Theodor Adorno Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• All the world's not a stage.

  Theodor Adorno

  World, Stage

  "Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life". Book by Theodor W. Adorno, 1951.

  7 Copy quote

• By abstaining from all definite content, whether as formal logic and theory of science or as the legend of Being beyond all beings, philosophy declared its bankruptcy regarding concrete social goals.

  Theodor Adorno

  Philosophy, Goal, Legends

  Theodor W. Adorno (2012). “Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords”, p.6, Columbia University Press

  8 Copy quote

• There is something embarrassing in... the way in which, ... turning suffering into images, harsh and uncompromising though they are, ... wounds the shame we feel in the presence of the victims. For these victims are used to create something, works of art, that are thrown to the consumption of a world which destroyed them.

  Theodor Adorno

  Art, Suffering, Way

  21 Copy quote

• Life has changed into a timeless succession of shocks, interspaced with empty, paralysed intervals.

  Theodor Adorno

  Life, Empty, Timeless

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.54, Verso

  6 Copy quote

• It is not the office of art to spotlight alternatives, but to resist by its form alone the course of the world, which permanently puts a pistol to men's heads.

  Theodor Adorno

  Art, Men, Office

  7 Copy quote

• The positive element of kitsch lies in the fact that it sets free for a moment the glimmering realization that you have wasted your life.

  Theodor Adorno

  Lying, Elements, Realization

  Theodor Adorno, Richard Leppert, Susan H. Gillespie (2002). “Essays on Music”, p.363, Univ of California Press

  23 Copy quote

• An emancipated society, on the other hand, would not be a unitary state, but the realization of universality in the reconciliation of differences.

  Theodor Adorno

  Hands, Differences, Culture

  Theodor Adorno, Richard Leppert, Susan H. Gillespie (2002). “Essays on Music”, p.79, Univ of California Press

  12 Copy quote

• Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

  Theodor Adorno

  Inspirational, Life, Art

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.222, Verso

  12 Copy quote

• Horror is beyond the reach of psychology.

  Theodor Adorno

  Psychology, Horror

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.164, Verso

  13 Copy quote

• The darkening of the world makes the irrationality of art rational: radically darkened art.

  Theodor Adorno

  Art, World, Rational

  Theodor W. Adorno (2013). “Aesthetic Theory”, p.27, A&C Black

  6 Copy quote

• Rigour and purity in assembling words, however simple the result, create a vacuum.

  Theodor Adorno

  Simple, Vacuums, Purity

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.101, Verso

  4 Copy quote

• He who stands aloof runs the risk of believing himself better than others and misusing his critique of society as an ideology for his private interest.

  Theodor Adorno

  Running, Believe, Risk

  Theodor Adorno, Richard Leppert, Susan H. Gillespie (2002). “Essays on Music”, p.38, Univ of California Press

  20 Copy quote

• Proletarian language is dictated by hunger. The poor chew words to fill their bellies.

  Theodor Adorno

  Language, Hunger, Poor

  Theodor W. Adorno (1978). “Minima Moralia”, p.102, Verso

  5 Copy quote

• Cultural criticism finds itself faced with the final stage of the dialectic of culture and barbarism. To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. And this corrodes even the knowledge of why it has become impossible to write poetry today. Absolute reification, which presupposed intellectual progress as one of its elements, is now preparing to absorb the mind entirely. Critical intelligence cannot be equal to this challenge as long as it confines itself to self-satisfied contemplation.

  Theodor Adorno

  Writing, Self, Long

  "Cultural Criticism and Society". Essay by Theodor Adorno (1949), reprinted in his book "Prisms", 1967.

  4 Copy quote

• The individual mirrors in his individuation the preordained social laws of exploitation, however mediated.

  Theodor Adorno

  Mirrors, Law, Individual

  Theodor W. Adorno (1978). “Minima Moralia”, p.148, Verso

  10 Copy quote

• History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.

  Theodor Adorno

  History, Doe, Language

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.219, Verso

  6 Copy quote

• All satire is blind to the forces liberated by decay. Which is why total decay has absorbed the forces of satire.

  Theodor Adorno

  Decay, Blind, Satire

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.211, Verso

  9 Copy quote

• Intelligence is a moral category.

  Theodor Adorno

  Moral, Categories

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.197, Verso

  8 Copy quote

• The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday.

  Theodor Adorno

  Time, Men, Yesterday

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.175, Verso

  8 Copy quote

• Quality is decided by the depth at which the work incorporates the alternatives within itself, and so masters them.

  Theodor Adorno

  Quality, Depth, Alternatives

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.142, Verso

  13 Copy quote

• Humanity had to inflict terrible injuries on itself before the self, the identical, purpose-directed, masculine character of human beings was created, and something of this process is repeated in every childhood.

  Theodor Adorno

  Character, Self, Childhood

  Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno (2002). “Dialectic of Enlightenment”, p.26, Stanford University Press

  4 Copy quote

• The lie has long since lost its honest function of misrepresenting reality. Nobody believes anybody, everyone is in the know. Lies are told only to convey to someone that one has no need either of him or his good opinion.

  Theodor Adorno

  Lying, Believe, Reality

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.30, Verso

  4 Copy quote

• Love you will find only where you may show yourself weak without provoking strength.

  Theodor Adorno

  Love, May, Weak

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.192, Verso

  8 Copy quote

• Art is the social antithesis of society, not directly deducible from it.

  Theodor Adorno

  Art, Social, Art Is

  Theodor W. Adorno (2013). “Aesthetic Theory”, p.9, A&C Black

  7 Copy quote

• The first and only principle of sexual ethics: the accuser is always in the wrong.

  Theodor Adorno

  Principles, Firsts, Ethics

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.50, Verso

  10 Copy quote

Page 4 of 9

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin