THE SPANISH - HOW
THEY SEE THEMSELVES AND HOW OTHERS SEE THEM IN RETURN
I will be adding to these from time to time.
This is the date of the latest addition[s]
10.2.04
Spain is the place where, in my experience, the art of savoir vivre
has attained the highest peak of refinement. Or, as the Spaniards themselves
never tire of saying: “En España, se vive muy bien” – In Spain, one
lives very well. ..... There is a pleasure principle at the heart of the Spanish
ethos that the imperatives of the market economy have tried, but failed, to
undermine.
John Carlin -
Spain: The Place to Live
The famous individualism of the people does not apply to economics. The
Spanish are essentially anti-capitalist and uncompetitive; they have neither the
bad nor the good qualities, neither the attachment to money for its own sake nor
the suppleness and perseverance required for success in the modern capitalist
world.
Gerald Brenan -
The Spanish Labyrinth
[1941]
Many people would rather die than think. In fact they do.
Bertrand Russell, talking [I
believe] about Spanish drivers
Every Spaniard's ideal is to carry a statutory letter with a single provision,
brief but imperious: "This Spaniard is entitled to do whatever he feels like
doing
Angel Ganivet
To this day, Spaniards are characterised by a love of local liberties and
personal independence....... In no country in Europe is there so much
spontaneity of speech or action, so much dislike of restraint and regimentation
Gerald Brenan -
The Spanish Labyrinth
[1941]
Spain, little understood and often
privately disliked by patronising Northern peoples ….is frequently held to be a
more violent nation that it is. Isolated by good fortune and
by geography from the ‘world game’ of great power rivalry since 1815, it has
more lessons to offer peoples than it has to learn: above all, it has grasped
more successfully than other nations the art of combining progress with the
persistence of tradition.
Hugh
Thomas - The Spanish
Civil War
[1961]
I defy anyone .. not to be
struck by [the Spaniards’] essential decency; above all by their
straightforwardness and generosity. …. And beyond this there is generosity in a
deeper sense, a real largeness of spirit.
George Orwell -
Homage to Catalonia
[1937]
Every foreigner .. spent his
first few weeks in learning to love the Spaniards and in being exasperated by
certain of their characteristics. ….. All foreigners alike are appalled by their
inefficiency, above all by their maddening unpunctuality. …. In Spain, nothing,
from a meal to a battle, ever happens at the appointed time.
George Orwell -
Homage to Catalonia
[1937]
If you obey all the rules, you miss all the
fun
Katherine Hepburn - Possibly talking about the Spanish
Some [allegedly] Spanish proverbs
A buxom widow must be either married,
buried or shut up in a convent
Never advise anyone
to go to war or to marry
A woman's advice
is a poor thing but he is a fool who does not take it
By the street of By and By one arrives at the house of Never
Forgive any sooner than thyself
God comes to see us without a bell
Honour without profit is a ring on the finger [Marriage??]
If fools didn't go to markets, bad goods wouldn't be sold
Let that which is lost be for God
Many go out for wool and come home shorn
Many things grow in the garden that were never sewn there
There is no friend like the penny [centimo,
now, I guess]
One and none is all the same [i. e.
negligible]
Beware of an ox in front, an ass behind and a monk from all sides
Tell a lie and find the truth
The devil lurks behind the cross
The diligent spinner has a large shift [=
Industry gives comfort, it says here]
The foot on the cradle and the hand on the distaff is the sign of a good
housewife ['distaff' = a cloven staff around which the wool or flax was
wound]
There are no birds in last year's nest
Those who live longest will see most
Though the sun shines, don't leave your cloak at home [Written
by a Galician, I imagine]
Too much breaks the bag