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.

Quote by Walter Benjamin

Topics: Memory Quotes

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

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

All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.

All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.

Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the...

Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the...

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

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

Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one...

Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one...

Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.

Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.

The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.

The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The...

The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The...

The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that...

The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that...

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

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

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

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

Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.

Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.

The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as...

The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as...

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

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

Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the...

Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the...

The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a...

The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a...

Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an...

Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an...

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

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

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

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