Walter Benjamin quotes | Thousands Of Quotes

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Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.

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.

Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.

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

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

Walter Benjamin

Hope

Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.

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

Walter Benjamin

Baby

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.

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

Walter Benjamin

Death

Authority

Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.