Paz had enige kennis van Spinoza. Hoe had hij anders in een herdenkingsessay over Ortega y Gasset kunnen schrijven: "To think was, for him [Ortega y Gasset], synonymous with expression. This was the opposite of Spinoza, who wanted to see his discourse, purged of impurities and accidents of the "I", as the verbal crystallization of mathematics, of the universal order. In this Ortega y Gasset was not far from the father of the essay, Montagne.” [in Octavio Paz: On Poets and Others. Arcade Publishing, 1991, p. 144]
Ik krijg de indruk dat Octavio Paz toch meer aan de kant van Spinoza staat.