Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Antonio Porchia (Italian Poet)

Antonio Porchia (1886–1968) was an Italian-born Argentine poet and author celebrated for his enigmatic work, Voices (“Voces” in Spanish,) which gained popularity through the efforts of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. His writings have drawn comparisons to Japanese haiku and shown affinity with various Zen schools of thought.

Born in Conflenti, Calabria, Italy, Porchia lived a mysterious and secluded life, leaving few details about his early years and personal history. In 1902, he immigrated to Argentina and settled in Buenos Aires. For most of his life, Porchia worked as a potter, a vocation that afforded him solitude and contemplation.

Despite lacking formal education, Porchia’s astute observations and introspective nature inspired him to craft aphoristic reflections on life, reality, and the human condition. For more than two decades, he committed himself to refining and expanding his collection of aphorisms, culminating in the publication of Voces (1943.) Porchia’s writing showcases his profound introspection and existential ponderings, delving into the complexities of solitude, the nature of reality, and the inherent contradictions of human existence.

Although Voces initially received limited attention, it experienced a resurgence in the 1960s thanks to the efforts of Julio Cortázar, an Argentine writer and literary critic. Voces has been translated into multiple languages and has significantly influenced revered figures in contemporary literature and thought, including André Breton, Jorge Luis Borges, Don Paterson, Roberto Juarroz, and Henry Miller.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Antonio Porchia

Without this ridiculous vanity that takes the form of self-display, and is part of everything and everyone, we would see nothing, and nothing would exist.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Vanity

In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Heart

Set out from any point. They are all alike. They all lead to a point of departure.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Perspective

Human suffering, while it is asleep, is shapeless. If it is wakened it takes the form of the waker.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Adversity

You can owe nothing, if you give back its light to the sun.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Light

Suffering is above, not below. And everyone thinks that suffering is below. And everyone wants to rise.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Adversity

It is easier for me to see everything as one thing than to see one thing as one thing.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Perspective

Man goes nowhere. Everything comes to man, like tomorrow.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Time

One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Memory

A full heart has room for everything and an empty heart has room for nothing.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Perspective

I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Self-Control

Not using faults does not mean that one does not have them.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Self-Control

If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Perspective

You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Self-Control

I am chained to the earth to pay for the freedom of my eyes.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Perspective

Beyond my body my veins are invisible.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: The Body

The real “it is well” is something I say from the ground, having fallen.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Attitude

Some things become so completely our own that we forget them.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Self-Discovery

The flower that you hold in your hands was born today and already it is as old as you are.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Time

Out of a hundred years a few minutes were made that stayed with me, not a hundred years.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Life

He who makes a paradise of his bread makes a hell of his hunger.
—Antonio Porchia

When your suffering is a little greater than my suffering I feel that I am a little cruel.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Kindness

Following straight lines shortens distances, and also life.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Follow, Life

Everything that I bear within me bound, is to be found somewhere else free.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Self-Discovery

Flowers are without hope. Because hope is tomorrow and flowers have no tomorrow.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Flowers

Nothing that is complete breathes.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Perfection

Man, when he does not grieve, hardly exists.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Grief

Almost always it is the fear of being ourselves that brings us to the mirror.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Self-Discovery

There are sufferings that have lost their memory and do not remember why they are suffering.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Adversity

When I look for my existence I do not look for it in myself.
—Antonio Porchia
Topics: Self-Discovery

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