You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own.

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968), an Italian-born Argentine writer, is known almost entirely for his aphoristic book *Voces* (“Voices”), first published in Buenos Aires in 1943 and expanded in later editions. The line “You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own” fits Porchia’s characteristic mode: brief, paradoxical statements that sound like spiritual counsel while resisting doctrinal certainty. Porchia lived a largely private life, working manual jobs and writing slowly over decades; his aphorisms often circle questions of selfhood, fate, and the limits of human control. In English, Porchia’s reception was shaped by mid‑20th‑century translations that presented *Voces* as a modern book of wisdom.

The aphorism holds two ideas in tension. On one hand, the speaker tells you that you are “a puppet”: your actions and identity seem determined by forces beyond your conscious choosing—habit, circumstance, history, or necessity. On the other hand, the “hands” moving you belong to “the infinite,” and that infinite “may be your own.” The twist suggests that what appears as external determinism might also be an expression of a deeper self—something larger than the everyday ego. Porchia’s paradox invites humility about personal agency while also hinting at an inward source of freedom: if the mover is “your own” infinite, then surrender and self-realization become strangely aligned.