Miguel Hernández Gilabert (1910 – 1942) was a Spanish poet and playwright born in 1910 in Orihuela, Spain.

During a trip to Portugal, where he tried to evade the persecution of Franco’s side, Hernandez was arrested by the police of Salazar (Portuguese dictator) who left him in Franco’s hands. It was decided that he should be transferred to the adult reformatory in Alicante, where he fell ill and would later die of tuberculosis at the age of 32.

  • We recommend: “70 phrases by Antonio Machado: a unique philosophy of life”
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Phrases and reflections of Miguel Hernández

The works of Miguel Hernández are worth remembering and if you don’t know them you will surely like them, that’s why we have made this selection of the 70 best phrases of Miguel Hernández so that you can know a little more about the life and work of this fantastic author.

1. He who stops to weep, he who laments against the hostile stone of discouragement, he who sets himself up for something other than combat, will not be a victor, he will be a slow loser.

In this quote, Miguel Hernandez encourages us to be combative during the battle and to fight bravely.

2. I woke up from being a kid. Never wake up. Sad is my mouth. Laugh all the time. Always in the crib, defending laughter feather by feather.

Childhood is a time when we are all happier, and when life becomes very complicated as we reach maturity.

3. Sad wars if it is not love the company. Sad. Sad. Sad weapons if it’s not the words. Sad. Sad. Sad men if they don’t die of love. Sad. Sad.

War is a very sad time for all those who have the misfortune to live through it.

4. A drop of pure courage is worth more than a cowardly ocean.

Being brave will allow us to reach our goal and possibly also survive.

5. There is no greater extent than my wound, I mourn my misfortune and its ensembles and I feel your death more than my life.

Difficult situations are very complicated for everyone and Miguel Hernandez was involved in some really complicated ones.

6. How little is one worth now! Even the rats climb up to dirty the roof of thoughts. This is what’s new in my life: rats. I already have rats, lice, fleas, bedbugs, scabies. This corner I have to live in will soon be a zoo, or rather, a house of beasts…

When we live in the trenches, we tend to keep the bad company of all kinds of vermin.

7. How simple death is: how simple, but how unjustly snatched! He does not know how to walk slowly, and he slashes when one least expects his murky slash.

Death can come to all of us by surprise and unexpectedly end our lives.

8. The world is as it appears before my five senses, and before yours which are the banks of mine.

We all see the world through our own perception, it is only a representation of what we perceive.

9. Here I am to live as long as my soul rings, and here I am to die, when the hour comes, in the veneration of the people from now on and forever.

A really nice phrase in which Hernandez talks about his intentions to live life to the fullest.

10. Blood that does not overflow, youth that does not dare, nor is it blood, nor is it youth, nor does it shine, nor does it bloom.

It is indeed during our youth that we are most courageous and daring, with all that this entails.

11. I do not forgive death in love, I do not forgive life inattentive, I do not forgive the earth or anything.

Sometimes we live through very difficult times that we wish we hadn’t had to go through.

12. So much pain is piled up in my side, that it hurts me even to my breath.

War can lead to the most difficult situations one can go through.

13. Though my loving body is under the earth, write to me on the earth, and I will write to you.

This writer had the firm conviction to leave a mark on the earth and he certainly succeeded.

14. Even if the autumn of history covers your tombs with the apparent dust of oblivion, we will never give up even the oldest of our dreams.

Fighting for our dreams is something we all have to do.

15. Every day my blood desires it more, and it grows larger and larger with love, and I do not understand why I should not love it if my heart sends it to me.

We must fulfill the designs of our heart; he will guide us on the path of life.

16. Yesterday the people woke up naked and with nothing to wear, hungry and with nothing to eat, today they wake up justly abhorred and bloody justly.

The hardships that a people goes through are often the ones that lead them to get involved in a war.

17. Hungry I fight, with all my gaps, scars and wounds, signs and memories of hunger, against so many satisfied bellies: pigs with a worse origin than the pigs.

Hernandez was clear about his ideals and against the ideals he was fighting, he was a strong defender of his own ideas.

18. I don’t know what’s in my ear without your accent, or which pole I’m missing without your star, and my voice without your treatment is effeminate. The smells I pursue of your wind and the forgotten image of your footprint, which in you begins, love, and in me ends.

