September 02, 2026

Know What Things Are Worth

Only a fool confuses value and price.

Antonio Machado wrote this proverb as part of the compact, aphoristic verses he called Proverbios y cantares, composed during his years as a small-town schoolteacher in Soria and later Baeza. He wrote in the wake of his young wife Leonor's death and amid a Spain full of empty rhetoric, political posturing, and men chasing status. Machado distrusted anyone who mistook applause, money, or title for real worth, and he prized the quiet integrity of ordinary people who knew what actually mattered. The line still cuts today, when it is easy to let a paycheck, a follower count, or a job title stand in for genuine character.