50 phrases by Gabriel García Márquez (about life and love)

One of the greatest exponents, if not the father, of magical realism is the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez or Gabo, as his friends called him. In his novels he has managed to transport us to fantastic worlds in real settings and vice versa, awakening all kinds of emotions through the relationship we make with the characters of their fascinating stories.

Not in vain he won the Nobel Prize for literature with his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude", that you can't stop reading it. His love stories and the significance of life, time, feelings and his characters captivate you in each of his books; some of the most popular are "Love in the time of cholera", "Of love and other demons" and "The colonel has no one to write", among many other titles that you will love.

• Related article: "The 10 best Latin American writers of all time”

The best 50 phrases of Gabriel García Márquez

We have gathered the best phrases of Gabriel García Márquez said by him and by the characters in his novel, so that you can become infected with his world, which is nothing more and nothing less than pure magical realism.

1. It is useless to keep praying. Even God goes on vacation in August.

We begin with this phrase full of irony that Gabo gives us in his story "Seventeen poisoned Englishmen."

2. Human beings are not born forever the day their mothers give birth to them, but rather life forces them to give birth to themselves over and over again.

A phrase by Gabriel García Márquez very enlightening about the thousands of times we transform and reinvent ourselves.

3. The day shit has any value, the poor will be born without ass.

Gabo also spoke about the inequality in which our society is built.

4. At every moment of my life there is a woman who leads me by the hand in the darkness of a reality that women know better than men and in which they orient themselves better with fewer lights.

What do you think is the reality that Gabo refers to in this phrase of "Live to tell it"?

5. Love is eternal while it lasts.

All of us who have ever fallen in love can attest to this. From the story "I just came to talk on the phone."

• Related article: "70 different love phrases to dedicate to your loved one”

6. Personality change is a daily struggle in which you rebel against your own determination to change, and want to remain yourself.

Another phrase that talks about the processes in which we reinvent ourselves. From the story "The clandestine adventure of Miguel Littin in Chile."

7. She was beautiful, springy, with tender skin the color of bread and eyes of green almonds, and she had hair smooth and black and long to the back and an aura of antiquity that could be just as Indonesian as it is from the Andes.

A very beautiful, ingenious and different way of describing beauty of a woman in this phrase by Gabriel García Márquez in his story "Sleeping Beauty's Plane."

8. You have to be unfaithful, but never unfair.

As in this phrase from "The colonel has no one to write to him," there are those who support the notion that loyalty is worth more than fidelity, and that one can be unfaithful but not unfair.

9. Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it to tell about it.

Another very true phrase of Gabo and that explains why sometimes two people who lived the same moment tell it so differently; each one lives it from his perspective and remembers it from there.

10. Little by little he idealized her, attributing improbable virtues, imaginary feelings, and after two weeks he no longer thought about her.

Speaking of those fleeting crushes, he comes up with this phrase from the novel "Love in times of cholera"

11. There are no announcements of comets or eclipses that I know of, nor are we to blame so great that God takes care of us.

Another phrase that demonstrates the eloquence of Gabo with her words and her agility of thought is this one from her novel “Del amor y otros demonios”.

12. Wisdom comes to us when it is no longer of any use to us.

It is not for nothing that older people say they have wanted to know what they know when they were young. Phrase from the book "The colonel has no one to write to him."

13. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want, doesn't mean they don't love you with all of their being.

One of the greatest lessons in life is learning to accept love as it comes and not as we we imagine that it must be, much less, as we imagine it must be because of the prejudices of the society.

14. She says she's dying for me, like I'm a miserable colic.

And a somewhat stubborn response from one of Gabo's characters to one of the love phrases in the box.

15. The first symptom of old age is that one begins to look like his father.

Is Gabriel García Márquez's phrase about old age, wrote it in his book "Memories of my sad whores"

16. For they had lived together long enough to realize that love was love at any time and anywhere, but all the more dense the closer to death.

"Love in times of cholera" gives us this beautiful reflection on love and the passing of time.

17. The sea will grow with my tears.

Beautiful phrase by Gabriel García Márquez that appears in his book “La mala hora”.

18. Life is but a continuous succession of opportunities to survive.

Another very accurate phrase about the paths of our lives that appears in "The colonel has no one to write to him."

19. It is not true that people stop chasing dreams because they get old, but rather that they get old because they stop chasing their dreams.

Old age does not depend only on our age, but on our attitude towards life.

20. Madly in love after so many years of sterile complicity, they enjoyed the miracle of loving each other both at the table and in the kitchen. bed, and they became so happy that even when they were two exhausted old men they continued to frolic like bunnies fighting like dogs.

The type of love that some of us dream of is the one Gabo describes in his most acclaimed novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

21. What happens is that there is not a single fortune in this country that does not have a dead donkey behind it.

This phrase by Gabriel García Márquez appears in his book "La mala hora" and reflects the reality of Colombian politics and history of the time.

