“Surely I want to live, because life, taken as it is, without exaggeration or deception, is not as bad as some people say.”

Original: Seguramente que deseo vivir, porque la vida, tomándola tal como es, sin exageraciones ni engaños, no es tan mala como dicen algunos. — The remark expresses a modest, unsentimental affirmation of life as it actually is. · Letter III, Cartas desde mi celda (Spanish)

• Acceptance
• Contentment
• Life

“The one who has imagination, how easily they can draw a world out of nothing.”

Original: El que tiene imaginación, con qué facilidad saca de la nada un mundo. — A compact celebration of imagination as a creative power capable of transforming emptiness into an entire world. · Prose remark, commonly attributed (Spanish)

• Creation
• Creativity
• Imagination

“Before anything else, I have told you, I do not pretend to teach anyone or set myself up as an authority.”

Original: No importa. Yo no pretendo enseñar á nadie, ni erigirme en autoridad, ni hacer que mi libro se me declare de texto. — He resists turning personal literary convictions into rigid doctrine. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Authority
• Humility
• Literature