Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby. – Walter Benjamin
The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion. – Walter Benjamin
Books and harlots have their quarrels in public. – Walter Benjamin
Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom. – Walter Benjamin
All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation. – Walter Benjamin
The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope. – Walter Benjamin
Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away. – Walter Benjamin
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. – Walter Benjamin
Death is the sanction of everything the story-teller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death. – Walter Benjamin
The idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing. – Walter Benjamin
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. – Walter Benjamin
The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion. – Walter Benjamin
The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out. – Walter Benjamin
