Quote

There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange.

Elias Canetti

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Elias Canetti
Age: 89 †
Born: 1905
Born: July 25
Died: 1994
Died: August 14
Aphorist
Author
Chemist
Essayist
Novelist
Playwright
Writer
Rousse
Elías Canetti
Able
Recognize
Nothing
Towards
Classify
Always
Touch
Tends
Men
Physical
Fears
Strange
Unknown
Wants
Reaching
Least
Contact
Anything
Avoid

More quotes by Elias Canetti

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Justice requires that everyone should have enough to eat. But it also requires that everyone should contribute to the production of food.
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There can be no Creator, simply because his grief at the fate of his creation would be inconceivable and unendurable.
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Learning is the art of ignoring.
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Rulers who want to unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first victim.
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Travelling, one accepts everything indignation stays at home. One looks, one listens, one is roused to enthusiasm by the most dreadful things because they are new. Good travellers are heartless.
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History portrays everything as if it could not have come otherwise. History is on the side of what happened.
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I try to imagine someone saying to Shakespeare, 'Relax!
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One should use praise to recognize what one is not.
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Most religions do not make men better, only warier.
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Words are not too old, only people are too old if they use the same words too frequently.
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I want to keep smashing myself until I am whole.
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The act of naming is the great and solemn consolation of mankind
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One should not confuse the craving for life with endorsement of it.
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The paranoiac is the exact image of the ruler. The only difference is their position in the world. One might even think the paranoiac the more impressive of the two because he is sufficient unto himself and cannot be shaken by failure.
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Speak as though it were the last sentence allowed you.
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Someone who always has to lie discovers that every one of his lies is true
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Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster.
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Everything one records contains a grain of hope, no matter how deeply it may come from despair.
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Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you.
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Whether or not God is dead: it is impossible to keep silent about him who was there for so long.
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