Nicolás Gómez Dávila

Three years short of a century ago today, Nicolás Gómez Dávila was born. Sixteen years ago yesterday, he passed from this world.

Some aphorisms:

• Whoever says that he "belongs to his time" is only saying that he agrees with the largest number of fools at that moment.
• The word "modern" no longer has an automatic prestige except among fools.
• The modernist thirst for originality makes the mediocre artist believe that the secret of originality consists simply in being different.