The 65 Best Phrases Of Eduardo Galeano, An Unforgettable Writer
Through the different literary genres, human beings are capable of developing, collecting and transmitting their thoughts, knowledge, opinions and beliefs or those of their environment or culture, or of giving free rein to their creativity and emotions.
Literature is one of the arts, with exponents in all cultures. One of the most representative authors of Latin America has been Eduardo Galeano writer and journalist whose works revolve around various topics, largely linked to the history and tradition of his culture.
Throughout his writings, this author has left interesting reflections on multiple topics, which is why in this article we present various phrases by Eduardo Galeano, the legendary Uruguayan writer.
1. There are those who believe that destiny rests at the knees of the gods, but the truth is that it works, like a burning challenge, on the consciences of men
Our future depends above all on our efforts, not on chance or divine intervention.
2. At the end of the day, we are what we do to change who we are
It is our efforts, our actions, that define us.
3. Each person shines with their own light among all the others. There are not two equal fires. There are big fires and small fires and fires of all colors
This phrase reflects that we are all unique and different, with different ways of seeing reality.
4. There is a single place where yesterday and today meet and recognize and embrace each other. That place is tomorrow
The present will end up being the past, just as the future will become the present, with the passage of time.
5. Cult is not one who reads books. Cult is one who is able to listen to the other
Sometimes the mistake is made of thinking that the cultured person is the one who reads or studies. In reality it requires understanding of the world and what surrounds us.
6. Only fools believe that silence is a void. It is never empty. And sometimes keeping quiet is the best way to communicate
Silence, although it may seem like the absence of communication, communicates much more than it seems. What we remain silent and do not say also reflects a lot of information.
7. Many small people, in their small places, doing small things, can change the world
No matter how little what we do may seem, it all adds up to changing things.
8. Charity is humiliating because it is exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect
Being supportive means helping others, considering them an equal. Giving charity is looking at him from above, with compassion.
10. I hope we can have the courage to be alone and the courage to risk being together
This phrase expresses the need to have courage to risk both having a relationship and fighting for it and being able to be alone.
11. He who is not imprisoned by necessity is imprisoned by fear: some do not sleep because of the anxiety of having the things they do not have, and others do not sleep because of the panic of losing the things they have.
Nowadays, our consumer culture drives us to constantly acquire and maintain goods and services, which can reach obsessive levels.
12. The nascent cybercommunity finds refuge in virtual reality, while cities tend to become immense deserts full of people, where everyone watches over their saint and everyone is in their own bubble
Nowadays we can see how people are increasingly isolated in their own world, or on networks, without paying attention to what is happening in real life.
13. Violence begets violence, as is known; but it also generates profits for the violence industry, which sells it as a spectacle and turns it into an object of consumption
Violence is often used as an object and spectacle.
14. Utopia is on the horizon. I walk two steps, she takes two steps away. I walk ten steps and the horizon moves ten steps further. No matter how much I walk, I will never reach it. So, for what does the utophy works? For that, it is useful for walking
Although utopias and perfection are unattainable, they drive us to fight and try to achieve them, to develop and grow.
15. Don’t you have enemies? How not? Did you never tell the truth, nor did you ever love justice?
We all have enemies, since what we believe and defend, what we do, say or even think is not going to please everyone and there will be positions opposed to it.
16. To not be mute, we must start by not being deaf
In order to be free and express ourselves, we must start by stopping ignoring others. We cannot simply ignore what is happening around us.
17. I like thoughtful people, who do not separate reason from the heart. That feels and thinks at the same time. Without divorcing the head from the body, nor emotion from reason
We can often find people who only follow reason or emotion. But it is possible to pay attention to both. This is what leads us to be happy: to be who we are, complete and integrated beings.
18. Free are those who create, not those who copy, and free are those who think, not those who obey
This phrase aims to stimulate critical thinking and creativity instead of simply following what is imposed and conforming.