22. I would have liked to die on my own, but if that was my destiny, I had to face it.

Another of the phrases in his book "News of a kidnapping" that reflects the reality of his country, Colombia during the most violent history of his and that ended in 2016 with the signing of the peace treaty between the government and the guerrilla group FARC.

23. It puzzles me as much to think that God exists, as that he does not exist.

One of the most famous phrases of Gabriel García Márquez It is this one from "The colonel has no one to write to him."

24. A man only has the right to look down on another when he has to help him up.

Nothing more true than this, all people are equal and deserve the same treatment.

25. The human body is not made for the years that one could live.

If only our body could live all that our mind and our dreams wanted. "Love and Other Demons".

26. If you don't fear God, fear syphilis.

We have to fear some representation of a final judgment, according to this phrase from the book "Live to tell it."

27. I feel like I know her less the more I know her.

Phrase from the novel "Of love and other demons." Sometimes this has happened to us with some people.

28. No place in life is sadder than an empty bed.

"The colonel has no one to write to him" says this phrase referring to the melancholy of knowing who previously slept in that bed that is empty today.

29. Intellectual creation is the most mysterious and lonely of human trades.

Another powerful phrase by Gabriel García Márquez that only those who follow the intellectual path such as writing for example, could understand, since it is a work of the mind that is done alone.

30. They will come back, 'he said. Shame has a bad memory.

This phrase about shame appears in the book “La mala hora”.

31. I will never be old, I told him then. She interpreted it as a heroic purpose to fight relentlessly against the ravages of time, but he was more explicit: he had an irrevocable determination to take his own life at sixty years old.

Another excerpt from the novel "Love in the Time of Cholera" that only demonstrates Gabo's ingenious way of writing.

32. There is no medicine that cures what happiness does not cure.

Happiness is the key to life. Phrase from the book "Of love and other demons."

33. The memory of the heart eliminates the bad memories and magnifies the good ones, and thanks to that artifice, we are able to cope with the past.

It is always better to focus on the positive. From the book "Love in the time of cholera."

34. In reality, the only time in life I feel like being myself is when I'm with my friends.

Because with our friends we really feel free to be who we are and accepted for it.

35. The word miscegenation means to mix tears with the blood that runs. What can you expect from such a concoction?

Excellent phrase from the book "Good trip, Mr. President" to summarize in two lines what colonization really was and as a consequence, miscegenation.

36. That woman is your downfall... she has you spellbound, that one of these days I'll see you writhing with colic, with a toad stuck in your belly.

Have you ever been that woman to someone? From the acclaimed novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

37. Love is an unnatural feeling that unites two strangers in a mean and unhealthy relationship, the more intense, the more ephemeral.

Another way of understanding love that we find in the novel “Of love and other demons”.

38. ..the amputees feel pain, cramps, tickling, in the leg that they no longer have. That's how she felt without him, feeling him being where she was no longer.

We can identify with this phrase from the book "Love in times of cholera" in those moments when we miss someone, when we go through a breakup.

39. The worst way to miss someone is to sit next to them and know that you can never have them.

Nothing more painful than unrequited love.

40.... he recalled an old Spanish adage: "May God not give us what we are capable of bearing."

On many occasions we agree with this phrase by Gabriel García Márquez in his book "Noticia de un kidnapping"; we are actually so strong that it is better not to have to prove what we can bear.

41. It is a triumph in life that the memory of the old is lost for things that are not essential.

Phrase about old age from the book "Memory of my sad whores."

42. The writer writes his book to explain to himself what cannot be explained.

Phrase that talks about what Gabo meant to be a writer. You find it in his book "Live to tell it."

43.... he was frightened by the belated suspicion that it is life, rather than death, that has no limits.

Knowing that we have no limits is actually what stops us from showing our full light. Phrase from the novel "Love in the time of cholera."

44. I love you not for who you are but for who I am when I am with you.

A phrase by Gabriel García Márquez to celebrate the effect that love has on us and how it transforms us.

45. He always remembers that the most important thing in a marriage is not happiness but stability.

Written in the book "Love in the time of cholera" that took place at the beginning of the last century. If it were about a contemporary couple, surely Gabo would not have written this sentence.

46. I am free and I sell myself.

A particular way of handling her own freedom, but after all, this woman is the owner of her freedom. Phrase from the book "Of love and other demons"

47. The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love, and you have to rebuild it every morning before breakfast.

A phrase about the dynamics of marriage and the constant need for us to always work on our links so that they stay alive.

48. "You can't eat illusion," she said. "You don't eat, but you feed," replied the colonel.

Sometimes illusion feeds much more than physical food. Illusion is what we need on gray days. Phrase from the book "The colonel has no one to write to him."

49. The most important thing I learned to do after the age of forty was to say no when it is no.

Saying "no" is one of the things that is easiest to do and that costs us the most in life, at least that's what this phrase by Gabriel García Márquez affirms.

50. I rent to dream. Actually, it was his only trade.

What better job than this to lend to dream of this phrase by Gabriel García Márquez in his story "I rent to dream."

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