As one advances in life, one realises more and more that the majority of men — and of women — are incapable of any other effort than that strictly imposed on them as a reaction to external compulsion. And for that reason, the few individuals we have come across who are capable of a spontaneous and joyous effort stand out isolated, monumentalised, so to speak, in our experience. These are the select men, the nobles, the only ones who are active and not merely reactive, for whom life is a perpetual striving, an incessant course of training. Training = askesis. These are the ascetics.


Chap. VII: Noble Life And Common Life, Or Effort And Inertia - The Revolt of the Masses (1929)

José Ortega y Gasset Quotes

As one advances in life, one realises more and more that the majority of men — and of women — are incapable of any other effort than that...

As one advances in life, one realises more and more that the majority of men — and of women — are incapable of any other effort than that...

As one advances in life, one realises more and more that the majority of men — and of women — are incapable of any other effort than that...

As one advances in life, one realises more and more that the majority of men — and of women — are incapable of any other effort than that...