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Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.

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
Living
Procreation
Conquers
Frenzy
Ecstasy
Conquer
Substance
Destruction

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The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion.
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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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In the world's structure dream loosens individuality like a bad tooth.
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Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.
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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.
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For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad poem on springtime, filled to bursting with metaphors.
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No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the listener.
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Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.
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