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Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.
Walter Benjamin
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Walter Benjamin
Age: 48 †
Born: 1892
Born: July 15
Died: 1940
Died: September 26
Art Critic
Essayist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Philosopher
Sociologist
Translator
Writer
Berlin
Germany
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin
Borders
Chaos
Memories
Passion
Every
Collector
Collectors
Chaotic
More quotes by Walter Benjamin
These are days when no one should rely unduly on his competence. Strength lies in improvisation. All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.
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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.
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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.
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History breaks down into images, not into stories.
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To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.
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There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.
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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
You follow the same paths of thought as before. Only, they appear strewn with roses.
Walter Benjamin
The work of memory collapses time.
Walter Benjamin
Every image of the past that is not recognised by the present as one of its own threatens to disappear irretrievably.
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We have long forgotten the ritual by which the house of our life was erected. But when it is under assault and enemy bombs are already taking their toll, what enervated, perverse antiquities do they not lay bare in the foundations.
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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.
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Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.
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To perceive the aura of an object we look at means to invest it with the ability to look at us in return.
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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.
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The film is the first art form capable of demonstrating how matter plays tricks on man.
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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.
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He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.
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As long as there is still one beggar around, there will still be myth.
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Capitalism is a purely cultic religion, perhaps the most extreme that ever existed.
Walter Benjamin
