Walter Benjamin Quotes About Books

Quotes about: Books

• Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Writing, People

  Walter Benjamin (1996). “Selected Writings: 1927-1934”, p.488, Harvard University Press

• How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!

  Walter Benjamin

  Travel, Book, Cities

  Walter Benjamin (2015). “Illuminations”, p.50, Random House

• I am unpacking my library. Yes I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Order, Boredom

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland, Gary Smith (1999). “Gesammelte Schriften”, p.486, Harvard University Press

• Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Debate, Harlots

  Walter Benjamin (2016). “One-Way Street”, p.51, Harvard University Press

• The power of a text when it is read is different from the power it has when it is copied out. Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command.

  Walter Benjamin

  Dream, Book, Reading

  "One-Way Street".

• Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.

  Walter Benjamin

  Girl, Baby, Book

  Walter Benjamin (2016). “One-Way Street”, p.50, Harvard University Press

• Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text.

  Walter Benjamin

  Memories, Book, Men

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland (1996). “Selected Writings: 1913-1926”, p.483, Harvard University Press

• You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps - his tastes, his interest, his habits.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Men, Taste

• Books, too, begin like the week – with a day of rest in memory of their creation. The preface is their Sunday.

  Walter Benjamin

  Memories, Book, Sunday

  Walter Benjamin, Michael William Jennings, Rodney Livingstone (2005). “Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings”, p.287, Harvard University Press

• To a book collector, you see, the true freedom of all books is somewhere on his shelves.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Shelves, True Freedom

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland, Gary Smith (1999). “Gesammelte Schriften”, p.490, Harvard University Press

• Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Walter Benjamin (1996). “Selected Writings: 1927-1934”, p.488, Harvard University Press

• The book borrower...proves himself to be an inveterate collector of books not so much by the fervor with which he guards his borrowed treasures...as by his failure to read these books.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Treasure, Prove

• We collect books in the belief that we are preserving them when in fact it is the books that preserve their collector.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Facts, Belief

• Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.

  Walter Benjamin

  Book, Writing, People

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