Manuel González Prada
.jpg)
Jose Manuel de los Reyes González de Prada y Ulloa (Lima, 5 January 1844 – Lima, 22 July 1918) was a Peruvian politician and anarchist, literary critic and director of the National Library of Peru.
Quotes
[edit]Speeches
[edit]Conference at the Lima Athenaeum (1886)
[edit]The following quotes were made at the Conference at the Lima Athenaeum in 1886:
- Imitar equivale a moverse i fatigarse en el wagón de un ferrocarril: nos imajinamos realizar mucho i no hacemos más que seguir el impulso del motor.
- To imitate is akin to moving and tiring oneself in a railway carriage: we imagine accomplishing much, yet we do nothing more than follow the impulse of the engine
- El hombre anda con pasos cortos en la infancia i en la vejez.
- Man walks with small steps in infancy and in old age.
- la forma da el mérito; n'olvidemos que sólo por la forma, el carbono se llama unas veces carbón i otras veces diamante
- form is the merit; let us not forget that only by its form, carbon is sometimes called coal and other times diamond
- Si las naciones d'Europa figuran como los grandes paquidermos del reino intelectual, no representemos en el Perú a los microbios de la literatura.
- If the nations of Europe appear like large pachyderms of the intellectual kingdom, let us not represent in Peru the microbes of literature.
- Lo que poco cuesta, poco dura. Los libros que admiran i deleitan a la Humanidad, fueron pensados i escritos en largas horas de soledad i recojimiento, costaron a sus autores el hierro de la sangre i el fósforo del cerebro.
- That which costs little, lasts little. The books that Humanity admires and delights, they were thought and written in long hours of solitude and seclusion, costing their authors the iron of their blood and the phosphorus of their brain.
- Quien escribe hoi i desea vivir mañana, debe pertenecer al día, a la hora, al momento en que maneja la pluma. Si un autor sale de su tiempo, ha de ser par'adivinar las cosas futuras, no para desenterrar ideas i palabras muertas.
- Whoever writes today and desires to live tomorrow, they must belong to the day, to the hour, to the moment in which they wield the pen. If an author is ahead of their time, it must be for foreseeing the future, not for unearthing dead ideas and words.
- Si hay placer en conquistar con la espada, no falta dulzura en iluminar con l'antorcha. Gloria por gloria, vale más dejar chispas de luz que regueros de sangre.
- If there is pleasure in conquest with the sword, it is no less sweet illuminating with the torch. Glory for glory, it is better to leave sparks of light than trails of blood.
- La intelijencia no tiene por qué abdicar ante la fuerza; por el contrario, la voz del hombre razonable i culto debe ser un correctivo a la obra perniciosa de cerebros rudimentarios.
- Intelligence does not need to abdicate before force; on the contrary, the voice of reasonable and cultured men must be a corrective to the pernicious work of rudimentary minds.
- No arguyan con obstáculos insuperables: el hombre de talento sólido, como el César de buena raza, atraviesa el Rubicón.
- Do not argue with insurmountable obstacles: the man of solid talent, like a well-bred Cesar, crosses the Rubicon.
Speech at the Exhibition Palace (1887)
[edit]
The following quotes were made during the Speech at the Exhibition Palace in 1887:
- La Ciencia tiene flores inmortales de donde pueden las abejas estraer miel de poesía.
- Science has immortal flowers from where bees can extract honey of poetry.
- En oposición a los políticos que nos cubrieron de vergüenza y oprobio se levantan los literatos que prometen lustre y nombradía. Después de los bárbaros que hirieron con la espada vienen los hombres cultos que desean civilizar con la pluma.
- In opposition to the politicians who covered us in shame and opprobrium, the men of letters rise up, who promise luster and renown. After the barbarians who wounded with the sword come the cultured men who desire to civilize with the pen.
Speech at the Olympic Theater (1888)
[edit]The following quotes were made during the Speech at the Olympic Theater in 1888:
- nuestro poder estriba en la unión: todos los rayos del Sol, difundidos en la superficie de la Tierra, no bastan a inflamar un solo grano de pólvora, mientras unos cuantos haces de luz solar, reunidos en un espejo ustorio, prenden la mina que hace volar al monte de granito.
- our power lies in union: all of the rays of the Sun, diffused across the surface of the Earth, are not enough to inflame a single grain of gunpowder, while having some solar rays, gathered in a burning mirror, detonates the mine that blows up the mountain.
The Intellectual and the Worker (1905)
[edit]
The following quotes were made during a speech titled The Intellectual and the Worker, read on 1 May 1905 to the Federation of Bakery Workers of Peru:
- Las revoluciones vienen de arriba y se operan desde abajo. Iluminados por la luz de la superficie, los oprimidos del fondo ven la justicia y se lanzan a conquistarla, sin detenerse en los medios ni arredrarse con los resultados. Mientras los moderados y los teóricos se imaginan evoluciones geométricas o se enredan en menudencias y detalles de forma, la multitud simplifica las cuestiones, las baja de las alturas nebulosas y las confina en terreno práctico. Sigue el ejemplo de Alejandro: no desata el nudo, le corta de un sablazo.
- Revolutions come from above, but are carried out from below. Illuminated by the light on the surface, the oppressed in the depths see justice and thrust forward to conquer it, without regarding the means nor fearing the consequences. While the moderates and theorists imagine geometric evolutions or get entangled in trifles and formalities, the masses simplify matters, taking them down from the nebulous heights and confining them to earthly reality. They follow the example of Alexander; they do not untie the knot, they sever it with a single stroke of the saber.
Publications
[edit]Propaganda y ataque (1902)
[edit]- El hombre no disfruta de los derechos que otros le conceden por la razón, sino de los que él mismo se conquista por la fuerza. Toda libertad nació bañada en sangre, y el advenimiento de la justicia debe compararse con un alumbramiento desgarrador y tempestuoso, no con una germinación tranquila y silenciosa. No aguardamos a que de arriba nos otorguen derechos ni libertades. Del que manda, nunca vino cosa buena ni gratuita, y las naciones que se adormecen confiadas en que la Autoridad se acerque a despertarlas con el don de la independencia son como los insensatos que en el desierto edificaran una ciudad, aguardando que un río viniese a cruzarla por el medio.
- Man does not enjoy the rights that others grant him through reason, but rather those he himself conquers by force. All liberty was born bathed in blood, and the advent of justice must be compared to a harrowing and tempestuous birth, not to a tranquil and silent germination. We do not wait on those above us to bestow rights or liberties. From those who rule, nothing good or gratuitous has ever come; and nations that slumber, confident that Authority will approach to awaken them with the gift of independence are like fools who would build a city in the desert expecting a river to cross through the middle of it.
- Propaganda y ataque, (Lima, 1902)
Anarquía (1936)
[edit]- Dada la inclinación general de los hombres al abuso del poder, todo gobierno es malo y toda autoridad quiere decir tiranía
- Given the general inclination of man to abuse power, all government is evil and all authority means tyranny.
- Anarquía (posthumous, Santiago de Chile, 1936)
Quotes about Manuel González Prada
[edit]- Para Manuel González Prada, esta emoción bravía y selecta, una de las que, con más entusiasmo, me ha aplaudido el gran maestro.
- For Manuel González Prada— this wild and refined emotion, one of those that, with great enthusiasm, the grand master has applauded me with.
- César Vallejo in his dedication of his poem Los dados eternos to González Prada in 1918.
