Quote

Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.

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
Truth
Committed
Startled
Music
Cry
Immersion
Nothing
Cases
Poorer
Self
Wants
Stroke
Writing
Help
Cries
Even
Whether
Strokes
Helping
Expressed
Uproar
Thought
Photograph
Abruptly

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Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual.
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Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
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Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.
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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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You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps - his tastes, his interest, his habits.
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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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Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.
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It is in a small village in the Pyrenees where no one knows me 7that my life will come to a close.... There is not enough time remaining for me to write all the letters I would like to write.
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Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.
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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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Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method.
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