Q0198

José Ortega y Gasset

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

I am myself and my circumstance; and if I do not save it, I do not save myself.
Thinker José Ortega y Gasset
School Perspectivism
Source Meditaciones del Quijote (1914)
Theme Self
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Meditaciones del Quijote (1914), within the tradition of Perspectivism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of self, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In José Ortega y Gasset's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: José Ortega y Gasset. (n.d.). I am myself and my circumstance; and if I do not save it, I do not save myself. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0198

MLA: José Ortega y Gasset. “I am myself and my circumstance; and if….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0198.

Chicago: José Ortega y Gasset. “I am myself and my circumstance; and if….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0198.

Same theme

More on self

  1. A friend is another self.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. I searched for myself.
  4. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
  5. Claim yourself for yourself.

Browse the self theme