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: Walter Benjamin Quotes

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...

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...

Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the...

Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the...

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...

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.

All disgust is originally disgust at touching.

All disgust is originally disgust at touching.

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

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

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...

He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but...

He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but...

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

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

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.

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...

It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make...

It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make...

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...

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the...

The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper 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...

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.

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...