Borges Quote by Valeria Luiselli
““Our penultimate lot, ladies and gentlemen, exudes an air of mystical melancholy. The tooth itself is crocodilian, but its aura is almost angelic. Note the curve; it is like a wing in ascent. Its owner, Mr. Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges, was a man of average height. His short, thin legs supported a torso, which was at once solid and svelte. His head was the size of a small coconut, and he had a slender, flexible neck. He was a pantheist.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: “The Book of Disquiet” by Fernando Pessoa, 1982
The description mixes absurd physical details with mystical tone, highlighting the contrast between earthly form and ethereal quality, and hints at the subject’s philosophical outlook.
In simple terms: A strange, poetic portrait of a man’s body and spirit.
Key Takeaway
Notice how physical description can reveal inner beliefs.
Themes
mystery
body
philosophy
humor
portrait
Mood
thoughtful
ironic
poetic
Type
literary
character
philosophical
When to use this quote
- character study
- literary analysis
- creative writing
- philosophical discussion
Key Concepts
pantheism
absurdism
symbolism
Questions to Reflect On
- How does the physical description affect your perception of the character?
- What does the mystical melancholy suggest about his worldview?
A Different Perspective
The exaggerated physical traits may distract from deeper meaning.
![“[Jorge Luis Borges] had short stories, and I was trying to learn how to write short stories, and then he had these things in the middle that were like fables, and I loved hearing fables.” quote by Sandra Cisneros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a46/sandra-cisneros-862_borges_jorge-luis-borges-had-short-stories-and_102630.jpg)
![“I remember I was very taken with a book called DreamTigers by [Jorge Luis] Borges. He was at the University of Texas, Austin, and they collected some of his writings and put them in a little collection. It's called DreamTigers in English, but it doesn't exist in Spanish. It's a little sampler. But…” quote by Sandra Cisneros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/466/sandra-cisneros-862_austin_i-remember-i-was-very-taken-with-a-book_2635005.jpg)
![“There [DreamTigers by Jorge Luis Borges] were these little fablesque things, you know, dream tigers, beautiful, beautiful pieces that when you read them had the power of a long piece, but they were prose, and they had the power of poetry, in that the last line wasn't the end, it was a…” quote by Sandra Cisneros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/873/sandra-cisneros-862_beautiful_there-dreamtigers-by-jorge-luis-borges-w_1879835.jpg)
![“I would say that Edgar Allan Poe, [Georges] Perec, Thomas Pynchon, and [Jorge Luis] Borges are all boy-writers. These are writers who take... a kind of demonic joy in writing.” quote by Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c94/paul-auster-351_allan-poe_i-would-say-that-edgar-allan-poe-georges_292858.jpg)
![“This book first arose out of a passage in [Jorge Luis] Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of my thought—our thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography—breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are…” quote by Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9a1/michel-foucault-1134_animals_this-book-first-arose-out-of-a-passage-i_571093.jpg)
