5 Incredible Quotes by Emilio Lledó
Do you need inspiration? If so, why don’t you try reading some of the best quotes by Emilio Lledó? Many consider this philosopher, teacher, and thinker to be “the wise officer of Spain”.
It’s quite difficult to summarize the life of Emilio Lledó in one simple article considering he’s over 90 years old. Talking about his various experiences and pieces of work is essential when trying to sum up his life. He was born in Seville in 1927. If we had to summarize his professional and intellectual career, the first thing we’d say is that he was a hard worker who, apparently, would never get tired.
That being said, as a strategy to summarize his work and thoughts, in this article, we’re going to highlight some of his most significant quotes. Check them out!
Emilio Lledó, the wise Spanish officer
Emilio Lledó moved to Vicálvaro when he was only six years old. There, he met his school teacher, Don Francisco, whom Lledó considers the architect who instilled passion and a curiosity for knowledge in him.
He was very interested in learning since he was just a child. He decided to study philosophy and went to Germany to work as a teacher without even knowing the language. After that, he returned to Spain in the 60s and taught in Barcelona, Tenerife, and Madrid. As a result, he became a great inspiration for many of his students.
Lledó believes that education is much more than memorizing, repeating, writing on an exam, and passing a class. For him, the enthusiasm for knowledge is vital and is the best way to instill the passion for studying in children.
Emilio Lledó won the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities, among many other awards. He’s an official member of the Royal Spanish Academy and is respected for numerous works and essays, such as The Silence of Writing, Memory of Ethics, or Praise of Unhappiness.
Some quotes by Emilio Lledó
That being said, let’s check out some of the quotes by this tireless defender of human freedom, Emilio Lledó. In them, we can tell he struggled to make people realize the incredible power of education. He wanted the world to be happier and fairer.
The future
“There’s no future without memory.”
The first quote from Emilio Lledó reminds us of another very famous one which goes like this: “Those who can’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Without memory, human beings are doomed to constantly repeat the same mistakes they made in the past and, as a consequence, jeopardize their future.
On the other hand, people usually use their memories to form expectations. That’s why, in many cases, what they expect to happen has a lot to do with the sequence of events that they witnessed on past occasions.
Values and symbols
“I think any flag hinders. What we must have is a flag of justice, of kindness, of education, of culture, of sensitivity, of philanthropy. Another wonderful noun of the Greeks, the love for others.”
Professor Lledó has always given major importance to human values. For him, certain symbols serve more to create conflict or separate people than to add elements of cooperation and understanding. He believes that human values are what people should gather around when facing any issue.
Memory
“Collective Alzheimer’s is much worse than individual Alzheimer’s, and a country subjected to the falsification of the collective is a doomed country.”
With this quote, Emilio Lledó refers to the responsibility we have as a society to remember the past. Only by doing so will future generations remember the past as well. Individuals must keep their past mistakes in mind in order to remember their consequences and, therefore, not repeat them.
Unfortunately, on many occasions, this doesn’t happen. Some wars only serve limited and private interests. To this day, some people continue to become rich by using conflict and destruction.
Money
“In this society, those who don’t get a profit are considered fools but, in reality, the great misfortune is the obsession with money.”
Emilio Lledó worked really hard to understand why some people were obsessed with becoming rich at the expense of others. That ends up being a problem because we confuse success with wealth, discrediting people who have different values.
In Spain, it was a frequent phenomenon during the years before the crisis. In those circles where corruption was a huge element, the suspects were those who didn’t steal or use their influences for their own benefit.
The freedom of expression
“Learning isn’t important, especially now that there are so many means of knowledge and information; the important thing is to create intellectual freedom and the ability to think.”
Although freedom of expression is important to Emilio Lledó, he believes freedom of thought is even more so. Now, one can only reach this freedom through culture and intellectuality. There’s no point in talking when we don’t believe in what we’re saying.
These quotes by Emilio Lledó are only a small representation of his train of thought. He’ passionate about defending human values above any kind of confrontation and conflict. In his work, he recognizes memory as an important pillar for life, as repeating past mistakes condemns any possibility for freedom.
