelve en una forma, la arroja en el estadio del saber y pasa. — The poet transforms an inward perception into artistic form without claiming to explain it completely. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Creation
• Expression
• Poetry

“I know nothing, I have studied nothing; I have read a little, felt quite a lot and thought a great deal, though I cannot say whether well or badly.”

Original: Yo nada sé, nada he estudiado; he leído un poco, he sentido bastante y he pensado mucho, aunque no acertaré á decir si bien ó mal. — His deliberately self-deprecating admission places lived experience and reflection above academic authority. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Experience
• Humility
• Thought

“You need only feel and think in order to understand me.”

Original: Como sólo de lo que he sentido y he pensado he de hablarte, te bastará sentir y pensar para comprenderme. — Understanding literature, in Bécquer's view, depends on shared human experience as much as intellectual analysis. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Feeling
• Thought
• Understanding