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Here’s the complete and haunting quote you’re referring to — from The Book of Sand & Shakespeare’s Memory by Jorge Luis Borges:

“I felt what we always feel when someone dies – the sad awareness, now futile, of how little it would have cost us to have been more loving. One forgets that one is a dead man conversing with dead men.” 

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Interpretation

• ”…sad awareness…” speaks to the regret many feel after loss — that a bit more love or presence might have changed everything.
• “Dead man conversing with dead men” is a profound memento mori: a reminder that we’re all transient, and in the end our interactions are with the living echoes of the already-departed.

Borges, ever the master of existential reflection, brings us face to face with mortality — reminding us that, in time, all conversations are with ghosts, and every moment of connection is precious.

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Related Thoughts by Borges

From the same collection, another poignant line:

“We forget that we are all dead men conversing with dead men.” 

This echoes the theme: mortality isn’t just about physical death — it’s the awareness, or often the forgetfulness, of it that shapes our relationships and regrets.

Would you like to explore:

• This quote in its original Spanish?
• Other Borges reflections on death, memory, or time?
• A poetic meditation inspired by this memento mori?

Let me know how you’d like to continue.