quote · Words worth keeping
I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, each word in the right style, was not the well-deserved reward of an ordered mind but just the opposite: a complete system of pretense invented by me to hide the disorder of my nature. I discovered that I am not disciplined out of virtue but as a reaction to my negligence, that I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness, that I pass myself off as prudent because I am evil-minded, that I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage, that I am punctual only to hide how little I care about other people’s time. I learned, in short, that love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac.
I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, each word in the right style, was not the well-deserved reward of an ordered mind but just the opposite: a complete system of pretense invented by me to hide the disorder of my nature. I discovered that I am not disciplined out of virtue but as a reaction to my negligence, that I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness, that I pass myself off as prudent because I am evil-minded, that I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage, that I am punctual only to hide how little I care about other people’s time. I learned, in short, that love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac.
Approximate author period: c. 1970 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Gabriel García Márquez
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1970 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1927 to 2014; Wikidata Q5878, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5878 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 197726; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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