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Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan Quotes

Philosopher

Marshall McLuhan was a renowned Canadian philosopher, communication theorist, and media theorist whose theories had a profound impact on modern media and communication technologies. His famous 'The Medium is the Message' theory, among others, has influenced the fields of advertising, film, television, and the internet.

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Famous Marshall McLuhan Quotes

“World War 3 is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.”

War Information Information Age Guerrilla Warfare World War 3 Wwiii Info War

Author:Marshall McLuhan

“The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message”

Light Information Pure Messages Mediums Electric Electric Light

Book:Understanding media: the extensions of man

Source: Understanding media: the extensions of man

“Transmitted at the speed of light, all events on this planet are simultaneous. In the electric environment of information all events are simultaneous, there is no time or space separating events.”

Light Space Environment Events Information Planets Speed Electric Separating Speed Of Light Simultaneous

Author:Marshall McLuhan

“I am curious to know what would happen if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one's psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties.”

Ifs Knows Art Happens Order Next Information Curiosity Blow Curious Faculty Anticipate

Book:Understanding media: the extensions of man

Source: Understanding media: the extensions of man

“If men were able to be convinced that art is a precise advance knowledge of how to cope with the psychic and social consequences of the next technology, would they all become artist? Or would they begin a careful translation of new art forms into social navigation charts? I am curious to know what would happem if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one's psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties.”

Source: Understanding media: the extensions of man

“Any loss of identity prompts people to seek reassurance and rediscovery of themselves by testing, and even by violence. Today, the electric revolution, the wired planet, and the information environment involve everybody in everybody to the point of individual extinction.”

People Today Individual Loss Environment Violence Information Identity Planets Revolution Electric Testing Extinction Prompts Reassurance Rediscovery Loss Of Identity

Author:Marshall McLuhan

“When information rubs against information the results are startling and effective. The perrenial quest for involvement, fill-in, takes many forms.”

Form Results Information Quests Involvement

Author:Marshall McLuhan

“The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media--movies, Telstar, flight--far surpassesany possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world's a sage.”

World Two Character Influence Media Information Mom Bears Dad Circles Flight Experts Electric Sage Earnest Mom And Dad

Book:The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects

Source: The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects

“The circuited city of the future will not be the huge hunk of concentrated real estate created by the railway. It will take on a totally new meaning under conditions of very rapid movement. It will be an information megalopolis.”

Real Cities Conditions Information Movement Huge Estates Rapids Transportation Railway Hunk

Book:The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects

Source: The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects

“All meaning alters with acceleration, because all patterns of personal and political interdependence change with any acceleration of information.”

Political Information Patterns Interdependence Acceleration

Book:Understanding media: the extensions of man

Source: Understanding media: the extensions of man

“As information becomes our environment, it becomes mandatory to program the environment itself as a work of art.”

Art Environment Information Program Works Of Art Our Environment

Book:Media Research: Technology, Art and Communication

Source: Media Research: Technology, Art and Communication

“The more the data banks record about each one of us, the less we exist.”

Science Technology Records Information Data Information Age

Book:From cliché to archetype

Source: From cliché to archetype

“In this electronic age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving toward the technological extension of consciousness.”

Age Moving Form Consciousness Technology Information Birthday Technological Extensions Keep Moving Forward

Author:Marshall McLuhan

“One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There's always more than you can cope with.”

Inspirational States Effects Media Information Electric Overload Information Overload Overloaded

Book:Understanding Me: Lectures and Interviews

Source: Understanding Me: Lectures and Interviews

“As the age of information demands the simultaneous use of all our faculties, we discover that we are most at leisure when we are most intensely involved.”

Use Age Knowledge Information Involved Demand Faculty Leisure Simultaneous

Author:Marshall McLuhan

“If the work of the city is the remaking or translating of man into a more suitable form than his nomadic ancestors achieved, then might not our current translation of our entire lives into the spiritual form of information seem to make of the entire.”

Ifs Men Seems Might Spiritual Form Cities Information Currents Ancestor Translate Translations Suitable Nomadic

Book:Understanding media: the extensions of man

Source: Understanding media: the extensions of man

“Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition.”

Information Patterns Recognition Alternatives Overload Information Overload

Book:Counter blast [by] Marshall McLuhan

Source: Counter blast [by] Marshall McLuhan

“World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.”

World War Military Information War Of The Worlds Division World War Ii World War I Participation Civilians Guerrillas

Book:Culture Is Our Business

Source: Culture Is Our Business

“Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects, and schedules.”

Children Stills Today Environment Subjects Century Information Patterns Educational Establishment Schedules Scarce 19th Century Bewildered Fragmented

Book:The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects

Source: The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects

“When information overload occurs, pattern recognition is how to determine truth.”

Information Patterns Determine Recognition Overload Information Overload

Author:Marshall McLuhan

“Information and images bump against each other every day in massive quantities, and the resonance of this interfacing is like the babble of a village or tavern gossip session.”

Politics Information Internet Massive Gossip Village Quantity Session Bumps Resonance Taverns

Author:Marshall McLuhan

About the Author

Born: July 21, 1911
Died: December 31, 1980
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 398

Related Topics

Media Men Technology World Art Environment Form People Information Humans Space Electric Mediums Way Patterns Social Age Ifs Today Artist

Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

Understanding media: the extensions of manRelated source material

The medium is the massage: an inventory of effectsRelated source material

Letters of Marshall McLuhanRelated source material

The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic ManRelated source material

Media Research: Technology, Art and CommunicationRelated source material

Counter blast [by] Marshall McLuhanRelated source material

The Gutenberg GalaxyRelated source material

The Medium and the Light: Reflections on Religion and MediaRelated source material

Culture Is Our BusinessRelated source material

The Medium and the Light: Reflections on ReligionRelated source material

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