The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope, as much for thinking as for perception.

Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. 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... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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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... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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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.. view

By: Walter Benjamin

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The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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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... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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Death is the sanction of everything the story-teller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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The idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing... view

By: Walter Benjamin

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