Meaning

The quote describes a two-stage process of transformation. First, you open yourself to being changed by experience and by the world around you. Then, having been genuinely altered by what you have seen and felt, you become capable of working to change the world in return. The idea is that authentic engagement with reality, rather than insulating yourself from it, is what produces the awareness and motivation needed to act meaningfully.

Context

This line is associated with The Motorcycle Diaries, an account of the journey Guevara made as a young man through South America in the early 1950s. That trip, undertaken before his involvement in revolutionary politics, exposed him to poverty, inequality, and the living conditions of ordinary people across the continent. The experience is widely understood to have shaped his political development profoundly. The quote captures the spirit of that transformation: direct, unfiltered contact with the world produced a changed person who then dedicated his life to changing that world.

About the author

Ernesto Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1928 and studied medicine before becoming one of the central figures of the Cuban Revolution. His early travels, later described in The Motorcycle Diaries, gave him a firsthand encounter with the social conditions he would spend his life fighting against. After the Cuban Revolution he held government roles in Cuba and later led guerrilla efforts in other countries. He was killed in Bolivia in 1967. His writings remain widely read, and his life continues to generate debate about revolution, idealism, and political violence.