A very poetic phrase in which this writer reveals the love he felt within his own being.

19. The time will turn yellow on my picture.

Time does indeed pass for all of us, without hurry but without pause.

20. In this field was the sea. It will come back sometime. If ever a drop touches this field, this field feels the memory of the sea. Sometime it will come back.

With the passing of time the landscapes change and nature adapts to every situation, we must know how to live in the same way.

21. Encarnación, I say in my heart, if I’m a fool, I’m a fool. I don’t care: I’m not dying to be stupid, I’m stupid, and I do know how stupid I am, I even know that I love you stupid.

The love this writer felt led him to write about it many times, this quote is a clear example.

22. The sea also chooses ports where to laugh like sailors. The sea of those who are. The sea also chooses ports where to die. Like the sailors. The sea of those who were.

No doubt the sea is something that this writer always liked and to which he dedicated these words.

23. Don’t look out the window, there’s nothing in this house. Look into my soul.

We must know how to see inside people and be able to scrutinize their feelings, to know how they really are.

24. I must fall in love, in a sharp way, with a woman who looks nothing but this particular one: as the earth must be simple and loving, so will she be more of a wife and so will she be more of a woman.

In this sentence we see the tastes for which this writer would choose his own wife.

25. Roll that you will go far, fly that you will go high. Tower of day you are, of time and space.

At the beginning of the 20th century, technology underwent great advances and changed society forever.

26. There’s no point in being sad. The shadow that gave you that. The shadow that takes him away.

We should not think about things that really don’t bring us anything positive, we should let negative thoughts fall into oblivion.

27. Mouth dragging my mouth. Mouth that drags me: mouth that comes from afar to lighten me with rays. Dawn that gives my nights a red and white glow. Mouth full of mouths: bird full of birds.

The gift of the word is something very important for the human being, with our words we can change the day of the others and encourage our companions in complicated situations.

28. No evil or broken rope hurts me: what your attention today notices was always in me naturally.

In this quote we can discover how this writing tells us that his personality was always as we see it.

29. Goodbye, brothers, comrades and friends. Say goodbye to the sun and the wheat.

A nice date in which Hernandez says goodbye to all of us.

30. Bodies that are born defeated, defeated and grey die: they come with the age of a century, and are old when they come.

We must fight for what is important to us, that is exactly what life is about.

31. There is no one who besieges life, there is no one who shuts up the blood when he grasps his wings and nails them to the air.

Life sprouts in the most unsuspected places and sprouts with a force that can be overwhelming.

32. Many drinks is life and one drink is death.

Life is all we have and we must take advantage of it until our last breath.

33. Although the autumn of history covers your tombs with the apparent dust of oblivion.

The Spanish Civil War was a very hard time in which thousands of people died and to which we owe much of today’s society.

34. The factory is guarded by flowers, children, crystals, in the direction of the day. Within it are light works and sweat, for freedom has put joy there.

Life in peace and harmony provides us with the opportunity to work so that we can prosper in life.

35. I place reliquaries of my kind at your biting heel, at your footstep, and always at your footstep I step forward so that your impassive foot despises all the love that I raise towards your foot.

We must help those around us, even if they do not thank us.

36. The weapons that shine most brightly in my hands and with them I have to transform life.

In wartime we are forced to take up arms even if we do not wish to do so.

37. Amongst the flowers you left. Amongst the flowers I stay.

Where better than a flowery landscape to lie peacefully.

38. Singing I wait for death, that there are nightingales singing above the guns and in the middle of the battles.

The courage of this writer is evident in this beautiful phrase.

39. In your hand is the freedom of the wing, the freedom of the world, flying soldiers: and you will pull out of the sky the covetous and weedy of other engines.

In the civil war, air forces were of vital importance, as air domination is essential in any war.

40. Remote blood. Remote body, within everything: within, far within my passions, my desires.

We men are moved by passions and desires in almost every circumstance of life.

41. Hunger is the first of all knowledge: being hungry is the first thing you learn.

Hunger is a need that we must all fight. During the civil war, the population suffered a great deal of hunger.

42. Thou shalt return to my garden and my fig tree: thy soul shall be hanged by the high scaffolds of the flowers.

After our death we return to our loved ones and to those places we loved so much.

