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Walter Benjamin Quotes
German
-
Critic
July 15, 1892 - September 26, 1940
The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.
Walter Benjamin
Art
New
Criticism
Enjoyment
Art Form
Aversion
Between
Conventional
Criticized
Decrease
Distinction
Enjoyed
Form
Greater
Public
Sharper
Significance
Social
Truly
Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.
Walter Benjamin
Life
Wisdom
Real
Fabric
Counsel
Real Life
Woven
The idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing.
Walter Benjamin
Beauty
Good
Happiness
Too Much
Good Thing
A Good Thing
Could
Idea
Much
Share
Thing
Too
Would
Would-Be
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
People
Who
Poor
Like
Acquiring
Dissatisfied
Method
Oneself
Praiseworthy
Regarded
Because
Books
Buy
Could
Most
Really
Them
Ways
Which
Write
Writers
Writing
Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.
Walter Benjamin
Experience
Past
Memory
Lie
Cities
Exploring
Ground
Instrument
Medium
Theatre
Dead
Which
Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.
Walter Benjamin
Must
Point
Shock
Affect
Gifts
Receiver
The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope, as much for thinking as for perception.
Walter Benjamin
Thinking
Reality
Process
Perception
Adjustment
Masses
Scope
Unlimited
Much
Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.
Walter Benjamin
Book
Genuine
Baby
Spices
Approach
Cannibal
Lovingly
It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.
Walter Benjamin
Attitude
Purpose
Opinion
Someone
Incapable
Irresponsible
Judging
Precisely
Press
Public Opinion
Uninformed
Make
Public
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
Past
Never
True
Only
Flashes
Image
Instant
Picture
Recognized
Seized
True Picture
Again
Seen
Up
Which
Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an architectonic one when it is built, and a textile one when it is woven.
Walter Benjamin
Work
Good
Three
Stage
Built
Composed
Musical
Prose
Steps
Textile
Woven
The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses.
Walter Benjamin
Camera
Us
Does
Unconscious
Impulses
Optics
Psychoanalysis
To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.
Walter Benjamin
Happy
Be Happy
Without
Become
Aware
Fright
Oneself
Able
Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it; one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know.
Walter Benjamin
Go
Know
Existence
Hidden
Apparatus
Joints
Machine
Machines
Oil
Opinions
Over It
Pour
Vast
Does
Little
Over
Social
Up
Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.
Walter Benjamin
Public
Books
Quarrels
The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.
Walter Benjamin
Love
Hope
Way
Person
To Love
Knowing
Only
Them
Without
It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.
Walter Benjamin
Hope
Only
Us
Without
Sake
Given
Those
Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.
Walter Benjamin
Matter
Only
Opinions
Interest
Judgments
Private
Public
The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions.
Walter Benjamin
Life
Power
Facts
More
Construction
Convictions
Far
Present
Than
Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter Benjamin
Only
Living
Ecstasy
Destruction
Conquers
Frenzy
Procreation
Substance
The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.
Walter Benjamin
Wisdom
Art
Truth
End
Dying
Epic
Reaching
Storytelling
Because
Out
Side
Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.
Walter Benjamin
Memories
Passion
Chaos
Borders
Chaotic
Collector
Every
Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.
Walter Benjamin
Bird
Experience
Boredom
Egg
Drives
Leaves
Away
Dream
Him
Death is the sanction of everything the story-teller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death.
Walter Benjamin
Death
Everything
He
Tell
Authority
Borrowed
Sanction
His
Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction.
Walter Benjamin
Work
Who
Like
Out
Armed
Conviction
Leap
Quotations
Relieve
Wayside
His
The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.
Walter Benjamin
Life
Character
Suicide
Feeling
Destructive
Trouble
Worth Living
Lives
Living
Worth
The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion.
Walter Benjamin
Art
Fashion
Ideas
Criticism
Betraying
Coin
Critic
Inadequate
Nutshell
Slogans
Without
All disgust is originally disgust at touching.
Walter Benjamin
Touching
Disgust
Originally
All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.
Walter Benjamin
Knowledge
Human
Interpretation
Form
Human Knowledge
Takes
He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.
Walter Benjamin
Who
Like
Someone
He
Dresses
Etiquette
Lying
Objects
Vest
Wears
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