19. The devil has a large wardrobe and not only wears red
There is no bad “them”. We can find people of all kinds everywhere. Cruelty and hatred can appear in any person regardless of their type of ideology.
20. Motorists are afraid to walk and pedestrians are afraid of being hit.
This phrase reflects that we fear what we consider opposite to what we do or live, or simply what we do not know.
21. I believe that we were born children of the days, because each day has a story and we are the stories we live
Every day of our lives, we live new and different experiences that help us form and develop.
22. If I fell it’s because I was walking. And walk worth, although you fall
This phrase pushes us to move forward, making it worth moving forward and persisting in our search for a future.
23. The moral code of the end of the millennium does not condemn injustice, but failure
Often what is socially criticized is failure to achieve objectives, sometimes regardless of the fact that failure means the use of unfair methods that harm others.
24. In a world of plastic and noise, I want to be made of mud and silence
Today’s society is based on the superficial, on appearances, on coldness and on excessive individuality that leads to isolation.
25. Teaching is teaching to doubt
It is necessary that we be able to be critical of what is proposed to us. We need to learn to think for ourselves and be able to make our own judgments about reality.
26. As you see, I am screwed to love. I know it’s not enough. There are many of us who walk around with damaged affection, but we have to have courage to bring it out from within, damage and all.
Even if we have been hurt, we must be able to overcome it and give the best of ourselves.
27. The first condition to modify reality is to know it
Again, this phrase encourages us to pay attention to what surrounds us and take an interest in it if we want to be able to modify the world.
28. We live in a world where the funeral matters more than the dead, the wedding more than love and the physical more than the intellect. We live in the container culture, which despises the content.
We rely a lot on appearances, ignoring what is hidden underneath. This is true of most things, including personal relationships.
29. And today, more than ever, it is necessary to dream. Dream, together, dreams that undream and in mortal matter embody
Dreaming allows us to visualize what we want to achieve, and strive to achieve it.
30. Memory will save what is worth it. Memory knows more about me than I do and it does not lose what deserves to be saved.
Under normal conditions we remember what is most important to us. What we believe is relevant will be remembered, and only the details that we consider insignificant will fade away.
31. Consumer culture, a culture of disengagement, trains us to believe that things happen just because they do.
Over time we have lost part of our feeling that things happen thanks to our efforts.
32. Sometimes the idol does not fall whole. And sometimes when it breaks, people eat the pieces
This phrase criticizes the change of opinion of those who initially praise and idolize someone and later criticize or laugh at them when they fail.
33. I break away from the hug, I go out into the street. In the sky, already lightening, the moon is visible. The moon is two nights old. I, one
This phrase reflects the importance of emotional relationships, showing how they make us feel as if we were beginning to live.
34. There are many things that are born in one sense and end up living in another.
Things don’t always turn out as they seem, and can lead to very different paths than what we expected.
35. The only thing I know is this: art is art or it is shit
Art is only art when it is created expressing something. Otherwise it cannot be considered as such.
36. The word politics has been used so much that it means everything and means nothing.
The author criticizes the hypocrisy and manipulation of politics, as well as its excessive use, which has made it become a controversial and confusing aspect for a large majority of the population.
37. It looked like they were about to fall, but no: when she stumbled, he supported her; When he swayed, she straightened him… Holding on to each other, stuck to each other in the ups and downs of the world.
In this phrase we are told about love, and how the members of a couple support and help each other develop.
38. Because we all, all of us, have something to say to others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others.
We have all done something in our lives, whether good or bad. Nobody is useless.
39. I write for friends I don’t know yet. Those I know are already tired of listening to me
The author strives to make it possible for others to get to know him.
40. Poor children are the ones who suffer the most from the contradiction between a culture that mandates consumption and a reality that prohibits it.
Especially those who do not have resources suffer severe consequences derived from the relationship between states of deprivation and the promotion of the consumer society.
41. Groupers, and other fish, are virtuoso in the art of changing sex without surgery. Females become males and males become females with astonishing ease; and no one is mocked or accused of treason against nature or the law of God.
This phrase expresses that in nature aspects such as sex or sexual identity are not a reason for ridicule or punishment in other species, unlike what often happens in ours.
42. Is it legal to confuse the depth of a class with the well-being of a country?
A single social class is not a country, it is not representative. In order to measure well-being, the well-being of all those who are part of it must be measured.
43. And there was nothing wrong with it, and nothing strange about it that my heart had broken from using it so much.
Although loving may hurt, this pain is not bad since it derives from what we feel.
44. Poor criminals are the villains of the movie; rich criminals write the script and direct the actors
The author criticizes that everyone is not looked at with the same magnifying glass: the poor with little power are beaten and blamed, while those with great power benefit from it.
45. The best that the world has is in the many worlds that the world contains, the different music of life, its pains and colors: the thousand and one ways of living and saying, believing and creating, eating, working, dancing, play, love, suffer and celebrate
The world is diverse, and in this we find its greatest richness and beauty.
46. Advertising commands consumption and the economy prohibits it
Galeano did not hesitate to criticize all the inequalities both in his country and in the rest of the world at all times.
47. Like God, capitalism has the best opinion of itself, and does not doubt its own eternity
His criticisms of capitalism as a hegemonic system are remembered even today.
48. It is possible to imagine the future and not just accept it
The future can be created by ourselves, it just takes will.
49. A sad sign of the times, the 21st century sacralizes mediocrity in the name of efficiency and sacrifices freedom on the altars of success
A good summary of the society we live in.
50. Poor against poor, as usual: poverty is too short a blanket, and everyone pulls their own way
The goal of the system was always to pit the dispossessed against each other.
51. If you speak, you will have unemployment. If you walk, you will have violence. If you think, you will have anxiety. If you doubt, you will have madness. If you feel, you will be lonely
A phrase that tells us about how the system condemns us to multiple hardships if we decide to rebel.
52. Power is like a violin. It is taken with the left and touched with the right
An interesting analogy about the power dynamics between ideological left and right.
53. They came. They had the Bible and we had the land. And they told us: “Close your eyes and pray.” And when we opened our eyes, they had the land and we had the Bible
A very good summary of what the history of American colonization was.
54. The history of Latin America is the history of the dispossession of natural resources
Latin America is, without a doubt, one of the most abused and exploited continents on the planet.
55. The world is a great paradox that revolves in the universe
Throughout his career, Galeano was committed to denouncing any justice that occurred in the world of his time.
56. At this rate, from now on the owners of the planet will prohibit hunger and thirst so that there is no shortage of bread and water
A phrase in a humorous tone that terribly resembles the world we are heading towards.
57. The food of minorities becomes the hunger of the majority
It is up to us to create a more just world in which every human being has their needs covered.
58. The metals of America, delirium and ruin of Spain
American colonization gave the Spanish Crown the opportunity to access endless metals and riches from the New World, although many of them did not stay in Spain.
59. The indigenous people were the fuel of the colonial productive system
This great Uruguayan writer told us in his works the details of American colonial history.
60. Here the families love the martyrs very much – an old sugarcane worker told me – but after they are dead. Before they were just complaints
Galeano perfectly described the different societies that populate the continent of Latin America.
61. In Latin America it is normal: resources are always given in the name of lack of resources
One of the many injustices that Galeano denounced in his works.
62. Latin America’s main export product, no matter what it sells, raw materials or manufacturing, is its cheap arms
Thanks to Galeano’s works we learned all the injustices that this continent has suffered throughout history.
63. The metals taken from the new colonial dominions stimulated European economic development and could even be said to have made it possible.
A true history lesson that helps us understand the European and colonial past.
64. In the project of a sleepwalking society, each citizen must be the policeman for himself and others
Citizens must be aware of the injustices in their society and act accordingly.
65. When the State becomes owner of the main wealth of a country, it is appropriate to ask who is the owner of the State
States must serve their citizens, not the other way around.
