Walter Benjamin Quotes - Page 2

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• Work on a good piece of writing proceeds on three levels: a musical one, where it is composed, an architectural one, where it is constructed, and finally a textile one, where it is woven.

  Walter Benjamin

  Writing, Musical, Woven

  "One-Way Street and Other Writings".

  24 Copy quote

• Capitalism is a purely cultic religion, perhaps the most extreme that ever existed.

  Walter Benjamin

  Extremes, Capitalism

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland (1996). “Selected Writings: 1913-1926”, p.288, Harvard University Press

  29 Copy quote

• Marx says that revolutions are the locomotives of world history. But the situation may be quite different. Perhaps revolutions are not the train ride, but the human race grabbing for the emergency brake.

  Walter Benjamin

  Race, Different, World

  "Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, 1938–1940". Book edited by Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings, 1996.

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• The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.

  Walter Benjamin

  Men, Alphabet, Photograph

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• Never stop writing because you have run out of ideas. Fill the lacunae of inspiration by tidily copying out what is already written.

  Walter Benjamin

  Running, Inspiration, Writing

  Walter Benjamin, Peter Demetz (1986). “Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writing”, Schocken

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• These are days when no one should rely unduly on his competence. Strength lies in improvisation. All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.

  Walter Benjamin

  Life, Lying, Blow

  Walter Benjamin (2016). “One-Way Street”, p.35, Harvard University Press

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• Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.

  Walter Benjamin

  Memories, Passion, Borders

  Walter Benjamin (1996). “Selected Writings: 1927-1934”, p.486, Harvard University Press

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• The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.

  Walter Benjamin

  Children, Needs, Stories

  Walter Benjamin (1968). “Illuminations”, p.112, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  23 Copy quote

• The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.

  Walter Benjamin

  Time, Past, Flash

  Walter Benjamin (1968). “Illuminations”, p.265, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Art teaches us to see into things. Folk art and kitsch allow us to see outward from within things.

  Walter Benjamin

  Art, Kitsch, Teach

  Walter Benjamin, Michael William Jennings, Brigid Doherty (2008). “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media”, p.209, Harvard University Press

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• He who seeks to approach his own buried past must conduct himself like a man digging... This confers the tone and bearing of genuine reminiscences. He must not be afraid to return again and again to the same matter; to scatter it as one scatters earth, to turn it over as one turns over soil.

  Walter Benjamin

  Real, Past, Men

  "Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings".

  29 Copy quote

• To the lover the loved one always appears as solitary.

  Walter Benjamin

  Love, Dream, Solitary

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• Less and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly. More and more often there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seemed inalienable to us, the securest among our possessions, were taken from us: the ability to exchange our experiences...Experience has fallen in value. And it looks as if it is continuing to fall into bottomlessness.

  Walter Benjamin

  Fall, Taken, People

  "Illuminations". Book by Walter Benjamin, 1950.

  9 Copy quote

• All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war.

  Walter Benjamin

  War, Effort, Aesthetic

  "Illuminations".

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• Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual.

  Walter Benjamin

  Art, Ritual, Dependence

  "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". Book by Walter Benjamin, 1939.

  28 Copy quote

• Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past.

  Walter Benjamin

  Redemption, Bounds

  "Theses on the Philosophy of History"". Book by Walter Benjamin, 1955.

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• The film is the first art form capable of demonstrating how matter plays tricks on man.

  Walter Benjamin

  Art, Men, Play

  Walter Benjamin (1968). “Illuminations”, p.257, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Each morning the day lies like a fresh shirt on our bed; this incomparably fine, incomparably tightly woven tissue of pure prediction fits us perfectly. The happiness of the next twenty-four hours depends on our ability, on waking, to pick it up.

  Walter Benjamin

  Life, Morning, Lying

  Walter Benjamin, Peter Demetz (1986). “Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writing”, Schocken

  25 Copy quote

• I came into the world under the sign of Saturn -- the star of the slowest revolution, the planet of detours and delays.

  Walter Benjamin

  Stars, Delay, World

  Walter Benjamin (2009). “One-Way Street and Other Writings”, p.8, Penguin UK

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• Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.

  Walter Benjamin

  Life, Real, Advice

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland, Gary Smith (2002). “Selected Writings: 1935-1938”, p.146, Harvard University Press

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• Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.

  Walter Benjamin

  Dream, Eggs, Boredom

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland, Gary Smith (2002). “Selected Writings: 1935-1938”, p.149, Harvard University Press

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• Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present. For what one has lived is at best comparable to a beautiful statue which has had all its limbs knocked off in transit, and now yields nothing but the precious block out of which the image of one's future must be hewn.

  Walter Benjamin

  Beautiful, Block, Past

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• Taking food alone tends to make one hard and coarse. Those accustomed to it must lead a Spartan life if they are not to go downhill. Hermits have observed, if for only this reason, a frugal diet. For it is only in company that eating is done justice; food must be divided and distributed if it is to be well received.

  Walter Benjamin

  Food, Justice, Done

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland (1996). “Selected Writings: 1913-1926”, p.477, Harvard University Press

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• Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.

  Walter Benjamin

  Ruins, Realms, Allegory

  Walter Benjamin, Michael William Jennings, Brigid Doherty (2008). “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media”, p.180, Harvard University Press

  14 Copy quote

• If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.

  Walter Benjamin

  Dream, Sleep, Eggs

  Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland, Gary Smith (2002). “Selected Writings: 1935-1938”, p.149, Harvard University Press

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