43. Flight means the highest joy, the most lively agility, the firmest youth.

Flying at the beginning of the century was something very new and very romantic.

44. Do you want to go underground? Under the earth I want because wherever you run my body wants to run. I burn from down there and light up your memories.

During the war the soldier shows that he does not fear death as we can see in this sentence.

45. Laugh so hard that my soul, hearing you, beats the space.

Our attitude will largely determine our chances of success.

46. Let not thy back be wounded; live face to face, and die with thy breast before the bullets, as wide as the walls.

We must be consistent with our thoughts and put all our energy into it.

47. But silence can be more than just an instrument.

Silence can be truly deafening and hold great meaning.

48. Painted, not empty: my house is painted in the colour of great passions and misfortunes.

Colours can convey a great number of feelings and lead us to remember past moments.

49. Bull in the spring more bull than other times, in Spain more bull, bull, than elsewhere. Warmer than ever, more volcanic, bull, that you radiate, that you light the fire, stand up.

A great quote from Miguel Hernandez that has a great meaning and represents very well the Spanish society as a whole.

50. Here I have a heated voice, here I have a combative and angry life, here I have a rumor, here I have a life.

Fighting for our thoughts and dreams is the right thing to do, our personal happiness may depend on it.

51. Who will fill this void of discouraged heaven that leaves your body to mine?

This writer always shows us in his texts his deep and noble feelings.

52. Today, love is death, and man stalks man.

During the war we can all be a possible target.

53. I enter slowly, my forehead falls down slowly, my heart tears slowly, and slowly and blackly I cry again at the foot of a guitar.

The loss of a loved one is always one of the hardest moments we can face.

54. It is enough to look: the look is really covered.

We can say a lot of things with our eyes.

55. It is enough to listen: the blood rumbles in the ears.

We must know how to listen to our friends and family.

56. From each breath comes the ardent breath of so many hearts united in pairs.

Each fighter plane has two crew members on board and both risk their lives on each mission.

57. The woman without the man off goes. The man without the woman’s light goes off.

Couples frequently break up during any war, a disgrace to both of them.

58. Bodies like a voracious sea, crashing, raging. Solitarily bound by love, by hatred, men emerge from the veins, crossing the cities, torvos.

Deaths can be counted in the thousands in certain battles of the Spanish civil war.

59. Spain, stoic stone that opened in two pieces of pain and deep stone to give me: they will not separate me from your high bowels, mother.

This writer was always a strong defender of his country, first and foremost a patriot.

60. A carnivorous, sweet-winged, homicidal knife holds a flight and a glow around my life.

Planes were seen as wonderful vehicles at that time.

61. Keep on, then, keep on knifing, flying, hurting.

Like a knife that cuts through the wind, this writer described the aircraft that flew through the skies.

62. Fear that the mud will grow in a moment, fear that it will rise and cover tenderly, tenderly and jealously your ankle of reed, my torment, fear that it will flood the tuberose of your leg and grow more and ascend to your forehead.

During the war, the weather conditions suffered by the combatants were extremely harsh.

63. The number of bloods that the world illuminated in two found its beginning: you and I.

Even in the most difficult moments we can always find people who are like us.

64. The hate is muffled behind the window. It will be the soft claw.

It is because of hatred that the worst wars have been started and the worst battles fought.

65. This city is not quenched by fire, this laurel with a grudge is not cut down. This rosebush without fortune, this lavender with joy exhales.

Miguel Hernandez had no intention of letting adversity get the better of him.

66. You are only nourished by your vivid essence. You sleep on the edge of the hole and the sword.

Unconsciously we are all permanently between a rock and a hard place, life is very fragile.

67. You are my home, Madrid: my existence, what a crossroads!

During the civil war Madrid was subjected to constant bombing, which seriously affected its population.

68. Tell me from down there the word I love you. Do you speak underground? I speak in silence.

Love is a feeling that many times we take to the grave, will always accompany us.

69. Give me hope.

Hope is a very powerful weapon, we must always have it with us.

70. In the passion of flight thunders the light, and exalts wings with which to fight.

This fantastic writer never refused battle, he firmly defended his ideals.