Quotes from Zygmunt Bauman

Desire and love act at cross purposes. love is a net cast on eternity, desire is a stratagem to be spared the chores of net weaving. True to their nature, love would strive to perpetuate the desire. Desire, on the other hand, would shun love's shackles.

It is not in craving after ready-made, complete and finished things that love finds its meaning -- but in the urge to participate in the becoming of such things.

Thrown into a vast open sea with no navigation charts and all the marker buoys sunk and barely visible, we have only two choices left: we may rejoice in the breath-taking vistas of new discoveries -- or we may tremble out of fear of drowning.

Avoid the crowd, avoid mass audiences, keep your own counsel, which is the counsel of philosophy--of wisdom you can acquire and make your own.

What happens is never unpredictable: there are always breaches, carelessness, incompetence, omissions, which have not prevented the occurrence.

globalization is the last failed hope that, somewhere, there still exists a land where one can escape and find happiness. Or the last failed hope that, somewhere, there still exists a land different from yours in terms of being able to oppose the sense of meaninglessness, the loss of criteria and, ultimately, moral blindness and the loss of sensitivity.

Ser dos significa aceptar un futuro indeteminado

This was replaced by a widespread and aggressive individualism whereby everyone looks out for himself, at the expense of others and without worrying about the good of society.

Los celulares ayudan a estar conectados a los que están a distancia. Los celulares permiten a los que se conectan… mantenerse a distancia.

Um aspecto muito visível do desaparecimento das velhas garantias é a nova fragilidade dos laços humanos. A fragilidade e transitoriedade dos laços pode ser um preço inevitável do direito de os indivíduos perseguirem seus objetivos individuais, mas não pode deixar de ser, simultaneamente, um obstáculo dos mais formidáveis para perseguir eficazmente esses objetivos -- e para a coragem necessária para persegui-los.

And the enticement to seek a rose without thorns is never far away and always difficult to resist.

Utopia' used to denote a coveted, dreamt-of distant goal to which progress should, could and would eventually bring the seekers after a world better serving human needs. In contemporary dreams, however, the image of 'progress' seems to have moved from the discourse of shared improvement to that of individual survival. Progress is no longer thought about in the context of an urge to rush ahead, but in connection with a desperate effort to stay in the race.

As can be seen, 'crisis', in its proper sense, expresses something positive, creative and optimistic, because it involves a change, and may be a rebirth after a break-up. It indicates separation, certainly, but also choice, decisions and therefore the opportunity to express an opinion.

En otras palabras, el amor no encuentra su sentido en el ansia de cosas ya hechas, completas y terminadas, sino en el impulso de participar en la construcción de esas cosas. El amor está muy cercano a la trascendencia; es tan sólo otro nombre de impulso creativo, y por lo tanto, está cargado de riesgos, ya que toda creación ignora siempre cuál será su producto final

The relations individuals enter into with other individuals nowadays have been described as 'pure' – meaning 'no strings attached', no unconditional obligations assumed and so no predetermination, and therefore no mortgaging, of the future. The sole foundation and only reason for the relationship to continue is, it has been said, the amount of mutual satisfaction drawn from it.

A society notorious for effacing the boundary which once separated the private from the public, for making it a public virtue and obligation to publicly expose the private, and for wiping away from public communication anything that resists being reduced to private confidences, together with those who refuse to confide them.

El deseo destruye su objeto, destruyéndose a sí mismo en el proceso;

Volar liviano produce alegría, volar a la deriva es angustiante. El cambio es embriagador, la volatilidad es preocupante. ¿La insoportable levedad del sexo?

the innate tendency of a society of consumers to instil in their members a willingness to accord other people the same - and no more - respect as they are trained to feel and to show to consumer goods, the objects designed and destined for instantaneous, and possibly untroubled satisfaction, with no strings attached.

La naturaleza del amor implica —tal como lo observó Lucano dos milenios atrás y lo repitió Francis Bacon muchos siglos más tarde— ser un rehén del destino.

not to mention forever – since they fear that such a state may bring burdens and cause strains they neither feel able nor are willing to bear, and so may severely limit the freedom they need – yes, your

Arlie Russell Hochschild resume "el daño colateral" fundamental causado en el curso de la invasion consumista en una expresion tan incisiva como sucinta: "la materialización del amor".

Ivan Klima dice: casi nada se parece tanto a la muerte como el amor realizado. Cada aparición de cualquiera de los dos es única pero definitiva, irrepetible, inapelable e impostergable.

Siempre y cuando uno no olvide que lo que antes era invisible -la cuota de intimidad de cada uno, la vida interior de todos- ahora es expuesto en la escena pública, uno comprenderá que quienes procuran la invisibilidad están condenados al rechazo, a la exclusión, condenados a ser sospechosos de algún crimen. La desnudez física, social y psíquica está a la orden del día.