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Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars [translated from Trauerspiel, 1928].

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
Translated
Objects
Stars
Ideas
Constellations

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The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions.
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The present, which, as a model of Messianic time, comprises the entire history of mankind in an enormous abridgment, coincides with the stature which the history of mankind has in the universe.
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History breaks down into images, not into stories.
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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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Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.
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For every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter.
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Art teaches us to see into things. Folk art and kitsch allow us to see outward from within things.
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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.
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To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.
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Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.
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Things are only mannequins and even the great world-historical events are only costumes beneath which they exchange glances with nothingness.
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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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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.
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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.
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A blind determination to save the prestige of personal existence, rather than, through an impartial disdain for its impotence and entanglement, at least to detach it from the background of universal delusion, is triumphing almost everywhere.
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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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Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.
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I am unpacking my library. Yes I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.
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The film is the first art form capable of demonstrating how matter plays tricks on man.
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